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4. Columbus.
4．哥倫布
Meantime Christopher Columbus, an Italian, had returned from an even more startling voyage. From what he had read, and from what other men had told him, he had come to believe that the earth was round. If this were really true, Cipango and Cathay were west of Europe as well as east of Europe. Columbus also believed that the earth was very much smaller than it really is, and that Cipango was only three thousand miles west of Spain. For a time people laughed at the idea of sailing westward to Cipango and Cathay. But at length Columbus secured enough money to fit out a little fleet.
一段時(shí)間之后，意大利人克里斯托弗·哥倫布完成了一次更令人吃驚的航行。哥倫布根據(jù)自己所見(jiàn)和其他人所說(shuō)漸漸認(rèn)為地球是圓的。如果果真如此，日本和中國(guó)既在歐洲的西方也在歐洲的東方。哥倫布還相信地球比人們以為的要小得多，而日本在西班牙的西方，距離西班牙僅三千英里。有一段時(shí)間人們嘲笑向西可以航行到達(dá)日本和中國(guó)這個(gè)想法，但是，哥倫布為之精心準(zhǔn)備了足夠的錢(qián)以裝備一個(gè)小艦隊(duì)。
5. The Voyage, 1492.
5．1492年的航行
Columbus left Spain in August, 1492, and, refitting at the Canaries, sailed westward into the Sea of Darkness. At ten o’clock in the evening of October 20, 1492, looking out into the night, he saw a light in the distance. The fleet was soon stopped. When day broke, there, sure enough, was land. A boat was lowered, and Columbus, going ashore, took possession of the new land for Ferdinand and Isabella, King and Queen of Aragon and Castile. The natives came to see the discoverers. They were reddish in color and interested Columbus—for were they not inhabitants of the Far East? So he called them Indians.
1492年8月，哥倫布離開(kāi)西班牙，在加納利補(bǔ)給，向西航行進(jìn)入黑海。1492年10月20日傍晚10點(diǎn)，他看到遠(yuǎn)處的一盞燈，艦隊(duì)迅速停下來(lái)，當(dāng)然，天亮?xí)r他們看到了陸地。他們放下一只小船，哥倫布走到海岸上，為西班牙國(guó)王費(fèi)迪南德和王后伊莎貝拉贏得這塊新的陸地。陸地上的人過(guò)來(lái)看這些發(fā)現(xiàn)者，他們膚色微紅，哥倫布感到不解——他們不是遠(yuǎn)東的居民嗎？因此哥倫布把他們叫做印第安人。
6.The Indians and the Indies.
6．印第安人和印度地區(qū)
These Indians were not at all like those wonderful people of Cathay and Cipango whom Marco Polo had described. Instead of wearing clothes of silk and of gold embroidered satin, these people wore no clothes of any kind. But it was plain enough that the island they had found was not Cipango. It was probably some island off the coast of Cipango, so on Columbus sailed and discovered Cuba. He was certain that Cuba was a part of the mainland of Asia, for the Indians kept saying “Cubanaquan.” Columbus thought that this was their way of pronouncing Kublai Khan—the name of a mighty eastern ruler. So he sent two messengers with a letter to that powerful monarch. Returning to Spain, Columbus was welcomed as a great admiral. He made three other voyages to America. But he never came within sight of the mainland of the United States.
這些印第安人與馬克·波羅所描述的那些絕妙的日本人和中國(guó)人根本沒(méi)有相似之處，他們沒(méi)有穿絲綢和花緞子這類(lèi)衣服。很顯然，他們已經(jīng)發(fā)現(xiàn)的陸地不是日本，它可能是某個(gè)遠(yuǎn)離日本海岸的島嶼，哥倫布繼續(xù)前行并發(fā)現(xiàn)了古巴，他確信古巴是亞洲大陸的一部分，因?yàn)橛〉诎踩艘恢略诮腥轮肮虐屠ぁ保鐐惒颊J(rèn)為這是他們稱(chēng)道忽必烈（某個(gè)東方威武統(tǒng)治者的名字）的方式，于是他向自己偉大的皇帝寫(xiě)了兩封信。回到西班牙，哥倫布被當(dāng)作海軍司令受到歡迎。之后，哥倫布三次航海到美洲，但是，他從來(lái)就沒(méi)有到過(guò)今天的美國(guó)大陸。
