美国简史（中文导读英文版）(txt+pdf+epub+mobi电子书下载)

作者：纪飞,王勋,（美）房龙

出版社：清华大学出版社

格式: AZW3, DOCX, EPUB, MOBI, PDF, TXT

美国简史（中文导读英文版）试读：

前言

亨德里克·威廉·房龙（Hendrik Willem Van Loon，1882-1944），荷兰裔美国人，20世纪美国最伟大的历史学家、科普作家和文学家。上世纪20年代开始，他的著作陆续被介绍给中国的读者，翻译者把这个荷兰名字译为“房龙”。此后，这个名字为我国读者所熟悉，流传下来。

房龙1882年1月出生于荷兰鹿特丹。幼年时对历史、地理、船舶、绘画和音乐感兴趣，这种兴趣终其生也未放弃。房龙10岁时便立志要当一名历史学家。父亲对他专横粗暴，而母亲却百般溺爱。从8岁起，房龙先后进入一些著名的寄宿制学校，学习了拉丁文、希腊文和英文，他的才智迅速提高。1902年，20岁的房龙来到美国，进入康奈尔大学，并在康奈尔大学完成本科课程，在1911年获德国慕尼黑大学博士学位。房龙求学前后，当过编辑、记者、播音员，也先后在美国几所大学任教，游历过很多地方。房龙多才多艺，能用十种文字写作和与人交流，拉得一手小提琴，还能画画，他的著作中的所有插图全部出自他自己手笔。

1913年，房龙编著并出版了第一本历史书《荷兰共和国的衰亡》，虽然销路一般，但受到书评界的赞扬。1920年圣诞节期间，房龙出版了他的第二本书《古代的人》，这是一部带插图的通俗历史读本，市场反应良好。经过知识、阅历、研究成果等方面的积累，房龙于1921年出版了他的第三部历史著作《人类的故事》，并一举成名，从此房龙迎来了他创作的丰收期。之后，房龙陆续出版了《发明的故事》、《圣经的故事》、《美国简史》、《房龙地理》（《人类的家园》）、《人类的艺术》、《宽容》、《与世界伟人谈心》、《伦勃朗传》、《荷兰共和国兴衰史》、《太平洋的故事》等二十多部著作。房龙的作品在当时可谓饮誉世界，荷兰、德国、法国、瑞典、丹麦、芬兰、挪威、日本、印度、前苏联、西班牙、意大利、波兰、匈牙利、希腊等国都翻译出版了他的作品。

自20世纪20年代开始，房龙的主要作品几乎被同步介绍给中国的读者。房龙深入浅出的通俗文风和百科全书般的渊博知识，对与之同时代的中国读者产生了巨大的影响。这是因为，一方面是房龙的文风正好适合于当时新文化运动所提倡的生活化的白话文，房龙的书也为中国求知者提供了关于人类和自然的启蒙知识；另一方面，房龙的写作技巧也给中国当时的作家以很多启发。历史学家和著名报人曹聚仁回忆说，20世纪20年代，他在候车时偶然买到《人类的故事》中译本，“那天下午，我发痴似的，车来了，在车上读，到了家中，把晚饭吞下去，就靠在床上读，一直读到天明，走马观花地总算看完了。这50年中，我总是看了又看，除了《儒林外史》、《红楼梦》，没有其他的书这么吸引我了”。郁达夫曾说：“房龙的笔，有一种魔力……是将文学家的手法，拿来用以讲述科学……无论大人小孩，读他书的人，都觉得娓娓忘倦了。”20世纪80年代是中国改革开放的年代，房龙的作品重新被发现，且被逐步引进。而自20世纪90年代后期开始，国内兴起“房龙热”，房龙的作品再次受到读者的青睐，这是因为他的著作特别符合现代中国人的心理气象：务实进取的时代，读书趋向于知识性、趣味性。

目前，国内已出版的房龙著作形式主要有两种：一种是中文翻译版，另一种是中英文对照版。其中的中英文对照读本比较受读者的欢迎，这主要是得益于中国人热衷于学习英文的大环境。从英文学习的角度来看，直接使用纯英文的学习资料更有利于英语学习。考虑到对英文内容背景的了解有助于英文阅读，使用中文导读应该是一种比较好的方式，也可以说是该类型书的第三种版本形式。采用中文导读而非中英文对照的方式进行编排，这样有利于国内读者摆脱对英文阅读依赖中文注释的习惯。基于以上原因，我们决定编译房龙系列著作中的经典，其中包括《人类的故事》、《圣经的故事》、《房龙地理》、《宽容》、《发明的故事》、《美国简史》和《太平洋的故事》等，并采用中文导读英文版的形式出版。在中文导读中，我们尽力使其贴近原作的精髓，也尽可能保留原作的风格。我们希望能够编出为当代中国读者所喜爱的经典读本。读者在阅读英文故事之前，可以先阅读中文导读内容，这样有利于了解故事背景，从而加快阅读速度。我们相信，这些经典著作的引进对加强当代中国读者，特别是青少年读者的科学素养和人文修养是非常有帮助的。

房龙始终站在全人类的高度在写作，他摈弃了深奥理论，却拥有自己独立的思想和体系，他的论述主要是围绕人类生存与发展等本质的问题，贯穿其中的精神是科学、宽容和进步，他的目标是向人类的无知与偏执挑战，他采取的方式是普及知识和真理，使它们成为人所皆知的常识。房龙毕生持人文主义立场，在有的问题上不免有与马克思主义不同的观点；同时，由于他是生活在20世纪早期的美国作家，其思想的观点不可避免地会受到时代和历史的局限，比如在他的《房龙地理》一书中错误地将西藏放到“中亚高地”这一章，而不是“中国”这一章来讲述，又比如他以地理环境决定论来解释日本近代侵略行为，希望读者朋友阅读这些著作时能够甄别。

本书主要内容由王勋、纪飞编译。参加本书故事素材搜集整理及编译工作的还有郑佳、刘乃亚、赵雪、左新杲、黄福成、冯洁、徐鑫、马启龙、王业伟、王旭敏、陈楠、王多多、邵舒丽、周丽萍、王晓旭、李永振、孟宪行、熊红华、胡国平、熊建国、徐平国、王小红等。限于我们的科学、人文素养和英语水平，书中难免不当之处，衷心希望读者朋友批评指正。第一章　便宜的香料需求量大增导读

由俭入奢易，由奢入俭难，这句话在此又应验了。

在公元的第一个千年里，欧洲人还习惯于粗茶淡饭的生活，平日里的打打杀杀使他们没精力关注食不厌精的细致。而当新的千禧年到来之后，在安定下来的一代中奢靡的风气却在滋长。

在这点上，东方人是欧洲人的老师。穆斯林在7世纪奇迹般地崛起，并很快逼近地中海的北岸。新月与十字的厮杀混战未休，东方的精致与奢华却迷幻般地征服了这些粗朴的欧洲人。战后，在地中海上穿梭来往的不再是圣战军团，而是熙熙攘攘的商队，香料成为了欧洲人品质生活的必需品，其所带来的巨额利润，使得宗教狂热被搁在一边，基督的信徒和真主的皈依者你来我往。

而此时随鞑靼人涌向西方的一支小小部落却将改变历史。意外地客居他乡却使他们在百年后神话般地成为伊斯兰世界的王者，“土耳其人”——他们因此而名扬世界，同时新一轮的扩张被激起。

土耳其的胜利也将印证安拉的胜利。从乡野中重新振作起来的虔诚必须在帝国的土地上到处被实现，僧侣们奔走各地，号召人们回归纯正的古兰经教义。与异教徒的贸易将遭到摒弃，商人们很快认识到恪守僧侣教诲的重要，而谨慎地断绝了与基督子民们的联系。

习惯了东方商品的欧洲人由此感到不适，市场上的东方商品成为凤毛麟角，投机商们抓住时机使它们身价倍增。以物易物不再通行，商人们只认准黄金，而欧洲的大地出产不了这么多的金银。坏消息纷至沓来，土耳其的铁蹄继续在西亚和北非的土地上奔驰，同时也掐断了一条条曾经的商道。重新开启贸易看来是遥遥无期了。坐以待毙绝不是资本主义的态度。由此一小部分人开始幻想新的黄金之路，他们向南或向西走向未知的大海，去试探自己的命运，要么穷途潦倒，要么创造奇迹。HE Guild of the Grocers was in dreadful straits.Their supply of spices was well-nigh exhausted.T

But the demand surpassed anything that had ever been seen before.

The Guild of the Grocers was in dreadful straits.

And thereby hangs a story.

It is a law recognized both by the professors of political economy and the judges of our police courts that those who have for a considerable time dined at the Ritz will not willingly return to Jack Mulhaly’s far-famed fish-chowder and beans.Of course，in case of actual need they will content themselves with the simple fare of the excellent John.But before they reach that point of open and avowed defeat，they will fight tooth and nail to maintain the standard of excellence to which they have become accustomed.

The barbarians who overran the greater part of western Europe during the first ten centuries of our era were men of simple taste，which usually means men of no taste at all.With them，quantity came before quality，and a continent that had lain practically unscratched since the last great glacial epoch easily satisfied their demands for a wooden bench，a greasy slab of beef and unlimited ale.

Besides，there，was so much to be done and there were so few people to do what needed being done that their surplus energy was entirely exhausted by the chores of every-day life.Roughly speaking，it took them a thousand years to settle down.Then the job was done.Peace and quiet returned to this earth and with peace and quiet on the part of the elders came the Wanderlust of the younger generation.

Ten centuries before that Wanderlust would have led to another outbreak of anarchy.But by now the people of the West once more recognized a single master.He laid no claim to worldly power.His spiritual weapons，however，could annihilate entire battalions of Swiss mercenaries.His paper arrows could pierce the walls of the strongest castles.

His mere displeasure was more terrible than a threat of war on the part of emperor or king.

Surrounded by the cleverest of diplomats，the most astute of politicians，he was able to divert the rising tide of unrest into the practical channels of foreign conquest and to bring about that great migration towards the East which ever since has been known as the era of the Crusades.Unfortunately this episode has been so often chosen as a subject for romantic literary rhapsodies that we are apt to forget the true if more prosaic nature of the conflict.

The ancient world was the world of the Mediterranean.He who had command of that vast tract of water could dictate his will to the rest of mankind.

It was an ambitious undertaking，and the small fry of pirates and buccaneers who infested the deep bays of the Spanish and Greek and Italian peninsulas and who lived along the shallow coast of Morocco and Tripoli and Egypt could not possibly hope for more than a trifling local success.

Nothing short of“racial groups”—vast agglomerations of people bound together by tens of thousands of years of a common social，economic and religious development were able to handle a problem that must be settled upon so gigantic a scale.They well knew the risk they took，for such quarrels were apt to be quite as disastrous to the victor as to the vanquished.

Only twice before had it come to an open break.

The first time in the fifth century before our era，when Greece as the champion of the West had defeated the invading hordes of the Persians and in a series of brilliant counter-attacks had pursued her enemies as far as the shores of the river Indus.

The second time two hundred years later，when the Romans narrowly averted disaster by such a display of national energy that the state almost perished before the last of the Carthaginian strongholds had been reduced to ashes.

Then，for more than eight centuries，there had been peace.

