雙語+MP3|美國學(xué)生世界歷史62 一個發(fā)現(xiàn)“新”大陸的水手

62
A Sailor Who Found a New World
一個發(fā)現(xiàn)"新"大陸的水手

     WHAT book do you like best?
　　Alice in Wonderland?
　　Gulliver's Travels?
     One of the first books to be printed and one that children at that time liked best was

The Travels of Marco Polo.

     One of the boys who loved to read these stories of those far-away countries of Asia with their gold and precious jewels was an Italian named Christopher Columbus. Christopher Columbus was born in the city of Genoa, which is in the top of the boot. Like a great many other boys who were born in seaport towns, he had heard the sailors on the wharves tell yarns of their travels, and his greatest ambition in life was to go off to sea and visit all the wonderful lands of which he had read and been told. At last the chance came, and, though only fourteen years old, he made his first voyage. After that, Columbus made many other voyages and grew to be a middle-aged man, but he never got to the countries he had read about in The Travels of Marco Polo.
     Many sea captains of that time were trying to find a shorter way to India than the long and tiresome one that Marco Polo had taken. They felt sure there was a shorter way by sea, and now that they had the compass to guide them, they dared to go far off searching for such a waterway.
     By this time many books had already been printed. Some of these books on travel were written by the old Greeks and Romans. Some had been written by Arabs. The navigators knew that the world was round, even though some uneducated medieval folk believed it to be flat. Columbus had read these books and he said to himself that if the world is really round, one should be able to reach India by sailing toward the west. It should be much easier and shorter that way than if one took a boat to the end of the Mediterranean Sea and then went over land for thousands of miles the way Marco Polo had gone.
     The more Columbus thought of the idea, the surer he was that this could be done and the more eager he was to get a ship to try out his idea. Of course, being only a sailor, he had no money to buy or hire a ship in which to make the trials and he could find no one to help him.
     First Columbus went to the little country called Portugal. Portugal was right on the ocean's edge. It was to be expected then that the people of Portugal would be famous sailors, and they were-as famous as the Phoenicians had been of old. Columbus thought they might be interested and help. Besides, the king of Portugal was extremely interested in discovering new lands.
     But the king of Portugal thought, as the others did, that Columbus was foolish and would have nothing to do with him. The king wanted to make quite sure, however, that there was nothing in Columbus's idea. Furthermore, if there were any new land, he wanted to be the first to discover it himself. So he secretly sent some of his sea captains off to explore. After a while they one and all returned and stated that they had been as far as it was safe to go, and that positively there was nothing at all to the west but water, water, water.
     Columbus in disgust then went to the next country-Spain-which at that time was ruled by King Ferdinand and his Queen Isabella. King Ferdinand and Queen Isabella were just then too busy to listen to Columbus. They were fighting with the Muslims, who had been in Spain ever since 732, when, you remember, they got as far north as France. At last Ferdinand and Isabella succeeded in driving the Muslims out of their country, and then Queen Isabella became very much interested in Columbus's ideas and plans and finally promised to help him. She even said she would sell her jewels, if necessary, to give him the money to buy ships. So Columbus, with her help, was able to buy three little ships named the Ni?a, Pinta, and Santa Maria. So small were these three boats that nowadays we would be afraid to go even out of sight of shore in them.
     At last everything was ready, and Columbus set sail from the Spanish seaport of Palos with about a hundred sailors. Directly toward the setting sun into the broad Atlantic, Columbus steered. Past the Canary Islands he sailed, on and on, day and night, always in the same direction.
     See if you can get this idea-the idea that almost everyone had at that time except a few Scandinavians-that all there was of the world was what we have so far been studying about. Try to forget that you ever heard of North and South America. They, of course, knew of no such lands. Try to think of Columbus on deck scanning the waves in the daytime or peering off in the darkness at night, hoping sooner or later to sight, not a new land-he wasn't looking for a new land-but for China or India.
     Columbus had been out for over a month, and his sailors began to get worried. It seemed impossible that any sea could be so vast, so endless, with nothing in sight before, behind, or on either side. They began to think about returning. They began to be afraid they would never reach home. They begged Columbus to turn back. They said it was crazy to go any farther; there was nothing but water ahead of them, and they could go on forever and ever, and there would never be anything else.
     Columbus argued with them, but it was no use. Finally he promised to turn back if they did not reach something very soon. As the days went on still with nothing new, the sailors plotted to throw Columbus overboard at night and so get rid of him. They would then sail home and tell those back in Spain that Columbus had fallen overboard by accident.
     At last, when all had given up hope except Columbus, a sailor saw a branch with berries on it floating in the water. Where could it have come from? Then birds were seen flying-birds that never get very far away from shore. Then one dark night, more than two months after they had set sail, they saw far off ahead a twinkling light. Probably no little light ever gave so much joy in the world. A light meant only one thing-human beings-and land, land-land at last! On the morning of October 12, 1492, the three boats ran ashore. Columbus leaped out, and falling on his knees, offered up a prayer of thanks to God. He then raised the Spanish flag, took possession of the land in the name of Spain, and called it San Salvador, which means in Spanish, Holy Saviour.

