雙語+MP3|美國學生世界歷史63 尋找財富的探險家

63
Fortune Hunters
尋找財富的探險家

     THE New World had no name. It was simply called the New World, as one might speak of the new baby.
     It had to have a name, but what should it be? Of course if we could have chosen the name, we should have called it Columbia after Columbus. But another name was selected, and this is how it happened.
     An Italian named Americus Vespucci made a voyage to the southern part of the New World. Then he wrote a book about his travels. People read his book and began to speak of the new land that Americus described as Americus's country. The New World came to be called America after Americus, although in all fairness it should have been named after Columbus; don't you think so? Children sometimes have names given them which they would like to change when they grow up. But then it is too late. We sometimes speak and sing of our country as Columbia, although that is not the name on the map. We call a great many cities and towns and districts and streets Columbus or Columbia in memory of Christopher Columbus.
     After Columbus had shown that there was no danger of falling off the world and that there really was land off to the west, almost everyone who had been hunting for India now rushed off in the direction Columbus had taken. "Copy cats!" A genius starts something; then thousands follow-imitate. Every sea captain who could do so now hurried off to the west to look for new countries, and so many discoveries were made that this time is known as the Age of Discovery. Most of these men were trying to get to India. They were after gold and jewels and spices, which they thought they would find in India in great quantities.
     Now we can understand why people might go long distances in search of gold and precious stones, but they also went after spices-such as cloves and pepper-and you may wonder why they were so eager to get spices. You yourself may not like pepper very much, and you may dislike cloves. But in those days they didn't have refrigerators, and meats and other foods were often spoiled. We would have thought such food unfit to eat. However, they covered it with spices to kill the bad flavor, and then food could be eaten that otherwise one could not have swallowed. Spices didn't grow in Europe-only in warmer countries. People paid big prices to get them, and that is why men made long journeys after them.

Map shows limited European knowledge of the continent. Compare with map in story 65.
這張地圖顯示出歐洲人對這個大陸的有限認識，可比較65章中的地圖。
     A Portuguese sailor named Vasco da Gama was one of those who were trying to get to India all the way by water. He did not, however sail west as Columbus had done, but south down around Africa. Others had tried before to get to India by going south and around Africa but none had gone more than part way. Many frightful stories were told by those who had tried but had at last turned back. These stories were like the tales of Sinbad the Sailor. They said that the sea became boiling hot; they said that there was a magnetic mountain which would pull out the iron bolts in the ship, and the ship would then fall to pieces; they said there was a whirlpool into which a ship would be irresistibly drawn- down, down, down to the bottom; they said there were sea serpents, monsters so large that they could swallow a ship at one gulp. The southern point of Africa was called the Cape of Storms, and the very name seemed to be bad luck, so that it was changed to the Cape of Good Hope.
     In spite of all such scary stories, Vasco da Gama kept on his way south. Finally, after many hardships and many adventures, he passed around the Cape of Good Hope. He sailed on to India, got the spices that were so highly prized, and returned safely home. This was in 1497, five years after Columbus's first voyage, and Vasco da Gama was the first modern European to go to India bywater.
     There's one thing you always have to remember about these discoveries. That is this-that there were some people who did know about these places all along! The Native Americans knew about America. The Scandinavians or Vikings did, too. The Indians knew about India and so, you will soon see, did a lot of other people.
     England did not want to be left out of the search for new wealth across the ocean. In the same year that Vasco da Gama reached India, a man named John Cabot set sail from England on a voyage of discovery. His first trip was a failure, but he tried again and finally came to Canada and sailed along the coast of what is now the United States. These countries he claimed for England, but he returned home, and England did nothing more about his discoveries until about a hundred years later.
     Another Spaniard, named Balboa, explored the central part of America. He was on the little strip of land that joined Central and South America which we now call the Isthmus of Panama. Suddenly he came to another great ocean. This strange new ocean he named the South Sea, for although the Isthmus of Panama connects Central and South America, it bends so that one looks south over the ocean.

Americas drawn from a map in1570. Compare with two maps in story 78.
美洲大陸。摘自1570年一張繪制的地圖?？杀容^78章中兩幅地圖。
     Then came the longest trip of all. A Portuguese named Magellan wanted to find a way to India through the New World, for he thought there must be some opening through which he might pass this new land that blocked the way. He tried to get his own country to help him. Again Portugal made the same mistake it had made in the case of Columbus. The Portuguese government would not listen to Magellan. So Magellan went to Spain, and Spain gave him five ships.
     With these five ships, Magellan sailed off across the sea. When he reached South America, he sailed south along the shore, trying to find a passage through the land. One place after another seemed to be the passage for which he was looking, but each one turned out to be nothing but a river's mouth. Then one of his ships was wrecked, and only four were left.
     With these four ships, he still kept on down the coast until he finally reached what is now Cape Horn. Through the dangerous opening there, since called after him the Straits of Magellan, he worked his way. One ship deserted and went back home the way it had come. Only three were then left.
     With these three ships, he at last came into the great ocean on the other side, the same ocean that Balboa had called the South Sea. This Magellan named the Pacific, which means calm, because after all the storms they had had, it seemed so calm and quiet. However, food and water became scarce and finally gave out. Magellan's men suffered terribly from thirst and hunger and even ate the rats that are always to be found on shipboard. Many of his men were taken sick and died. Still he kept on, though he had lost most of the crew with whom he had set out. At last he reached what are now the Philippine Islands. Here he and his men got into a battle with the local people, and Magellan was killed. There were now not enough men left to sail three ships, and so one of these was burned, and only two were then left.
     Two of the ships, however, of the five with which Magellan had started, still kept on. Then one of these was lost, disappeared and was never heard of again, and only a single ship, named the Victoria, remained. It seemed as if not one ship, not one man, would be left to tell the tale.

From an old print of Magellan's Victoria
一幅舊印刷品上的麥哲倫的維多利亞號
     Around Africa the Victoria struggled. Magellan's men, worn out with hunger and cold and hardships, still battled against wind and storm. At last a leaky and broken ship with only eighteen men sailed into  the harbor from which it had set out more than three years before. Thus the Victoria-Victory!-Magellan's ship, but without Magellan-was the first ship to sail completely around the world. This voyage settled forever the argument that had been going on for ages, whether the earth was round or flat for a ship had actually sailed around the world! In spite of this proof, for many more years thereafter, there were people who still would not believe the world was round.