But in the year 622 Asia，marching under the banner of a brand-newprophet，was once more ready for the unequal struggle.This time the campaign was planned upon a truly gigantic scale.The left wing of the Mohammedan armies took possession of Spain.The right wing meanwhile made for Constantinople by way of Syria and Asia Minor.It was at that moment that the head of the Christian Church took fright and proclaimed a holy war.

This war，from a military point of view，was a complete failure.But its social consequences were of great and lasting importance.For the first time since the disappearance of the Roman state the nations of Europe were exposed to a civilization which in almost every respect was higher than their own.They went east to slaughter the infidel and to deprive him of his pagan possessions.They returned home with a new conception of comfort and luxury and with a profound dislike for the crudities of their own barren existence.

This sudden change in the general point of view was soon reflected in the houses of the people of the western mainland，in their clothes，in their manners，in the way they spent their idle hours and in the things they ate and drank.

The older generation（after the habit of all older generations）continued to talk about the simple virtues of the ancestors.The children merely shrugged their shoulders and smiled.They had been to the“big city”and they knew better.Quietly they bided their time，but as soon as the old folks were dead they hastenedre-upholster the parlor，sent for a couple of outlandish cooks and despatched their sons to the nearby town that there they，might learn how to become bankers or manufacturers and acquire within a single lifetime Sat wealth which the soil would not surrender in a thousand years of heart-breaking toil.

The Church grumbled.

This was a consequence she had not quite foreseen.

Alas！the returning heroes were no longer animated with that holy and unquestioning zeal which had been so characteristic of their parents and grandfathers.Familiarity with one’s friends may breed contempt.But familiarity with an enemy is apt create mutual respect.

As a result there was a slump in the building of churches.But private palaces and richly adorned municipal buildings were arising on all sides.

I do not say that this was a good thing.I do not say that it was bad.I merely state a fact.If you want to draw any conclusions，go ahead and suityourself.

Meanwhile on the other shore of the Mediterranean there also had been a considerable decline bin the ardor of that strange religious devotion which measured its love by the number of slaughtered captives.In short，both parties had accepted a stalemate and were willing to reach a compromise which meant money in the pockets of their respective merchants.

The ancient trade-routes，trampled down by millions of iron heels and hoofs，were put in a state of repair.Once more the patient camels carried their burdens from Kashgar to Damascus.Again，as in the days of old，the Venetian caravels and the Genoese galleys plied regularly between Alexandria and Famagusta.

Wherefore all was well with the world and the rate of interest upon a successful Levantine deal rose rapidly from just exactly nothing to four hundred per cent.

Then one of those insignificant incidents happened which（after the nature of insignificant occurrences）are apt to change the entire aspect of history for all time to come.It was during the middle of the thirteenth century.The dreadful Tartars had just gone on the warpath and from the Amur to the Vistula people were flying in blind panic before this flood of grinning little yellow devils.Among the fugitives was a small group of nomads（two or three hundred families at the most）who since time immemorial had lived peacefully in the heart of Asia.They ran almost as far as the Mediterranean.Then they heard that the danger was past and decided to return home.In order to do this they must cross the river Euphrates.But an accident happened.Their leader slipped off his horse and was drowned.The others who were still on the western bank of the river took fright.They regarded this sudden calamity as a direct warning of Heaven and asked the King of Persia to let them stay where they were.

The rest is a matter of common knowledge.Within less than a hundred years these wandering shepherds had made themselves the masters of the empire that had given them hospitality and one generation afterwards they were the recognized rulers of the Mohammedan world and had started upon that career of conquest which eventually was to carry their horse-tail banners to the gates of Vienna and was to make the mere name of“Turk”a byword for crueltyand bravery for all ages.

Now if this sudden revival of Moslem fury bad been merely a political movement，it would not have been so bad.But a profound spiritual frenzy swept across the plains and hills of western Asia.During the six centuries which had gone by since the death of the Prophet the original ardor of his followers had considerably cooled.The“faith of the fathers”was something very fine but so was the sweet profit derived from the traffic in pepper and cinnamon and indigo.It was unfortunate that this trade forced the true believers to be on amicable terms with the infidel dogs from the other side of the Mediterranean，but you know how it is.Business is business and one cannot draw the line at Christians if one is in trade.

Not so the inhabitants of the villages and the lonely valleys！They took their religion seriously and encouraged by the military and the political success of their Turkish leaders they now decided to bring their erring brethren of the big cities back to the true faith.

Far and wide the Dervishes（the monks of the Mohammedan world）traveled through the realm of the Prophet.Some of them prayed，some of them danced，some of them whirled，some of them howled.But one and all they preached a return to the stem tenets of the original desert creed.

At first the merchants of Bagdad and Damascus laughed.But the“puritans”were in dead earnest.Soon the merchants even ceased to smile.A little later（warned by the fate of their murdered neighbors）they began to restrict their commercial operations to their own fellow religionists.

And in this way，just when the people of Europe had come to depend upon certain Asiatic goods，the supply was suddenly cut off.

Of course this did not happen in a day or a week or even a single year.But those products which for more than two hundred years had flowed westward in such complete and uninterrupted abundance now began to disappear from the European markets.The available supplies were at once cornered by the speculators.Prices began to soar.Credit was withdrawn and payment had to be made in gold.This was something new in the West.The medieval worlds in its every-day transactions，had never insisted upon ready money.Every one lived within hailing distance of every 5ne else.One man’s pork was as good asanother man’s eggs.The honey of one cloister could readily be exchanged for the vinegar of another.

It is true，foreign trade had always insisted upon a certain amount of gold and silver coin.It had been impossible to satisfy the spice dealers of Calicut with slices of bacon and barrels of salt.Before they authorized their agents in Jidda or Aden to make delivery they had demanded a deposit of Venetian doubloons and pieces-of-eight.

But now the European market began to ask for cash on delivery.That greatly complicated matters.

For gold，the mysterious，yellow substance which seemed to defy the power of State and Church，was another article that had to be imported from abroad.There were a few silver mines in Europe but the small amount of gold-that was found in the mountains of Austria，Saxony and Spain was by no means sufficient to finance the ever-increasing operations of the speculators and the legitimate spice dealers.

Here was as pretty a vicious circle as the world had ever seen.A public ready and eager to buy-a decreasing amount of supplies-a rapid increase in prices-a general demand for bullion-a decrease in the available supply of gold-one country of western Asia and northern Africa after another falling into the hands of the relentless heathen-one caravan road after the other closed for an indefinite space of time and the young and lusty capitalistic system of Europe fighting for its life.

The capitalistic system（using this term in the sense in which it is understood or misunderstood by most of our contemporaries）has been accused of many and highly diversified crimes.But even its worst enemies cannot accuse it of laziness or deny that in times of a crisis it is able to develop an almost supernatural energy.It was just such a crisis which now threatened to ruin the western commercial world during the first half of the fourteenth century.

I have spoken of the plight of the grocers.They were most active and vociferous in their protestations.But the entire economic（which in the last analysis means the entire spiritual，social，literary，artistic and scientific）fabric of Europe was in imminent danger of collapse.

It is true that Syria and Egypt（the two countries through which theprincipal trade-routes from the East to the West had run since the beginning of time）were not captured by the Turks until a dozen years after the death of Columbus.But a merchant who knows his business does not wait for the actual day of disaster.He anticipates.

We hear a great deal of the sagacity of our modern princes of commerce and we flatter ourselves that it is our own era that has given birth to this intrepid race of men.And we are apt to think rather patronizingly of the medieval trader who sat in a stuffy little room，who counted his shekels with the help of a pair of diminutive scales，who dictated his letters to two clerks simul-taueously（that he might have a carbon-copy of his correspondence）and who was obliged to wait half a year before he got an answer from his agents in Viborg or Novgorod.

But that is one of the fallacies of our happy age which takes to self-flattery as a duck takes to water.

The world of the year of Grace 1927 is really very much like the world of the year of Grace 1427 or 427.It is composed of all sorts of people.Some are bright.Some are not quite so bright.Others are downright stupid.

The latter（always the vast majority）did not take any interest either one way or another.The second category felt vaguely that something must be done，then got frightened at its own boldness and did nothing.But the first（a very small minority）took off its coat and vest，rolled up its sleeves and went forth to decide the issue then and there.The overland route to the profitable East was gradually being closed.Very well.Then they would look for a new road by way of the South or the West.The undertaking，entailing a voyage across uncharted seas，looked about as hopeless as an airplane trip to the moon in our own time.Indeed，the practical obstacles were so immense that they could only be overcome by a dreamer.

The world was full of experienced sea-captains，who could foretell the approaching storm through the rheumatism in their aching bones；of highly trained astronomers who could read the book of Heaven as we consult a time-table；of adventurers eager to risk their lives for a bit of excitement or a pot full of ducats.

But it took a different sort of creature to solve this problem-a strangegenius who derived his inspiration from the Apocalypse of Ezra has any one within the memory of man read this muddled mixture of Heaven，Hell and prophecy？—a professional pro-motet who would not budge until he had been given a duly signed contract assuring him ten per cent of all the precious metals to be discovered in the domains on the other side of the ocean-a vain peacock who insisted upon being called“Admiral of the Ocean”—a humble mystic who died in the poor garb of a Franciscan monk.第二章　未知的世界导读

哥伦布生于何时何地，我们已不清楚。这样的一个人，一生忙忙碌碌，为追寻那片梦想的土地，他为他人带来财富和荣誉，而自己得到的只是牢狱之灾和黯淡而终。甚至他死后，也不得安息。

这个毛纺商人的儿子显得和他的时代格格不入，他渴望成名和金钱，为此，哥伦布把一生托付给了大海，从船长的学徒做起，成为水手，并在欧洲沿海作过多次航行。

但欧洲的酒蓝色海洋并不能满足他。哥伦布的目光朝向了西方的浩渺，他坚信，向西航行，人们同样可以到达黄金遍野的中国。

一位先驱者为他树立了榜样。那是葡萄牙的亨利王子。这位生性严谨的王子建立了历史上第一所航海学校，在那里搜罗研究种种海外方物，并构想他的海洋之梦。他沿着非洲西海岸的有益的航行，使人们对于神秘莫测的大海的了解更为深入了。

而此前，人们已经在海风和洋流的带领下邂逅过“西方”。人们相信，在浩瀚的大西洋彼岸确实有着某片土地，但没有人成功地到达过那传说之地。

哥伦布准备开始将他的幻想付诸实践。他请求西班牙王室的资助，几经周折，哥伦布终于获得了实现梦想的资本。带领着由3艘船组成的气势并不恢宏的船队，哥伦布扬帆出海。

在未知和莫测的大海上漂浮了两个多月，滔天的海水如命运一般迷惘。1492年10月11日的那个夜晚，船长哥伦布看到了一点儿光亮，第二天，他遭遇了一些未被命名的人们，但是，在这些生息着赤裸的野蛮人的热带小岛上，哥伦布还是没有寻见印度和中国的踪迹。

他三次孜孜不倦地在海洋上搜寻，但是，毫无结果的挫败最终断送了他的生命。

直到此时，哥伦布所发现的那些土地仍未得到命名。而另一位显然更具广告头脑的航海家阿美利戈由于其知名度而捡了便宜，使得这片土地最终被命名为“阿美利戈之地”。IS neighbors in Genoa knew him as plain Chris Pigeon.The Spaniards，who made billions out of his discovery and cheated Hhim out of his reward，called him Don Cristobal Colon and afterwards，remembering the gold-land to the north of Venezuela，added the grandiloquent title of Duke of Veragua.The world at large refers to him as Christopher Columbus and as such he will play his part in our little story.

