雙語+MP3|美國(guó)學(xué)生世界歷史64 尋金和探險(xiǎn)

64
The Search for Gold and Adventure
尋金和探險(xiǎn)

     ALL sorts of marvelous tales were told about the wealth and wonders of the New World.
     It was said that somewhere in the New World there was a Fountain of Youth, and that if you bathed in it or drank of its water, you would become young again.
     It was said that somewhere in the New World there was a city called E1 Dorado built of solid gold.
     So everyone who liked adventure and could get enough money together went off in search of these things that might make him famous or healthy, wealthy or wise, or forever young.
     One of these men was Ponce de León, a Spaniard. Ponce de León, was looking for the Fountain of Youth. While searching for this lifegiving water, he found Florida. But instead of finding the Fountain of Youth, he lost his life in fighting with the people who already lived in Florida.
     Another one of these men was Hernando de Soto. He was searching for El Dorado, the city of gold. While doing so, he discovered the longest river in the New World-the Mississippi. Instead of finding E1 Dorado, de Soto was taken sick with fever and died. Now, the Spaniards, to make the Native Americans fear them, had said that de Soto was a god and could not die. In order to cover up the fact that de Soto had actually died, his men buried him at night in the river he had discovered. They then said that he had gone on a trip to heaven and would presently return.
     The first country you come to south of the United States is called Mexico. Here lived at that time a nation of Indians known as Aztecs. These Aztecs had a very advanced civilization. They did not live in tents but in houses. They built fine temples and palaces. They made roads and aqueducts, something like those of the Romans. They had enormous treasures of silver and gold. Yet the Aztecs worshiped idols and sacrificed human beings to them. Their king was a famous chief named Montezuma.
     A Spaniard named Cortés was sent to conquer these Aztecs. He landed on the shore of Mexico and burned his ships so that his sailors and soldiers could not turn back. The Aztecs had never seen horses, some of which the Spaniards had brought over across the water, and they were astonished at what seemed to them terrible beasts that the Spaniards rode. When the Spaniards fired their cannon, the Aztecs were terrified. They thought it was thunder and lightning that the Spaniards had let loose.
     Cortés moved on toward the Aztec capital, the city of Mexico, which was built on an island in the middle of a lake. The people he met on the way fought desperately, but as they had only such weapons as men used in the Stone and Bronze Ages, they were no match against the guns and cannon of the Spaniards.
     Montezuma, their chief, wishing to make friends, sent Cortés rich gifts, cartloads of gold, and when Cortés reached the capital city Montezuma treated him as a guest instead of an enemy and entertained him and could not do enough for him. Cortés told Montezuma all about the Christian religion and tried to make him a Christian also, but Montezuma thought his own gods just as good as the Christian God, and he would not change. Then suddenly Cortés took Montezuma prisoner, and terrible fighting began. At last Montezuma was killed, and Cortés succeeded in conquering Mexico, for though the Aztecs fought desperately and bravely, shot and shell were too much for them.
     In Peru in South America was still another nation of civilized Indians even more wealthy than the Aztecs. They were called Incas, and it was said that their cities were paved with gold.
     A Spaniard named Pizarro went to Peru to conquer it as Cortés had conquered Mexico. Pizarro told the ruler, who was called the Inca, that the pope had given the country to Spain. The Inca had never heard of the pope and must have wondered what the pope had to do with Peru and how he could give it away. Naturally the Inca would not give up his country to Spain. Then Pizarro took it away. He had but a few hundred men, but he had cannons, and of course the Incas could not stand up against cannon.
     Another people found by the Spanish were the Mayas. The Mayas lived on land that today is in Mexico and also Guatemala. The Mayas had a written language that we are only beginning to figure out how to read. They also invented a calendar and had built observatories from which to watch the stars. They built tall pyramids that remind us of the ancient Egyptian pyramids. Like the Incas, the Mayas were conquered by Spanish guns.
     The Aztecs, the Incas, and the Mayas-these are only three of many native peoples that were living in America when the Spanish came. And do you know-Incas, Aztecs, and Mayas are still alive today, and you can visit Central and South America and see some of the wonderful things they built.
     France and other countries of Europe also sent out explorers to conquer parts of America, and then missionaries to teach Native Americans the Christian religion, but these you will hear more about when you study American history.
     Many of the explorers were really pirates, even worse pirates than the Norsemen who raided England and France, because they murdered people who were without equal weapons to fight back. The excuse they often gave for doing so was that they wanted to make the natives Christians. No wonder that the natives did not think much of the Christian religion if it taught murder of people who could not defend themselves. The Muslims made converts with the sword, but the Christians made converts with shot and shell.