Professor, Captain Nemo went on, if you're amenable, we'll go back in time to 1702.
教授,尼摩船長又說,請您注意,我們現(xiàn)在要回溯到 1702年了。
You're aware of the fact that in those days your King Louis XIV thought an imperial gesture would suffice to humble the Pyrenees in the dust, so he inflicted his grandson, the Duke of Anjou, on the Spaniards.
您知道,在這個時期,您的法國國王路易十四以為專制君主做一下手勢,比利牛斯山就得縮人地下去,他一定要西班牙人接受他的孫子一安儒公爵做他們的國王。
Reigning more or less poorly under the name King Philip V, this aristocrat had to deal with mighty opponents abroad.
這國王在菲力五世的稱號下,統(tǒng)治了西班牙??墒墙y(tǒng)治得不高明。他對外有了問題,跟強大的敵人發(fā)生爭執(zhí)。
In essence, the year before, the royal houses of Holland, Austria, and England had signed a treaty of alliance at The Hague,
就在一年前,荷蘭、奧地利和英國王室在海牙訂了同盟協(xié)定,
aiming to wrest the Spanish crown from King Philip V and to place it on the head of an archduke whom they prematurely dubbed King Charles III.
目的要把菲力五世的王冠摘下來,戴在奧地利某親王的頭上,它們過早地又把查理三世的稱號給了這位親王。
Spain had to withstand these allies. But the country had practically no army or navy.
西班牙當然要抵抗這個同盟,可是它很缺乏士兵和海員,
Yet it wasn't short of money, provided that its galleons, laden with gold and silver from America, could enter its ports.
不過金錢是有的。但是有一個條件,那就是要裝過美洲金銀的船只能夠進入它的海港中來。
Now then, late in 1702 Spain was expecting a rich convoy, which France ventured to escort with a fleet of twenty-three vessels under the command of Admiral de Chateau-Renault, because by that time the allied navies were roving the Atlantic.
就是在1702年終。西班牙政府正在等著一隊載有大量全錢的運輸船,由法國派二十三艘戰(zhàn)艦護送,指揮宮是夏都·雷諾海軍大將,岡為,這時候有敵人們聯(lián)合的海軍在大西洋上巡邏。
This convoy was supposed to put into Cadiz, but after learning that the English fleet lay across those waterways, the admiral decided to make for a French port.
這隊運輸船本來要開到加的斯港,但法國海軍司令接到英國艦隊在這一帶海域巡邏的情報,就決定把這隊船開萬噸呢。
The Spanish commanders in the convoy objected to this decision. They wanted to be taken to a Spanish port, if not to Cadiz, then to the Bay of Vigo, located on Spain's northwest coast and not blockaded.
不錯,不過提煉這些銀,所花的費用比所得的利益還大。在這灣中就不同了,我只需撿拾人們所丟掉的就行了。
Admiral de Chateau-Renault was so indecisive as to obey this directive, and the galleons entered the Bay of Vigo.
還不僅在這維哥灣中,在其他千百處的失事地點也一樣,這都由我的海底地圖標記下來了。