Columbus arguing with his crew（哥倫布與水手們在爭論）
     Now, Columbus thought this land was India or nearby islands called the Indies that he had at last reached, though of course we know now that two great continents, North and South America, blocked his way to India. In fact, he had only landed on a little island in the Bahamas off the coast of America.
     Columbus and his sailors soon saw that people lived on this island. Columbus claimed the land for Spain. You may wonder how he thought he could do this when the land obviously already belonged to the people living there. One reason was that in those days, Europeans thought that if people were not Christians, then they had no rights. And so Columbus believed that he could simply take over their country and call it his own. Besides that, he hoped that someday the new land might make him rich.
     Since Columbus thought that he had reached India, he called the people he found on the island Indians. We, of course, know that they were really Native Americans and not Indians. And we know that Native Americans had been living there for many centuries before Columbus even thought of sailing out into the Atlantic.
     Columbus went on to other islands nearby; but he found very little gold and few precious stones such as he had expected, or the wonders that Marco Polo had described; and as he had been away so long, he started back again to Spain the way he had come. With him he took several Native Americans to show the people at home, and also some tobacco, which he found them smoking and which no one in Europe had even seen or heard of before.
     When he at last reached home safely again, people were overjoyed at seeing him and hearing of his discoveries. Everyone was wildly excited-but only for a while. People soon began to say it was nothing for Columbus to have sailed westward until land was found, that anyone could do that.
     One day when Columbus was dining with the king's nobles, who were trying to belittle what he had done, he took an egg and, passing it around the table, asked each one if he could stand it on end. No one could. When it came back to Columbus, he set it down just hard enough to crack the end slightly and flatten it. Of course, then it stood up. "You see," said Columbus, "it's very easy if you only know how. So it's easy enough to sail west until you find land after I have done it once and shown you how."
     Columbus made three other voyages to America, four in all, but he never knew he had reached the Americas. Once he landed in South America, but he never reached the mainland of North America.
     As Columbus did not bring back any of the precious jewels or wonderful things that those in Spain expected him to, people lost interest in him. Some were so spiteful and jealous of his success that they even charged him with wrongdoing, and King Ferdinand sent out a man to take his place. Columbus was put in chains and shipped home. Although he was promptly set free, Columbus kept the chains as a reminder of men's ingratitude and asked to have them buried with him. After this, Columbus made one other voyage, but when at last he died in Spain, he was alone and almost forgotten even by his friends. What an end for the man who had once been such a hero!
     Of all the people of whom we have heard, whether kings or queens, princes or emperors, none can compare with Columbus. Alexander the Great, Julius Caesar, Charlemagne, were all killers. They took away. But Columbus gave. He gave us a new world. Without money or friends or luck, he stuck to his ideas through long years of discouragement. Although made fun of and called a crank and even treated as a criminal he never