He was born in 1446 or 1447 or 1448 or 1449 or 1450.We don’t know，and it does not matter very much.He saw the light of day in Genoa or Cogoleto.We do not know，and that too matters very little.But his poor bones were buried and reburied seven times in less than four centuries.And that tells the story.Restlessness without end，and as a reward a pair of iron handcuffs and the six boards of a wooden coffin.

The father of Columbus was in the woolen business，half weaver，half merchant，but fairly prosperous and able to send his son to a good school.Afterwards the boy was to succeed him in his business and become a respectable citizen and have a family of his own-everything as it always had been and always would be.

Alas！respectability of the ordinary sort meant very little in the life of Columbus.For he was of this world and yet not quite of this world.He wanted money-a great deal of money-for his plans，for his studies，for his books.He wanted the world to recognize the fact that he was not like the common herd，that his courage and his endurance and the brilliant speculations of his mind made him，the weaver’s son，a fit companion for the mighty princes of this earth.Beyond that，it is difficult to say just exactly what he hoped to get out ofhis career.

He was exceedingly clumsy at the queer business of living.But he could sail a leaky tub across an uncharted sea with no other help than a self-devised system of navigation，he could cajole a mutinous crew of jailbirds and highwaymen into a semblance of decent behavior until he had actually found what he had set out to discover，and upon occasions he could stand more thirst and hunger and scurvy and could do with less sleep than any other mortal being.Heaven knows，these are enough claims to fame for even the most ambitious of us.

One thing Columbus did not do.He did not write.Perhaps this is a pity.On the whole，however，I think it is a distinct gain.Imagine a serialized article on“How I Discovered the New World，”with exclusive photographs of the wives and daughters of the Cacique of Guanahani.Imagine signed interviews on“The Hardtack that Made Me an Explorer.”No，it is much better this way.We do not know quite as much about the man as we sometimes would like.It saves us from knowing a whole lot of things which would only obscure the main point in his career；his absolute and unshakable faith in the belief that by sailing due westwards one would not tumble off this earth or be broiled by the rays of the tropical sun，as most of his contemporaries thought，but that on the contrary one would reach the land of the heathen Chinese and would be able to return home by way of the Indies.

The problem did not prove to be quite as simple as he had thought.A fairly wide ridge of land separated the ocean of Europe from that of Asia.That，however，was a mere detail which no one could have foretold.Most certainly it does not dim the glory of that shabby and weather-beaten Genoese pilot who first of all said，“It can be done，”and then did it.

The Middle Ages had one enormous advantage over our own time.It was considered good form，yea，an essential part of life，to learn your job and learn it well.There were no short cuts.The Greeks，a thousand years before，had said that the Gods were willing to surrender all their secrets in exchange for a certain fixed amount of honest sweat.The people of the fifteenth century substituted the Guild boss for Zeus，but rigidly adhered to the doctrine that labor alone fits a man for his job.And when young Christopher decided that hedid not care to succeed his father in the wool business，but wanted to be a sailor，he was immediately apprenticed to a captain and told to learn his trade by beginning as a cabin boy and scullery assistant.

During the next four years we hear of him in every port of the eastern part of the Mediterranean.A little later we find traces of his presence in Portugal and in England and we know that he pushed as far as the newly discovered coast of Guinea.Then he married.Quite typical，however，of his serious single-mindedness he married right into the profession.The lady of his choice was not rich，but she had inherited her father’s log-books and all his notes and her father was no one else than Bartholomew Perestrello，captain in the service of Prince Henry of Portugal and the first governor-general of Porto Santo，one of the recently rediscovered islands of the Madeira group.

In this way Columbus came in direct contact with the work of a man（dead these last thirty years）who in every sense of the word might be called the John the Baptist of modern exploration and discovery，the prophet who prepared the way for one greater than himself but who did not live to see the day of ultimate victory.

Prince Henry of Portugal，commonly called Henry the Narigator，was the son of a Portuguese father and an English mother.In his youth he had been a great warrior，but he was a stern man，yea，a veritable puritans and when the fighting had come to an end，when portugal for all time had been made safe from invasion by the heathen from across the Straits of Gibraltar，then he retired from court and near the town of Sagres，on the bleak hills of a lonely promontory of his native land，he built himself a cloistered fortress that was to become the first of all nautical schools and the most important of medieval astronomical observatories.

Thee，undisturbed by the noise of the outside world，the royal geographers and astronomers，and mathematicians and map-makers collected and sifted and classified all that strange and miscellaneous amount of information that had been an integral part of the sailors’lore ever since the day when Hanna the Carthaginian had first surprised the western world with his mysterious stories of the apes that walked like men and that were called“gorillas.”

Let it be understood at once that the interests of this noble Prince were not at all commercial.The grandson of John of Gaunt and the Grand Master of theimmensely rich order of Christ did not have to worry about mere dollars and stivers.Besides he was too devout a son of the Church to care much about worldly acquisitions.Provided he could have the souls of the poor heathen who dwelled in multitudinous darkness beyond the hazy dimness of Cape Bojador，the merchants and jobbers were welcome to such profits，as could be derived from barter with the savage blackamoors.And if his discoveries would only bring him into contact with Prester John（the mystery man of the twelfth century who proved to be no one else than the kinky-haired King of Abyssinia）then he would gladly surrender all his claims to the gold of Ophir.

Nothing perhaps shows the difficulty of medieval exploration quite as clearly as the slow success of the famous Sagres institute which represented the last word in the science of navigation and did not have to worry about the expense.Often it took the ships that few its flag years to cover a distance which a modern tramp steamer accomplishes in a couple of days.Every time a new cape had been successfully rounded there was a day of hallelujahs and Te Deums.A modern explorer who has just returned from a trip to the North Pole receives less recognition than a Portuguese captain who had charted a few hundred additional miles of the west coast of Africa.

Now the difference between realty great men and just great men is that the former are never in a hurry.Henry the Navigator edited his maps as Kreisler plays the violin.He had all the time in the whole wide world.No reason to get excited or do slipshod work.And so gradually the west coast of Africa began to take shape.The long lost Azores were rediscovered.Madeira，which somehow or other had been forgotten for almost a century，ceased to be the picturesque background for a pretty English love story and became a definite if more prosaic spot on the map.Cape Bojador ceased to be the ultimate limit of all geographical knowledge.Cape Branco went next.In the year 1445，it was the turn of Cape Verde.And before Henry died，one of his captains had actually pushed as far as Cape，Sierra Leone，and the preliminary work，which afterwards made it possible for Diaz to sail around the Cape of Good Hope and which enabled Vasco da Game to sail to India，had been done.

And in many other ways（although less directly）did Prince Henry help along the cause of civilization.A few drops of science will often disinfect anentire barrel full of ignorance and prejudice.Through the influence of the Sages institute navigation ceased to be a hodgepodge of monsters and floating islands，of submersible continents and those other thousand and one fairy stories with which the early Irish missionaries had delighted their credulous parishioners.The compass and the sextant began to be substituted for the old method of coast-bumping，known generally as“sailing by God and by guess.”And the strange accounts brought back by sailors who had been blown out of their course and who in their panic had seen almighty strange things were no longer accepted as gospel truth but were carefully examined and were either rejected or put over for further examination，as the case seemed to warrant.

Among those yarns there was one with which Columbus，like all his seafaring companions，must have been familiar.That was the story of the exploration of an entirely new world which was supposed to be situated somewhere north of the Arctic circle.In how far Columbus had heard of those voyages first-hand we do not know.He hinted to some of his friends that he had been as far as Ultima Thule.What he meant by“Ultima Thule”we do not know.It may have been Iceland and it may have been the Faroe Islands.But remember that when Columbus lived，there still were titulary Bishops of Greenland；that direct communication with that island had been broken off only one generation before；and that the Icelanders just then were making a formidable collection of those old sagas which told of the brave deeds of their ancestors and which spoke in detail of certain mysterious lands of the far west.

In their search for documentary evidence the historians have sometimes overlooked such small trifles as currents and winds.With a map of the Atlantic before us，we no longer ask ourselves the question，“Did the Norsemen ever reach the coast of America？”We rather say，“Why did it take them so long to get there？”

A French skipper or an English one，driven out of his course，either went to the bottom of the ocean or got back to his home port.The Gulf Stream took care of that.

But a Viking on his way from Norway to the Arctic colonies ran every risk of being picked up by the Greenland current and unless he were very lucky he would next find himself the guest of the Labrador current and after that therewas no escape.He was bound to land somewhere on the western coast of the North American continent.

Please remember that there were direct and uninterrupted communications between Greenland and Norway for more than four centuries（983-1410）；that hundreds of men and women during that period must have made the trip to the western islands；that they sailed without chart or compass，and were at the mercy of the different-Arctic currents to an extent which we people who regard even the Gulf Stream as a negligible quantity cannot possibly understand；and finally that they were a highly imaginative and literary people who left us a faithful and detailed record of their explorations.

I do not mention all this to revive the ancient and silly quarrel whether it was Leif，the son of Eric，the farmer from Haukadalur，or Christopher，the son of Domenico，the weaver from Genoa，who must be regarded as the real discoverer of our own continent.I merely refer to the Norsemen episode in our history to show that in the days of Columbus it was a generally accepted fact that there was“something”on the other side of the ocean and that that“something”could be found by any one willing to take a risk and ready to sail due westward for three or four weeks.

Unfortunately the conviction that these lands（which probably were a series of islands off the coast of India and China）could be reached by boat was not enough.Some one had to provide the boats and boats，then as now，cost money.Which brings us to the second part of the life of Columbus，his career as a promoter.

During the latter half of the fifteenth century the only supply of ready cash worth mentioning was to be found in Italy.But suppose that the Pope or the Medici had financed his enterprise，suppose that he could have induced the government of Venice or Genoa to give him their support，what good would it have done？Spain controlled the gateway to the ocean.And Spain was a powerful country，a highly centralized country，and more than a match for the jealous little navies of the jealous little Italian cities.Spain therefore was the logical candidate for those high honors which Columbus felt sure that he could bestow upon his future patron and it；was to Spain that he turned when he began to make serious preparations for his great western voyage.

In this day and age when we think nothing of wasting a couple of million，dollars in just so many hours for the sake of some slight military gain，it is difficult to understand and appreciate the utter clumsiness，yea，the helplessness of the capitalistic system before the introduction of a plentiful supply of gold bullion and the invention of credit.The French Revolution（which took place only a little over a century ago）was due to the fact that the most prosperous monarchy of the eighteenth century，and all its ministers and all its faithful members of parliament，aided by the most expert financial advice of the age，could not possibly raise a sum of money which nowadays would be taken care of by half an hour’s telephonic conversation between the Minister of Finance and a couple of international bankers.

And Spain almost lost her chance at becoming the master of the New World because King Ferdinand and Queen Isabella were unable to lay their hands on ten thousand dollars in cash.After a great deal of haggling and wrangling this sum was at last found.But without the private assistance of the Pinzon brothers，honorable merchants from the forgotten little city of Palos，Columbus probably would have spent the rest of his days in Paris and Lisbon and London，trying to explain to Royal Commissioners that his plans were not the dreams of a madman and that a few dollars risked now would bring unfold wealth in the near future.

However that may be，the Pinzons finally decided to join forces with the King and Queen and on the third of August of the year 149t Columbus set sail for the Azores with three ships，the largest of which was smaller than a respectable sized ferry-boat and had been built for the coastwise trade with Flanders.

