探索频道 遗失的大陆06
On August 2nd, 1492, as Columbus finally set off on his epic voyage to cross the Atlantic Ocean, he had not one but two goals in mind--crossing the endless expanse of an uncharted sea, and discovering the mysteries of an island called Antillia. History has recorded only scant evidence of the events of Columbus's momentous journey. We do know that when his expedition was 12 days out from the Canary Islands and 2, 000 miles from Spain, he ordered his tiny 3-ship fleet to set a northwesterly course in precisely the direction that Antillia was thought to be. Two days later, he ordered the ships to turn west again, and two days after that, they set a course southwest. After 6 days of searching, Columbus abandoned what appeared to have been a frantic search for Antillia. The decision probably saved the expedition. Columbus had made a potentially fatal error. In common with the mapmakers he had estimated the size of the world based on calculations of Arabic scholars.
The problem is that that measurement's made in Arabic miles which's much longer than Italian miles with the result that, the, er, all the geographical thinkers take the earth to be much much smaller than it really was.
On the 12th, October after nearly three months at sea, Columbus and his men finally made landfall. They had crossed the vast ocean and reached the Americas. Returning to Spain a hero, Columbus managed to persuade the King and Queen to support 3 further voyages to colonize the New World. But Antillia and its legendary riches were never found. Its name now lives on in a chain of islands in the Caribbean Sea, the Antilles.
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expanse: n. 广阔的区域，宽广
northwesterly: adj. 位于西北方的，向西北的
colonize: v. 拓殖，使殖民化
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