1492, Columbus discovered the new continent. Returning from the sea, he became a hero in the eyes of the Spanish people. The king and queen also regarded him as a distinguished guest and made him an admiral. But some nobles looked down on him.
They snorted and said, "Well, what's so rare? Anyone who goes out to sea by boat will arrive there. " At a banquet, Columbus heard someone laughing at him again. "
When God created the world, didn't he create the land on the west side of the sea? Found, hum, nothing! "Listen, Columbus was silent for a long time, suddenly took an egg from the plate and stood up.
Ask an odd question: "Ladies and gentlemen, who can stand this egg?" The egg passed from one hand to the other, and everyone straightened it, but as soon as they let go, the egg fell off immediately.
Finally, the egg returned to Columbus, and the room was silent. Everyone wants to see how he stands the egg upright. Columbus took his time. He knocked on one end of the egg on the table and cracked a small eggshell, so the egg stood firmly on the table.
"What's so rare about this?" The guests laughed at Columbus again. "Nothing is rare," Columbus said, "but why can't you do it?" The guests argued irrationally one by one: "The eggs are all broken. What is that?"
Columbus continued to disagree: "When I first set the conditions, did I say that I was not allowed to crack eggs?" When Columbus left the table.
I also left an evocative sentence: "I can think of things you can't think of, and this is where I am better than you." The guests were temporarily speechless.
2. The Story of Columbus 2
On one occasion, at the special review committee of the Columbus Plan in Spain, a member asked Columbus: Even if the earth is round, sailing to the west can reach the east and return to the port of departure, then there must be a voyage to climb up from below the earth.
How does a sailboat climb up? On this issue, the eloquent Columbus was speechless. On the other hand, at that time, besides traditional silk, porcelain and tea, the main demand of western countries for oriental material wealth was spices and gold.
Among them, spices are essential materials for daily life and cooking in Europe, which are in great demand and are not produced locally. At that time, these commodities were mainly transported by traditional land-sea combined transport routes.
The vested interests of these commodities also strongly opposed Columbus's plan to open up new routes. Columbus lobbied around for more than ten years to realize his dreams and plans.
It was not until 1492 that the Queen of Spain had a vision for heroes. She persuaded the king and even gave her private money to help Columbus, so that Columbus's plan could be implemented.
3. The Story of Columbus 3
On one occasion, Columbus led the fleet to sail again. Before long, the "siren" came quietly. Less than half way through the voyage, a dozen crew members fell ill. Looking at the foggy sea, Columbus felt very heavy.
In order not to drag everyone down, a dozen sick crew members said to Columbus, "Captain, please take us to a desert island nearby. When you return to China, we will transport the body back to your hometown. " Columbus was helpless and could only nod with tears in his eyes.
A few months later, Columbus's fleet returned successfully. Columbus led the fleet to a desert island with sick crew. As the fleet is getting closer and closer to the desert island, Columbus's mood is getting heavier and heavier.
The success of this expedition was bought with the lives of more than a dozen crew members! Columbus thought and thought, and before he realized it, the fleet had landed.
Suddenly, Columbus saw a dozen unkempt people running towards the fleet from a desert island.
He took a look. Isn't this his crew? They are still alive! Columbus was really pleasantly surprised. As the crew approached, Columbus asked eagerly, "How did you survive?"
The crew said noisily, "When we got to the island, we quickly ate up your food. Later, when I was hungry, I would pick some wild fruits to eat. In this way, we survived day by day. "
Columbus said to himself, "Is the secret in the wild fruit?" After returning to Italy, he told the doctors about the miracle of these sailors coming back from the dead. Later, people found through research that wild fruits contain a substance called vitamin C.
It turns out that the so-called "sea monster" is "scurvy", which is caused by the long-term lack of vitamin C in the body. The crew ate brown bread and salted fish for a long time and lacked vitamin C, so they got scurvy.
Later, they collected wild fruits on a desert island to satisfy their hunger, and added a lot of vitamin C in their bodies, so scurvy was cured. In other words, vitamin C saved the lives of these sailors.
4. The Story of Columbus 4
Columbus saw several naked people coming out of the Woods from the ship, so he called the captain of the ship together. "Governor" Columbus was dressed in pomegranate red, and the green flags "F" and "Y" representing the king and queen were also carried by the other two captains respectively.
The ceremony was held and then two flags were raised on the newly erected wooden poles. Columbus declared that this place had become Spanish territory. Then he led people to set foot on the earth and prostrate themselves on the ground, thanking God for bringing them good luck.
Residents with reddish-brown skin were very curious and confused when watching the "performance" of this group of uninvited guests with white skin. Soon, the residents began to watch Columbus curiously. They are all naked and very healthy. They think they have arrived in Columbus, east indies.
Call these aborigines Indians. In this way, all native Americans have been called this since then. In fact, the people they saw at that time were Arawaks scattered on the islands along the north coast of South America.
Columbus made a deal with these aborigines, exchanging small objects such as bronze bells, red hats and glass beads for small ornaments such as gold, cotton yarn and parrots. This kind of transaction is definitely an unequal exchange.
An ordinary Spanish coin can be exchanged for 25 pounds of cotton yarn. Later, when Columbus described these residents, he said, "The people I met were very young ... they didn't carry iron weapons, and they didn't know that iron weapons would hurt people. When I showed them the sword.
Because of ignorance, they caught the blade of the sword and hurt their fingers. They don't have any ironware ... "The crew stayed in San Salvador for two days and bought food and fresh water from Indians with some cheap decorations.
The Arabic linguist brought here is useless here. Columbus learned from the Arawaks only through gestures and symbols that there was a king in the south and there was a lot of gold, and there were also many such islands in the south and the west.
5. Story 5 of Columbus
Columbus remained optimistic even in this difficult adversity. In order to find a passage to another ocean, he explored a bay and a river, but without success.
Perhaps because he learned from the Indians near Panama that there was no waterway or strait connecting the two oceans, Columbus gave up his search for the passage and began to look for gold again.
However, the situation of the fleet is getting worse and worse. At first, in mid-April, a light sailboat ran aground on the sandbar. Then, another ship was eaten by maggots. In this tropical heat, the other two ships are also in danger of being eaten by worms.
In this case of necessity, Columbus ordered the ship to dock on a sheltered beach, and the crew barely lived, because it was completely impossible to return to Hispaniola by such a ship.
Later, Columbus sent two men back to Santo Domingo by canoe for help, but they never came back. Columbus was bedridden with arthritis, and about half of him couldn't bear to wait for his crew to get up and make trouble.
1504 65438+1At the beginning of October, they left without Columbus' permission and wanted to return to Hispaniola. However, how could their canoes stand the rough sea? Soon they were all blown back to Jamaica by strong winds.