Twice more he sighted land，the Canary Islands and Teneriffe.Then he boldly pushed forth into，the ultimate confines of the unknown.The voyage lasted a little over two months.On the night between the eleventh and the twelfth of October of the year 1492 a light was seen.It was a watchfire of the“Indians.”The next morning the first meeting between the white man and the copper-colored Indian took place.It must have been a strange scene.There was a Jewish mariner on board Columbus’flagship who had been hired on account of his reputation as a linguist.His services during this memorable occasionmust have been of a very simple nature.

The Admiral：Ask the old heathen where the Indies are.

Luis de Torres（holding up a shiny brass object and waving his arms）：Huh？

The“old heathen”（pointing a very dirty finger in a western direction）：Huh！

And so these brave adventurers once more hoisted anchor and once more they sailed westward and found nothing but islands，low little islands with palm trees and naked savages and howling children who shrieked their heads off when the gun of the Santa Maria said“boom-m-m-m.”But of the Indies，of the turreted walls of Kathay，of the incense-bearing trees of Zipangu not a trace not a trace-not a trace-not a trace.

Columbus，however，refused to accept defeat.

Three times more he wearily crossed the ocean.Some day，some day，surely，he would find the gap between those miserable reefs and promontories that would lead him directly to his goal.

But he never did.

Worn out by hardships and hunger and thirst and the ills of the tropics，his own body turned traitor，as so many of his captains had done before.

Columbus died on the twentieth day of May of the year 1506.His bad luck followed him beyond the grave.

During the early part of the sixteenth century there was a very popular academy of learning in the little French town of St.Diéwhere a specialty was made of the study of geography.Now it happened in the year 1507 that the director of this school，an honest German by the name of Martin Waldseemüller（or Hylacomylus，as he preferred to call himself）decided to publish a handbook of cosmography.But what to do with the ever-in-creasing number of scraps of land which seemed to float in space a few thousand miles westward of the Azores？

Wasn’t it about time to group them together and give them name？

Yes.But what name？

Some one suggested，“Call them after the man who has done most for their discovery and exploration.”

A splendid idea！But who was he？

Right here we come across one of the most sublime incongruities of all history.

The people of northern Europe had probably heard of Columbus，but his exploits had by no means become popular.Here and there a carelessly printed little pamphlet with terrible woodcuts of Indian natives and wild beasts had told the European aborigines that a man by the name of Dove or something like it had been to the land of the great bird roe and had come back to tell the tale.That was about all.

But during the first five years of the sixteenth century information of a slightly more amusing character began to dribble across the Pyrenees.

The second expedition of Columbus had been subsidized by a Florentine merchant in Seville.When this personage died quite suddenly the contract was taken over by one Amerigo Vespucci，also a native of Florence and financial representative of the Medici interests in western Spain.This Amerigo（if we are to believe his own stories）accompanied several expeditions to the New World and actually found a great deal of new land in the southern part of the hemisphere.He was a clever publicist and a faithful correspondent and he used to write letters to hid employer，Lorenzo de’Medici，to tell that old banker of all he had seen and heard.These letters were translated and printed and spread broadcast as soon as they had reached Florence.

When the learned Hylacomylus looked for a suitable name for the group of islands that formed a barrier between Europe and the Indies，he thought at once of the popular Florentine，whose stuff was familiar to every European who could read and write.Then and there he suggested that the new land be called“the land of Amerlgo”or“Terra America”because Americus，it seemed，knew more about it than any one else.No one said no.Anyway，what did it matter？One name was as good as another and now the question had been decided and people could stop worrying.

But let us not be too hard on poor Hylacomylus.He meant no harm.He was just a simple schoolmaster and allowed himself to be taken in by a clever publicity man.第三章　信仰、黄金和印第安人导读

美洲被“发现”之后，对于那里的主人印第安人来说，无疑是一场噩梦的开始。天花病毒和狼犬直到18世纪还在消灭着这一种族，而之前的三百年，在印第安人还不被承认为人的时代，恐怖的血色使人不寒而栗。

作为美洲的合法主人，印第安人却如此轻易地为白人所征服。这要归因为美洲与外界隔离了万年，那里地广人稀，大多数印第安人还停留在游猎阶段，农业革命并未在那里形成燎原之势，这使得相对落后的印第安人面对白人的枪炮而土崩瓦解。

而这批白人殖民者却目光炯炯，满怀着为上帝而战的激情。摩尔人刚从西班牙的土地上被驱逐出去，同样的仇恨使得圣战将士们将剑指向了这些不信上帝的异教野蛮人。在上帝面前的另一端，熠熠闪光的是黄金，发财的渴求使他们漂洋过海到新世界去碰自己的运气。在此，他们疯狂搜刮民财到了敲骨吸髓的地步，其赫赫战果就是每年源源不断被运向欧洲的黄金与白银。

问题也随之而至。印第安人在压榨下一批批死去。有一位善良的神父为此劝说殖民者不要再把印第安人投入矿山和种植园，作为替代物，他建议使用更为强壮的黑奴。而这将给大洋彼岸的另一批人带来不幸，猎奴人开始在非洲海岸出没，并将一拨拨黑人强捺入黑色的命运。

西班牙妄图使新大陆完全在宗主国的控制之下。马德里的命令操控了一切，新大陆的锱铢都被纳入帝国的收入，私商是被严厉禁止的，宗教裁判所将帮助国王处理这些叛逆者。但新大陆的殖民者还是利用一切机会充实着自己的腰包。

西班牙的控制欲将会遭到报复。因为命运对新大陆有别样的安排。N the year of Grace 1732，General Jeffrey Amherst（who bestowed his name upon a well-known village and college in northern IMassachusetts）had reason to instruct one of his subordinates in regard to the treatment of certain native tribes which recognized His Majesty the King of England as their Lord and Master.

“You will do well，”so wrote His Excellency，“to try to inoculate the Indians by means of blankets in which smallpox patients have slept，as well as by every other method that can serve to extirpate this execrable race.I should be very glad if your scheme of hunting them down by dogs could take effect.”

If such sentiments could be publicly expressed by a distinguished and not unfriendly British general during the first half of the eighteenth century（when the world had begun to take a sincere interest in the welfare of the less enlightened races of men）then what of the poor savages who three hundred years before had suddenly found themselves placed at the mercy of the soldiers and the friars of His Most Catholic Majesty，the King of Spain？Perhaps the less said，the better.

For the Spaniard，who as a child had learned to hate and despise the dusky Moors（who for five centuries had been the rulers of his fatherland）regarded the copper-colored inhabitants of his new possessions as a species of animal that had nothing whatsoever in common with the rest of the human race.

In one respect this proved to be of great advantage to the Indians.It made them exempt from the laws and regulations of the Inquisition which were supposed in deal exclusively with“reasonable beings.”Therefore whenever in Mexico City or in Cuzco a fresh batch of English heretics and Jewish backsliders was solemnly marched to the funeral pyre，the natives were allowed to come to the Quemadero and take a cheerful part in the festivities without running the risk of being molested for their own heathenish opinions.But except upon such rare occasions the fate of the Indian was not a happy one and what made it all the worse was the conviction（hidden in some obscure comerof his poor pagan brain）that he was really the rightful owner of the soil and that the foreigner who had reduced him and his neighbors to slavery was merely an intruder and only survived because he was possessed of such large quantities of blunderbusses and ten-pounders.

The question of the origin of our Indians has never yet been settled.Whether the redskins were Asiatics who had reached the American mainland by way of the frozen Bering Strait or by way of a ridge of land which since then has disappeared，or whether they were descended from a primitive people who had wandered from Europe to Labrador via Iceland and Greenland is something which no one can decide at the hand of the available materials.This much seems certain：that the American continent was not settled until thousands of years after the appearance of true human beings in Asia，Africa and Europe，and that the ancestors of the Indians，once they had reached these shores，were cut off from communication with the rest of the world for perhaps fifteen or twenty thousand years.Mentally the American aborigines were in no way inferior to the races that lived in other parts of the planet.But they had been left so absolutely to themselves that in most respects they were thousands of years behind those Europeans who now descended upon them with their arque-buses and escopets.

But there was another reason why the Indians should so easily have fallen victim to foreign conquest.There were so very few of them.The entire continent（both South and North America and the densely populated part known as Central America）probably did not contain more than ten million souls，as many as there are today in New York and Chicago alone.This small number was due to their wandering habits and to the fact that most of them were practically unfamiliar with agriculture.

Of course I am dealing in dangerous generalities.There were all sorts of Indians，from the highly civilized Mayas and Peruvians to the cannibalistic tribes of southern Patagonia.But by and large they were no match for the highly organized and well-armed groups of European invaders and their territories were overrun and occupied in an incredibly short space of time.

Most unfortunately for them the discovery of Columbus came at the very moment when the Spaniards，after about six hundred years of uninterruptedwarfare，had just driven the last of the Mohammedan caliphs out of their own country.Spain was still full of that strange crusading spirit which is ready to commit the most hideous of crimes in the name of the most exalted of religions.Men like Cortez and Pizarro，who with a handful of highly drilled cutthroats destroyed Indian empires as large as France，Spain and England combined，could never have accomplished this had they not felt themselves to be the lineal descendants of the Cid and those other chosen messengers of the All Highest.

The Conquistadores of course were highly picturesque fellows.Their tales of heroism and sacrifice lost nothing in the telling and when we read of their exploits，their marches across swamps and mountains，their profound and bloodthirsty devotion，we are very apt to forget that this piety was strangely interwoven with a ruthless greed for gold.A desire to serve God and the heathen may have carried a few simple friars across the much feared ocean.But the mass of the newcomers merely wanted to get rich and wanted to get rich quick.What became of the people whose houses they plundered，the peasants whose irrigation canals they destroyed，the families whose daughters they stole，all that did not interest them in the least.And as for the people at home，they were just as rapacious and indifferent.Provided the annual“Silver Fleet”carried a sufficient amount of gold and silver to advance the endless campaigns of the Philips and Charleses and Alfonsos who succeeded each other in dull succession upon the Spanish throne，very few questions were asked and none were answered.

How disastrously this system reacted upon the Spanish people has become common history.Less than twenty years after the discovery of the first American islands，such a large percentage of the native Mexican popular，ion had died that it was necessary to import laborers from elsewhere.At first these were found among the Indians of Florida and Venezuela.But the American Indians never made good slaves.As soon as they were held in captivity，they began to die like flies and so great became the scandal that a certain Bartolomeo de las Casas（the son of a man who had accompanied Columbus on his first voyage）proposed that no further natives should be forced to work inthe mines and on the plantations and that their place should be taken by the hardier blackamoors from Africa.

Las Casas made this suggestion with the best of intentions，but his plan did not work as well as he had hoped.For soon all the scoundrels in Christendom（and there were a good many in those days，nor were they restricted to a single century）were hunting slaves along the Senegal River and the Congo，and this scandalous trade，once started，could not be stopped until centuries afterwards.

There was，however，one other prominent reason why the colonies in the new world were doomed to failure.I refer to the innate love of the Spanish crown for centralization.Everything in that unfortunate country had to be referred to Madrid.Not a single colony ever enjoyed a vestige of self-government.The officials，all of them，must be recruited in the mother country，and not a single person born overseas could ever hope to be entrusted with a position of honor or responsibility.

Under those circumstances the colonists shrugged their shoulders，said“What is the use？”（or words to that effect），kept away from all forms of municipal or state government and spent their time either enriching themselves at the expense of their white neighbors or lording it over their slaves，with the exception of those who entered the Church and made such excellent use of their advantageous position in society that soon more than eighty per cent of all real estate was in the hands of the clerics and their dependents.

But the economic error which definitely killed all progress was the system of monopolies which Spain introduced into the new world as part of her general policy of colonization.Private enterprise was ruthlessly stamped out.The individual trader，when caught，was immediately handed over to the hangman and every ounce of gold and every pound of cinnamon that was exported from Buenos Aires or Havana had to be accounted for in Cadiz.Such a Paradise of stuffy clerks and bureaucrats offered no room for the development of an independent class of merchants.A small number of Jews（who by a strange coincidence were expelled from Spain on the very day when Columbus sailed from Palos）tried to get a foothold in Mexico and Peru and Venezuela.But as soon as they had accumulated a few thousand dollars by their personalthrift and energy the Inquisition invariably accused them of backsliding，burned them at the stake and confiscated their money.Whereupon the others moved to London or Amsterdam，put their brains and their credit at the disposal of Spain’s archenemies and in this roundabout way helped to destory the nation that had been such a cruel taskmaster to their ancestors.

It would be easy to increase this chapter by several pages of duly enumerated grievances and errors of judgment.But enough has been said to show why a“Story of America”does not this day mean a history of that vast region where Spanish and Portuguese and not the English tongue happen to be the language of every-day life.

Spain，it is true，discovered and conquered a new continent.But as soon as this had been accomplished，the country made a mistake which doomed all her future efforts to failure she tried to turn the new world into an exact copy of the old one.

The Gods that shape man’s destinies are of exceeding patience.

But they draw the line at Some things.第四章　没有价值的土地导读

人们最初向西航行的动力来自于寻找东方的黄金之国，但是，上天却意外地将美洲馈赠给他们。

不甘心的殖民者开始在美洲进行细致的勘查，试图寻找任何一条跨越这恼人的山脉和沙岸的水道，而使帆船能穿过，驶向他们梦中的香料群岛。为此，一条小河都会带来希望。亚马孙河的发现让殖民者们着实惊喜了一把，但随即而来的是更大的失望。这只是一条河流，顺流而来，人们只是追溯到了上游的险滩，而不是另一片大海。

东方航线却传来消息，达·伽马绕过非洲大陆，到达了加尔各答，又满载欧洲人梦寐以求的东方产品归来。亨利王子的方向被证明是更为正确的。因此，哥伦布的新大陆顿时变得无甚意义了。

由此，这里变成了冒险家、流氓、盗贼和暴徒的天堂，他们在美洲的土地上放纵自己的欲望，通过烧杀抢掠来聚敛那些可能的财富。墨西哥、秘鲁、智利，一片片土地沦入了西班牙黑色的拥抱。教皇谨慎地在世界地图上标示出分界线，以作为西班牙和葡萄牙瓜分世界的界标。

但是，不管怎样，发现美洲最初的动力丧失了，在那个时代的精致地图上，对美洲的评语只是“毫无价值的土地”。HE barrier-that thrice damnable barrier-that endless chain ofislands that cut off the road from Europe to the Indies-was getting to be a Iterrible reality.

In the beginning those who undertook the perilous voyage were full of hope.

Columbus had failed.

Others might be more successful.

Besides，the reward that awaited the man who solved the problem was so great that it paid to take a little trouble.Wherefore they set to work with a will.

They explored every bay and inlet.Their ships followed every estuary and river until the unwelcome sight of a sandy shore or a broken ridge of mountains told them that once more their quest had been in vain.Even brooks and gullies were duly investigated.For one never could tell！And somewhere or other there must be an opening，a narrow channel between two islands，a crack between the rocks just wide enough for a single caravel，but nevertheless a direct gateway to the coveted islands of cinnamon，pepper and nutmeg.

Often it appeared that this wish was about to be fulfilled.In the year 1500 Vincente Pinzon，survivor of the famous expedition of 1492，found a broad expanse of water which seemed to lead in a western direction.After fifty miles，a tangle of islands and shoals forced him to return.Forty years later it was definitely established that the Amazon was just a plain，every-day river，perhaps a little larger and wider and bigger and muddier than most other rivers，but a river just the same.

Again in the year 1513 a rumor rapidly spread through the European shipyards that the problem had been solved；that a direct water route to China had been found.True enough，but the glittering waves of which Balboa had just taken possession in the name of the King of Spain were separated from the Atlantic Ocean by several hundred miles of insurmountable rock and volcanoes.And Balboa on the scaffold（he received the usual Spanish reward for his courageous independence）must have known that he had been a failure，that nothing had been solved and the problem had been made more complicated than ever.

Meanwhile Vasco da Gama had at last discovered the direct eastern route to Calicut.The long and dangerous voyage from Cadiz and Palos to San Domingo and Cuba，with the uncertain prospect of“finding something，”seemed thereafter an absurd and superfluous adventure.By going duesouthward and following the road laid down a quarter of a century before by Prince Henry one could（with the exception of a few short stretches of water）remain entirely within sight of land and could go on shore for fresh supplies at least once every three or four days.“Terra America”therefore lost most of its interest as a geographical problem with a practical economic future.

Remained the question，“What can we do with it for the present？”

The answer to this was very simple.

“We can despoil the natives to enrich ourselves and leave the rest to the wolves and the hyenas.”

Whereupon the gentlemen adventurers，the highwaymen，the highbinders and all the other lazzarone of the Iberian peninsula heaved one great cry of joy and chanted，“Let’s go！”

How they accomplished their noble task，how they shot and hacked and hung and burned and robbed and lied and cheated and reduced half a dozen interesting experiments in statecraft to agglomerations of mud-hovels and cemeteries，all this has been often and beautifully told by those writers who regard murder and arson on the part of their own ancestors as something quite different from the murder and arson committed by everybody else’s grandparents.Within an incredibly short space of time those parts of the new continent which contained something of value that could be acquired by theft and did not have to be produced by honest labor were in the hands of the Spanish conquerors.

First it was the turn of Mexico.Then of Peru.Next Chili was added to the New Castille.While along the east coast the ambitions of Spaniards and Portuguese were only kept within certain reasonable bounds by the little red line which Pope Alexander VI had drawn across the flat map of the world that his faithful children should-be able to divide the spoils of America without the shedding of too much Christian blood.

But the story is best told by the geographical handbooks of that day.

The sixteenth and seventeenth centuries were a golden age for the professional map-makers.A great many of the cartographers of that day were first-rate artists and they took no mean rank as scientists.But the“image”which they have left us of America is a very curious one.When they undertookto depict South America and Central America，they were almost perfect in the detail of their coast lines and in the course of their rivers.Mexico too and part of South America they could describe with a fair degree of accuracy.Beyond that，however，they lost interest.And across the northern expanse of wilderness they printed this simple legend：“Tierras de Ningun Provecho，”or“Land that is not of the slightest possible value to anybody.”第五章　尚普兰借助独木舟进行探索导读

尽管“盎格鲁-撒克逊”人往往自诩自己的航海技术，同时轻蔑地看待拉丁人蹩脚的航海知识，但事实上，在探索大海的历程中，拉丁人确实走在了前列，在应付大海的喜怒无常和探查未知地域方面，他们要技高一筹。

英国的航海家，如弗罗比歇和德雷克之流，也在孜孜不倦地探寻着那条从大西洋到太平洋的水道。他们在一个又一个的海湾和河流中试探运气，但是最终无所收获。并且，他们宁愿始终待在船上，也不愿上岸去进行尝试。法国人和西班牙人则不同，他们也能在路上行动。

其中有一位法国航海家，名叫尚普兰，正是此君首次建议在巴拿马的地峡中开凿一条运河，人为地打通人们梦寐以求的水上通道，并且，他还开展了对北美大陆的一系列探索，希望能在加拿大的莽莽荒野中发现那条黄金之路。为此，尚普兰带着少数几个随从，乘坐着印地安人的独木舟——这是一种非常灵活且结实的水上交通工具，能在湍急的河道中游走，也能将之携带上岸。这种独木舟载着尚普兰进行了五大湖和圣劳伦斯河的探索，并且在罗亚尔港、魁北克和蒙特利尔建立了未来“新法兰西”殖民地的雏形。

但是，尚普兰们对北美洲的“热情洋溢”和探索发现，并没有打动法国君王，从而未能使法国在此进行投资与殖民地建设。此时的法国国王还沉溺在王朝战争的激情之中，没能意识到在那片荒凉大陆的投资可能会带来的益处。

因此，在尚普兰的努力之后，那片大陆仍然只呈现为地图上的几个点，点外的大片莽原只能被标示为“未知的地方”。HE number of people sufficiently intelligent to think for themselves has always been exceedingly small.It is doubtful whether the Ipercentage to-day is very much higher than it was in paleolithic times.It probably is slightly lower than during the third century before our era in Greece and Asia Minor.But such things are hard to prove with any degree of scientific accuracy.

Meanwhile，we know this much：that the average mind，in times past as well as to-day，prefers to live on a diet of easily digestible formulas，liberally seasoned with tincture of flattery，and one of the commonest of dishes upon the tables of those who live in the northern hemisphere is the belief that the Latin race（and all other southern people）are no earthly good as sailors and that the true secrets of navigation and seamanship are the exclusive possession of the“Anglo-Saxons”to whom（for good measure）are sometimes added the Dutch and the Norwegians.

And yet，at a time when our ancestors still painted their faces green and dined on raw bear steak，a Phoenician captain with a Semitic crew had already visited the neighborhood of the Cape of Good Hope.

A little later，when the Germanic tribes gaped in utter astonishment at that startling innovation called a“wheel，”the Semitic Carthaginians were dickering with the natives of the Congo，the Romans and Greeks had explored every nook and comer of the Mediterranean and certain bold mariners from Tyre and Sidon paid regular visits to the tin，mines of Cornwall.

Still later the Portuguese wandered all over the face of the earth，an Italian discovered the New World，and the Spanish language was spoken in every port from Tierra del Fuego to Florida.

We may not like the idea，but the truth of the matter is that our own ancestors learned their trade from the Spaniards and the Frenchmen and that they did not appear upon the scene until the greater part of the map of the worldhad been carefully filled in with names of French and Spanish origin.This was not only due to the superior seamanship of the Latin sailors，but also to a difference in the technique of exploration.

Frobisher and Drake made repeated，attempts to discover a passage that should lead them from the Atlantic to the Pacific.But they were sailors and stuck to their ship.When it was proved that their quest for open water had led them to the source of still another river or the dim coastline of still another bay，so much the worse.They swore，they turned their rudder，hoisted their sails and tried their luck elsewhere.But as for going on shore，no，that they would not do！Walking was a fit pastime for the peasants of Yorkshire.A true son of Devonshire，however，belonged on the wooden planks of the quarterdeck and kept away from grass and trees.

Far different the Spaniard and the Frenchman.They were great at footwork and encased in heavy armor they marched incredible distances under a tropical sun which makes a modern army shout lustily for motor lorries and ice-water.But whereas the Spaniard went through the regions he visited like a Juggernaut，destroying all that came before him，the Frenchman，who could not expect his own country to back him up，gradually learned to accomplish his ends by a very different method.Upon occasions he could be quite as ruthless as all other nations who，provided with gunpowder，have come into contact with savages armed only with bows and arrows，But the Frenchman was apt first to reason and then to shoot，whereas the Spaniard invariably began by firing a couple of volleys and left the business of arguing to the friars who hastened to baptize the survivors.

The first（and therefore the most interesting）of those indefatigable French voyageurs was a certain Champlain or Samuel de Champlain de Brouage，as he proudly called himself on the title page of that remarkable book in which he suggested the digging of an early Panama canal.When he reached the northern part of the continent the existence of a big river which penetrated far inland had been known for half a century.But nothing very definite was as yet known of the land that lay beyond the foginfested shores of the Bay of St.Lawrence.Only a man who believed desperately in his own cause would have undertaken the task of trying to find the route to India by way of the Canadian wilderness.Yet that is exactly what Champlain and some of his successors did.

They were a brave lot.They did not bother to take a large retinue of soldiers with them.As a rule they were accompanied by one or two other white men and depended upon the natives through whose territory they passed to provide them with the necessary number of porters and paddlers.For soon it became evident that the road westward ran through a territory where travel by water was much easier than travel by land.

The Indians，who for the greater part still lived as hunters and fishermen，had invented a small boat，sufficiently strong to pass through the rapids of the big rivers but light enough to be carried overland when the rivers became absolutely unnavigable.With the help of these so-called“canoes”Champlain pushed as far westward as Lake Huron，charted the lower part of the St.Lawrence River，visited Lake Ontario and Lake Oneida and by making clever use of a warfare between the Algonquins and Hurons and Iroquois was able to explore the shores of the lake that is called after him.And finally，at Port Royal，at Quebec and at Montreal he founded settlements which in later centuries were to become the nucleus for that“New France”which was expected to reach from Davis Strait to the Gulf of Mexico.

But alas！even the enthusiasm of such men as Champlain and his equally famous successors，Marquette，Joliet，Hennepin and La Salle，who traveled overland from the Straits of Belle Isle to the Gulf of Mobile（via the St.Lawrence，the Great Lakes，the Ohio and Mississippi rivers）failed to convince the French monarchy that an investment in American real estate would be more profitable to them in the long run than the dreary wars of dynastic aggrandizement upon which they wasted all their money and all their men.

The Bourbons after all were first cousins of the Habsburgs，and the Habsburgs derived their name from an ancient fortress called the“Hawk’s Nest.”The hawk is exceedingly brave in a fight but is not famous for his foresight.

As long as those dynasties which shaped the fate of Europe could live upon the docile quarry found within the territory of their peaceful neighbors，they refused to bother about the frozen wastes of a distant northern continent.

And so，even after the exploits of the great French pioneers，everythingremained as it had been before.

A few dots and lines appeared upon that part of the map which half a thousand years before had first been seen by Leif the Norseman.For the rest，a vast blank spaces embellished with the familiar legend of“terre inconnue.”

Unknown it was and unknown it remained-a gigantic geographical joke-something to be funny about after a good supper in the Palace of Versailles-a fairy story for the good little children who wanted to hear about the funny king of Hoche-laga who wore feathers on his head and a ring through his nose.第六章　加尔文博士探索当今与未来的世界导读

一个人的功绩可能会被同时代的人剥夺，也可能会被另一个时代的人大肆彰显。哥伦布就是这样的例子。这位美洲的发现者被当时的地理书撰写者剥夺了对他所发现的陆地的命名权。而在后来的美国，许多地名却被冠以他的名字，同时，在人们的叙述中，哥伦布被赋予了巨大的荣耀，成为高山仰止的英雄。

约翰·加尔文应该是一位不亚于哥伦布的人物。

这位神学家和宗教改革家，这位曾经使教皇恼怒和颤抖的人物，在后世却几乎被人们所淡忘。但加尔文的改革精神所昭示的对自由与幸福的追求，应该在人们的心目中拥有丰碑。

或许事实并不完全如此，他为法国人所争取的思想自由，在日内瓦却摇身一变，俨然成为了新的教皇专制，教规统治着人们的一言一行，长老的号令如同教皇的敕令一样具有无上的权威。尽管如此，这位敢于同罗马叫板的改革家，却是一呼百应，加尔文号召起的新教徒大军的呐喊，撼动了罗马教庭的御座。

这一点是另一位宗教改革者——马丁·路德所望尘莫及的。或许距离能解释这一点。德国北部的马丁·路德能够安宁地生活在教皇的凌人威严鞭长莫及的地方，专心且平静地构想他的神学体系；而瑞士南部的加尔文则要时刻面对着教皇咄咄逼人的气焰，这使他不得不拿出冷酷的一面，来应对这场迫在眉睫的神圣之战。

于是，“绝不留情”的法则在日内瓦的火葬堆中再次现形。在这里，火葬堆的烈焰和天主教的宗教裁判所的烈焰一般炽烈。战场上的冷酷作风被应用到国家治理上。温情与仁慈远去了，铁与火锻造了日内瓦这个上帝之国。

对于这段历史，我们所应给与的解释是：或许只有强权人物才能摧毁一座庞然大厦。

但同时，加尔文应该受到敬仰，正是他的勇气和启发，后来的世界才有所不同。N Florence，in the church of San Lorenzo，there stands a monument which by the general consent of fifteen generations of Icritical spectators is one of the most stupendous bits of sculpture that the hand of man has ever hacked out of an unwilling piece of marble.It commemorates the utterly futile life of a sixth-rate princeling who never during his entire existence did anything that was worth remembering.

Meanwhile the shrewd old pawnbroker who turned a sleepy little village on the banks of the Arno into the center of the civilized world of six centuries ago lies buried in a plain wooden coffin somewhere in a forgotten vault of the same sacred edifice.

Posthumous glory is like lightning.No one can foretell where it will strike.

Columbus added a couple of million square miles to the possessions ofSpain and a simple German schoolmaster，writing an elementary geography for use in the common schools，deprived him of the honor of having his name bestowed upon that new world which he had just revealed to his contemporaries.

Afterwards many attempts were made to rectify the mistake and in this question no people have showed themselves more generous than the citizens of our republic.Our map is one gigantic paean of praise to the glory of the Genoese navigator.The laws of the land are made in a reclaimed swamp called the District of Columbia.The first object that strikes the eye of the visitor to our seat of government is a gigantic statue of Columbus.Let him traveleastward or westward，let him go as far south as Florida or as far north as Vermont，and everywhere his car will speed along Columbian highways，it will be parked in Columbian garages and he himself will be entertained in the hospitable apartment-house of diverse Columbus Heights.

In short，the proverbial visitor from the planet Mars would soon be under the impression that Don Cristobal had been the silent partner in the great venture called the United States，and that he had played an enormous part in the development of our country.Whereas，if I may slightly mix my metaphors，Columbus was merely the midwife of our national existence.He was present when the territory which we now inhabit first saw the light of civilized day.But the austere genius who during the impressionable years of the lusty young infant succeeded in stamping his own character upon the boy in such a thorough-going fashion that the child，grown into manhood，would never forget his early training，that man has been so completely neglected that his name is quite unfamiliar to most of our contemporaries.

And yet，if posterity had a true appreciation of its duty，every city and hamlet in these United States would have one or a dozen statues erected to the memory of Doctor John Calvin，who was born in Noyon in France in 1509 and who departed this life in Geneva in Switzerland in the year of Grace 1564.

Because his ruthless System of theology has grown almost as much out of date as that propounded once upon a time by the prophet of Mount Horeb，the people who write books in the year of enlightenment 1927 are apt to dismiss this antiquated French reformer with an expression of irritation and not infrequently they overlook the enormous services which this tired and sickly theologian rendered to the cause of human progress.For if it be conceded that the reasonable freedom and happiness of the average individual is the goal towards which all civilization is striving，then Calvin deserves a special and prominent niche in that hall of fame which every sensible man erects in some secret corner of his brain.

Calvin himself，if he were to read this statement，would violently deny that he had ever tried to do anything of the sort.Of course he wanted full liberty of conscience for his own people（who were right because they believed as he did）.But as soon as he should have set his bailiwick free from Popish influence，hefully intended to turn Geneva into a second Rome，a town where discipline should be discipline and where the word of the Elders was to be accepted and respected as the supreme law of the land.

In this noble ambition he failed most lamentably，but his open defiance of the Papal authority caused a war during which Calvin was able to join all the heterogeneous elements of discontented reformers and Protestants into an invincible army of opposition.

Why it was John Calvin who performed this miracle and not Martin Luther，who first of all had hoisted the banner of rebellion，a glance at the map will show you.

Luther lived in Wittenberg，a small town in the northern part of Germany.A wide barrier of friendly territory separated his own country from the territory of the enemy and as a result he enjoyed a comparative amount of safety.Calvin，on the other hand，in his little mountain-locked city in southern Switzerland，was within earshot of the Catholic forces.He commanded the advance post of Protestantism.He lived all his life in an armed camp and the sort of men who do that sort of work，whether they be pioneers of the body or pioneers of the soul，are apt to develop a strange philosophy of life，the like of which is not found any where else.

“Be hard or perish，”was the warning that was carried to Geneva from the funeral pyres in Dijon and Grenoble.And from being hard on the field of battle to being hard in the realm of the Church and State was but a short step.But it was a step which led away from the loving-kindness of the New Testament and brought the faithful back to the uncompromising cruelty which forms so large a part of the old one.It was a step which made men turn their backs upon the smiling fields of Nazareth and regard the forbidding walls of Jerusalem as the true home of the spirit.

It is useless to regret that ever happened.

Within the domain of history it is useless to regret anything.

The most one can do is to try and understand.

From our point of view（no，that is too vague；from my own point of view）it was a highly desirable thing that the power of Rome as an international super-state should be definitely broken and this could only be done by men ofiron who recognized no principle except the dictates of their own rigid conscience.In due time their religious convictions，borrowed directly from the Prophets and Judges（whose terrible deeds disgrace so many of the pages of the ancient Jewish chronicles）will no doubt disappear from the face of our planet.

Meanwhile the good work they did remains.And of this I feel sure，that they never would have been able to accomplish their task if they had not been inspired and carried on by the harsh idealism of the lonely fighter on the banks of the Lake of Geneva.第七章　异教徒成了劫持犯导读

在此，我们将遇到一个词“拦路抢劫者”。“拦路抢劫者”和普通盗贼一样，都是一些品德恶劣的人，但他们却比普通盗贼要幸福得多。他们抢劫的是那些本身就有污点的人的来路不明的财物。而被抢劫者在遭遇了这样的不幸后，往往也只能哑巴吃黄连——有苦说不出。由此就给了“拦路抢劫者”不惧怕惩罚的莫大自由。

尽管现代人总是为尊者讳，为那些国家历史上赫赫有名的伟大祖先们树碑立传，但是，事实上许多这样的伟大祖先们，只不过是一帮幸运的“拦路抢劫者”。

这就要涉及前文谈到的新教徒与天主教徒的争斗。在那个时代，宗教改革创造出了两个水火不容的群体，新教徒将天主教徒看成是罪恶的崇拜偶像者、外国主子的奴仆，而天主教徒也对新教徒的胆大妄为、品行败坏嗤之以鼻。

一旦两者狭路相逢，冤冤相报成为了必然。争斗的怒火也燃烧到了新大陆。1555年，西班牙的舰队攻占了位于里约热内卢河口的法国胡格诺派的殖民地，将男女老少尽皆屠戮。三年以后，复仇之剑指向了西班牙人，佛罗里达的圣马特罗要塞重演了里约热内卢的悲剧，法国人用西班牙人的鲜血实践了“以牙还牙”的法则。

在经过几次不成功的试探后，英国船长沃尔特·罗利最终认为佛罗里达和加拿大之间才是理想的殖民地场所。根据女王伊丽莎白一世的别名，那里被冠以“维吉尼亚”之名。为此，屠杀捷足先登的西班牙人是很必要了，只有这样，才可为女王的荣耀腾出土地。

两船移民被送过了大西洋，但是殖民地却没有建立起来。因为比起在那片坎坷未知的土地上垦荒，抢劫西班牙和葡萄牙满载奇珍异宝的宝船更为吸引人。

在美洲靠剥削掠夺印第安人而聚敛了巨额财富的西班牙人，欣喜并小心翼翼地将这些偷来的黄金装上船只，企图在苍茫与夜色的掩护下将财富运回母国。而他们又成为了英国“拦路抢劫者”们的最佳目标。新教徒们的轻便小船如影子般缠上天主教徒战战兢兢的大船。残酷的战斗是不可避免的。冒着死亡的危险，英国的海盗船在大西洋上纵横，这往往成为西班牙人的噩梦。

西班牙终于怒不可遏了。1588年一支号称无敌的舰队起锚，驶向北方海域。为了上帝的荣耀和黄金的安全，天主教徒们必须给新教海盗们一点教训。

在北方，战争的热情也被激发起来，一支海军匆匆组成，开始迎战。双方都满怀必胜的信念。

但是命运的天平倾向了新教徒。一场奇异的风暴如上帝的愤怒一般蹂躏着西班牙的无敌舰队，他们损失惨重，大败而归。

从此，西班牙人不可战胜的神话成为了笑谈。美洲再也不被一家所垄断，它向所有有野心和勇气的人开放了。OR the benefit of those who have never been newspapermen or police matrons and are not familiar with the nomenclature of Fcrime，let me explain the word“highjacker.”A highjacker is not a common thief or robber.A common thief is a low scoundrel who deprives an honest man of his possessions.In such a case the person who suffers a loss can loudly holler for help.At once the brave policemen hurry to the scene，arrest the culprit and drag him to the Courts of law where stern judges condemn him to years of suffering and repentance in the dark dungeons of our prisons.

A highjacker，on the other hand，is a depraved creature who makes it his business to attack bootleggers and no one else.Now a bootlegger（a term applied to people engaged in the illicit business of manufacturing，transporting and selling whisky，wine，champagne，beer and other alcoholic beverages）is bythe very nature of his trade a person“outside the law.”He cannot shout“Murder！”and ask the cops to come to his assistance.For the gendarmes would ask him“What，if you please，is the nature of your occupation，my dear sir？”and if he were to speak the truth anti answer，“I am a bootlegger，”he would be immediately cast into jail.He therefore is at the mercy of any highjacker possessed of determination，pistols and a high-powered car and he thinks that the highjacker is something so low that there is not a word to express just exactly how low he is.But the highjacker goes his way and worries not，unless the bootlegger has the drop on him，and then he never has to worry about anything else as long as he lives，which usually is about thirty seconds.

Of course there is and always has been a conspiracy among grown-ups to make the younger generation believe that their grandfathers were really very nice and estimable people and that they should be regarded by all good children with that awe and reverence which the Greeks felt when they were in the presence of the mountain-dwelling Gods.

The buccaneer’s cook who was hanged in the year 1600 has become the“intrepid privateer”of the year 1700，has been promoted to the status of“that brave sea-dog”of the campaign of 1812 and gets a monument in the year 1900 as one of the founders of a glorious colonial empire.

The boy who ran away at the age of twelve because he had stolen his grandmother’s purse，and who with the help of a few fellow cutthroats deprived an Indian rajah of all his jewels，may live to see the day when the countryside shall welcome him as one of the most brilliant representatives of the local squirearchy.

For in history as in life it is success that counts.Start a political upheaval and let yourself be caught，and you will hang as a traitor.But place yourself at the head of a rebellion and gain your point，and all future generations will worship you as the Father of their Country.

These things may be good and they may be bad.I don’t know and，as I have said before，the historian should not turn moralist.It is his duty to try and tell what actually happened，what actually“was”as accurately as he possibly can，and with the help of all available evidence.As for the final judgment upon the acts of his ancestors，he had better leave that to Jehovah，for that ancientDeity alone possesses that true perspective against which all the acts of mortal man can be judged with a fair degree of accuracy.

Therefore if I state that many of the great heroes of our national history（and American national history means the national history of two-score countries）were highjackers，I am not revealing a new and startling secret.I am merely repeating what all their contemporaries knew and what several of them said as soon as they had accumulated enough wealth to retire from the profitable if dangerous profession of buccaneer.

On the other hand it would be utterly unfair if we，of the year of Grace 1927，should regard such episodes in the warfare between Geneva and Rome in the light of our own time.To-day business holds the place in men’s minds which formerly was occupied by religion.We are worried when our neighbors differ from us in their views upon the subject of political economy.If they confess themselves socialists，we intend that our children shall no longer play with theirs.（They might get queer ideas.）If they are suspected of a secret liking for the idea of a soviet form of government，we write to Washington and ask the Department of Justice to look into the case.But we neither know nor care whether they go to mass or to a prayer-meeting and unless they also be our most dangerous trade rivals they may celebrate the feast of Hannukah to their hearts’content and never mind about Christmas.

Four hundred years ago such tolerance was impossible.A Catholic in the eyes of all good Protestants was an idolater who spiritually at least recognized himself the subject of a foreign master and who by every means at his disposal，both fair and foul，was trying to recapture northern Europe for the benefit of an Italian despot.While all Protestants，in the eyes of the Catholics，were dangerous Bolshevists，bold，bad revolutionists，who had wilfully destroyed the beautiful harmony of a world-wide spiritual empire and who had done this that their abominable priests might contract matrimony and that their greedy kings might enrich themselves at the expense of inoffensive monks and nuns.

Of course all these people were wrong，but there was no one to tell them so.While there were thousands of others whose personal interest it was to tell them that they were right.

As a results whenever they caught each other upon the high seas，theythrew their captives overboard with as little mercy as if they had been wild animals.And whenever they met on dry land，they hanged each other，which in the end was very much the same thing.

This being the case（and this bestial form of warfare lasted for a period of almost two centuries）it need cause no surprise that the struggle between the two parties should inevitably lead the contending forces far beyond the confines of old Europe.Already in the year 1555 the French Admiral de Coligny（after-wards murdered during the massacre of St.Bartholomew）had tried to establish a Protestant colony at the mouth of the Rio de Janeiro，but the Portuguese had destroyed it.Nine years later he had tried to found a colony in Florida where his people might have expected to be safe from Spanish interference.After two months，the little Huguenot community had been attacked by a Spanish fleet and every man，woman and child had been killed.“Not，”as the Spanish commander explained，“because they were Frenchmen，but because they were Protestants.”

Three years later this misdeed was avenged when the French（with the help of an Indian chieftain）attacked the fort of San Mateo in Florida and executed all the Spaniards—“not as Spaniards，but as traitors，robbers and murderers.”

An effort made two decades later by Sir Humphrey Gilbert to found a trading post on the coast of Newfoundland for the convenience and the benefit of the English sailors who went there every year to fish for cod also failed and Sir Humphrey was lost in the attempt.

It seemed that de Coligny had gone too far south and Sir Humphrey too far north.Fortunately at that moment Sir Walter Raleigh returned from an expedition to the West and reported that the ideal territory for a prosperous colony was to be found midway between Florida and Canada，a true earthly Paradise which he had called Virginia after the Virgin Queen，for whose glory he had sent so many Spaniards to Kingdom Come.

A couple of unseaworthy tubs were duly loaded with prospective settlers and under command of Sir Waiter’s cousin，Sir Richard Grenville，this fleet safely crossed the ocean and deposited its cargo upon an island at the mouth of the Roanoke River.

This time it seemed that success was to be certain.

But the colony disappeared.

It disappeared utterly and absolutely.

It disappeared as mysteriously as a ship lost at sea.

Such events-murder，starvation and banishment into deep，dark forests-were not the sort of thing to attract desirable prospective immigrants.For a long time thereafter no further attempts were made to get a foothold in the North American wilderness.Meanwhile，however，it was decided to derive as much revenue from America as possible and for greater convenience the plunder was acquired second-hand by the“highjacking”method.

The Spanish and Portuguese colonial methods greatly facilitated such proceedings.The world of the sixteenth century was still a world of monopolies.The idea of free trade and of harbors open to the commerce of all nations would have seemed as absurd to a merchant of the year 1525 as the communist system of conducting business appears to the American business man of the year 1927.And in order to retain complete control upon their monopolies，both the Spaniards and the Portuguese gave as little publicity as possible to their discoveries and shipped the products of their colonies to the mother country at very rare intervals.That is to say，they waited until they had gathered an enormous cargo of gold and silver and then hurried these treasures across the ocean at the greatest possible speed.Of course，from a strictly legal point of view，all these riches belonged to the Indians from whom the Spaniards had stolen them.And by attacking such squadrons and sailing away with tons and tons of golden bars，the English and Dutch privateers really deprived the Spaniards of something to which they had no right.If they had been entirely logical，and had been truly actuated by those Christian principles upon which they loved to pride themselves，they ought to have returned the goods to the original owners，but I ask you，how could one ever hope to find the address of a naked savage who lived somewhere in a dark valley of distant Yucatan and who had no documents by which to prove his claims？

The relentless guerilla warfare which then commenced between the fast little clipper ships of the Protestant North and the slow-moving galleons of the Catholic South has provided both England and Holland with material for atleast half a dozen Eddas，Songs of Roland and Stories of the Round Table.

Incredible and foolhardy adventures became an every-day ocourrence.Not a Spanish ship or warehouse was safe.The islands of the West Indies were forever being plundered and despoiled and with a brazen disregard for the fate that awaited all Calvinist prisoners（the stake or the gallows of His Majesty’s Inquisition）the privateers from London and Flushing extended their operations as far as the eastern shores of the Pacific Ocean.

In this way a great deal of bullion found its way to the Netherlands and to England and it allowed the natives of those obstreperous countries to bring about great improvements in the construction of their ships.But more than that，the risky business of privateering taught the young men of the North a technique of sailing and fighting which a short time afterwards was to be of great practical use.

For in the year 1588 Spain decided to make an end to all further heresies by a crusade that should for all time destroy the power of England and Holland.A fleet of one hundred and thirty-two vessels was assembled in the harbor of Lisbon and an army of sixty thousand men was collected in the seaports of Flanders.The plan was to send the fleet to Dunkirk，there to provide it with pilots and war material，and then begin a systematic invasion of the countries on both sides of the North Sea.

All Europe knew that this was to be the final struggle between two philosophies of life that would allow of no compromise.Never before was an expedition launched with such high hopes of success.Every Spaniard worthy of the name hoped to be allowed to share in the triumph of the True Faith.But in the North，too，the excitement was intense.Privateers，highjackers，patriots，call them whatever you like，they dropped everything in hand to join the hastily improvised navy that was to protect their homeland from the touch of the Beast.They were first in the field.Part of their forces blockaded Dunkirk and prevented the Spanish admiral from making a connection with his pilots and his landing troops.The rest of the Protestant fleet followed the Armada as a pack of hounds follows a couple of wounded bears.

Then nature came to the rescue of the heretics.A series of unprecedented gales blew the Armada out of its course and caused such havoc among theSpanish galleons that less than half of them ever reached the ports of departure.

In this way the last of the crusades came to a miserable end.It bore no direct influence upon the subsequent history of America.But the defeat of the Armada taught the people of the North a very valuable lesson.They learned that the Spaniards were not invincible.The Spanish colonies of the New World were no longer out of bounds.America at last was freely at the disposal of all those who thought it worth their while to cross the ocean.第八章　印第安神圣的草导读

印第安人培育了许多旧大陆没有的作物，烟草就是其中一种。这种印第安人用于神秘庄重仪式中的圣草被好奇的科学家带回欧洲，很快便引起了轰动。吸烟所带来的快感及其可能的药效功能使它在欧洲迅速风靡。尽管保守的老一辈人对此嗤之以鼻，并采取法令来禁止吸烟，但是流行的风潮却难以遏制。

而吸烟却莫名其妙地与北美英国殖民地的建立有着奇特的联系。

事情是这样的。宗教改革改变了人们对物质的看法，赚钱再不是为人所鄙夷的事，现世的成功反而能印证上帝的荣耀。这场思想解放使得一小群人在熙熙攘攘的追逐利益的大潮中迅速发家致富。黄金源源不断地流入，阔气的商人很快就爱上了奢靡的生活。这场因黄金流入而引发的价格革命使得谷物的价格飞速上涨，这使得处于社会底层的劳动人民深受其害。于是两极分化扩大了，大批劳动者在这场金光闪闪的革命中沦于贫困和流离失所。

但是这恰好为殖民地的开拓准备了条件：一方面是拥有大量财富的少数人，一方面是贫穷困苦的多数人，他们为了谋生愿意去一切蛮荒之地。

1606年，新成立的“伦敦公司”带领着一百多名殖民者来到北美詹姆斯河旁，在此开始了新的生活。但是，最初的希望立刻被可怕的现实所击败。半年之后，一半的人在与自然的挣扎斗争之中死去，剩下的人们也纷纷逃离。建立殖民地的梦想眼见要成为泡影。

而烟草将成为拯救的法宝。伦敦公司的发起人之一约翰·罗尔夫到了詹姆斯敦后对烟草颇感兴趣。他觉得这是个有利可图的行业。几经尝试后，罗尔夫终于成功地掌握了维吉尼亚烟草的加工技术。很快，新产品在欧洲市场获得青睐。财富之神终于光顾了这片贫瘠过久的土地。楼房庄园兴起了，健壮的黑奴被运来了，詹姆斯敦的寸寸土地都被用来种植这种神奇的草。

有机可乘的詹姆斯敦立刻吸引了王室的目光。不久，伦敦公司被取消了，王室接管了这片土地，它成了一块真正的殖民地。由此，这种印第安圣草改变了一片土地的命运。HE natives of the great American continent were savages and if we are to believe the early historians of those far-off shores，they Twere so completely lacking in civilization that they had not even discovered the use of the wheel.

We people of the twentieth century who could not live a day without the help of millions and millions of wheels，are apt to make a mistake when we try and measure man’s intelligence by his aptitude for mechanical contrivances.For those poor heathen who carried everything upon their backs（or preferably upon the backs of their wives）and never thought of building a cart，had certain other virtues which showed that they were by no means the intellectual inferiors of our own ancestors.

To mention a single item，they domesticated more plants than any other race of men.And they domesticated certain plants without which the permanent settlement of the continent would have been infinitely more difficult，to wit：corn，potatoes，coffee，cotton（a highly superior type to that which since time immemorial had been grown in Egypt and Mesopotamia），rubber，quinine and tobacco.The rubber and the coffee and the cotton came into their own at a later date.The potatoes moved to Europe and kept whole generations from starvation.But the tobacco played an immediate and most important role.It saved the northern part of the American continent for the cause of Protestantism.That is glory enough for any dumb weed.

Already Columbus on his first voyage had returned with a strange story of“smoking Indians.”Some of his men had gone on a little expedition of theirown to one of the nearby islands，and when they returned they told how the natives used to sit around a fire made of the dried leaves of a certain plant and how they used to inhale the smoke of that fire through a queerly shaped wooden instrument which they stuck in their nostrils and how they seemed to derive great pleasure from the after-effects.The name of the wooden contrivance through which the fumes were carried to the nose according to the sailors was“tabaco.”Further research showed that the use of the“tabaco”was general among all the Indians who lived under the tropical sun.

Sixty years later a Spanish scientist who had been sent to the new colonies to report upon their agricultural possibilities brought some of the mysterious plants which were burned by the savages back to Spain.Whether the plant itself was called“tabaco”by the savages，or whether the Spaniards（who were guilty of strange philological blunders in their profound contempt for everything native）bestowed the name of the pipe also upon the nefarious weed，that we do not know.But this much is certain，that“tobacco”（to use the English version of the word）made a tremendous stir in the world.It had been rumored that the“sucking”or“drinking”of tobacco was a solemn ceremony with the Indians，that there was something sacred and holy about a“tobacco party.”But in Europe the apothe caries were the first to see the possibilities of the new drug.They proclaimed it to be possessed of marvelous healing powers and as“herba sancta Indorum，”a tincture of the stuff，boiled for five or six hours，was prescribed to the sufferers from several complaints.And it was not without certain pharmaceutical virtues.For it either made the patients so terribly sick that they died on the spot or it encouraged them to get better at once and avoid a second dose.

The further fact that during the first year after its arrival on the European markets it was worth its weight in gold greatly enhanced its prestige.Even Catherine de’Medici stopped long enough in her religious meditations to take an interest in this new charm and to examine the specimen leaves which Jean Nicot（see the article on“Nicotine，C10H14N2，”in any of the current encyclopedias），the French ambassador in Lisbon，had been able to procure for her from a returning sailor.

But the plant did dot gain its tremendous popularity until it was discoveredthat the fumes，when inhaled through a clay pipe，produced a feeling of contentment which left the smoker at peace with the entire universe and caused no feeling of distress except in the case of very small children who should leave such things alone anyway.

Thereafter the“herba sancta”moved from the apothecary shop to the ale-house and before another dozen years the whole masculine world（and a considerable part of the feminine world）was indulging in the agreeable pastime of lighting the“holy herb”and filling the universe with clouds of pale blue smoke.

Of course，the older generation frowned.Older generations always frown.And they said that something must be done about it.At first people who smoked were punished with a small fine.Then imprisonment was added to the fine.The Little Father in far-away Moscow decreed that all those caught with a pipe be condemned to twenty-five lashes with the knout.The Grand Padishah in Constantinople went a step further and said，“Off with their heads！”

But the craze could not be stopped.Europe intended to smoke，and Europe did smoke.

From smoking tobacco to the foundation of a large British commonwealth on the North American continent seems a far cry.But history often moves in strange ways her purposes to fulfill and upon this occasion she outdid herself.

It is a well-known fact that both Calvin and Luther（and most of the great Protestant leaders）in anticipation of the joys of Heaven laid great stress upon the duty of going through this vale of tears with as large a modicum of physical comfort（dollars and cents，if you want to be vulgar）as possible.The Catholic Church，on the other hand（under the influence of several of the Oriental Church fathers），had always regarded the making of money as something not quite nice.Not strictly unmoral，perhaps，but the sort of thing about which a true Christian ought not to worry overmuch，lest he lose his imperishable soul in the pursuit of more perishable lucre.

Indeed，the clerical opposition to the idea of taking interest had so greatly interfered with the development of credit that business in our modern sense of the word had been almost impossible during the Middle Ages.

The Reformation changed all this.The doctrine of predestination，bywhich Calvin had revived the idea of a small body of“chosen people，”peacefully floating amidst a turbulent ocean of others who were“eternally damned，”this somewhat obscure but profoundly impressive point of theology was just the sort of thing to appeal to close-fisted traders who loved to see a secret promise of salvation in the fact that they grew continually more prosperous whereas their less deserving neighbors remained forever poor.They were therefore“ready for business”in the most ample sense of the words.

But that was not all.The holy war upon the idolatrous Papists had swamped the Protestant world with ready cash.In England alone it is estimated that the national wealth of the country had increased threefold between 1500 and 1600.Gold and silver，however，cannot be eaten.In themselves，these precious metals are of no value.They are only important in so far as they allow some one to buy himself a loaf of bread or a couple of diamonds.We know this，but only a few people in the sixteenth century suspected it.To their great surprise they discovered that the mere possession of large quantities of bullion was really a very mixed blessing，that often it looked more like a curse than a benefit.

Now it is a well-known fact that the people“who live through a revolution rarely understand what is happening to them.And so one cannot blame the contemporaries of Queen Bess if they failed to comprehend that the voyage of Columbus had made a definite end to the rule of the Middle Ages and had absolutely destroyed the feudal system which had ruled supreme in this world for almost ten centuries，because he had discovered a new world which the old world could eventually use as a gigantic boarding-house for its surplus population.This did not come true until hundreds of years afterwards.But the sudden and unexpected deluge of gold and silver which by way of Spain and Portugal had begun to flood all of western and southern Europe did away completely with the old system of barter which had made the landlord（the man who actually raised the beef and the honey and the eggs and the other exchangeable products）the dominant figure of medieval society.

Quite suddenly it placed millions of dollars of actual cash at the disposal of merchants who heretofore had been little better than peddlers with a pack on their back.They began to do business on a scale the like of which the worldhad not seen since the days of the Roman emperors.And because they were now rich and“prominent”（or were rich and therefore tried to make themselves prominent）they must at once go to live in better houses and they must send their boys to more expensive schools and they must waste a king’s ransom upon their daughter’s marriage.

The old landed gentry，when they saw this happen，showed no desire to lag behind.Their rustic Paradise had been rudely upset by the plentiful introduction of nicely coined shillings and pennies and pounds.But they still held the land and this land could raise grain and grain could be sold for cash.

That was unpleasant news for the men of business.They could not grow wheat in their little city gardens.They were obliged to buy it from their titled neighbors and the titled neighbors charged all the traffic would bear.

In the end（as seems inevitable）the laboring man was the victim of this economic upheaval.Nowadays，when such an occasion arises，as it did after the great inter-racial war of 1914-1918（the second greatest economic revolution after the discovery of the American gold fields），the honest son of tail（who also has learned a thing or two）packs the kids in his flivver and leaves word that he will return when his wages have been sufficiently raised to pay for his bacon and his gas.But the hewers of wood and the drawers of water of the year 1600 were less fortunate.The Justice of the Peace of his district（a nobleman，of course）decided what should be regarded as a fair return upon a day’s work.The slavey could either accept such compensation or leave it alone.But in the latter case the same Justice of the Peace had the right to have him arrested on a charge of“vagabondage”and could order him to be whipped or condemned to forced labor until such time as he was willing to go back to work at the prescribed rate of wages.

If only there had been a demand for their services，the navies could have laughed at the prison locks for then they would have been the possessors of a sweet monopoly of sweat and they would have had the merchants and the landed gentry at their mercy.But during the last hundred years all over northern Europe the immense real estate holdings of the Church had been confiscated by the government and hundreds of thousands of people（monks，nuns，Church officials and the vast army of happy-go-lucky peasants who thus far had tilledthe fields of the monastic establishments）had been deprived of their former livelihood and had been unceremoniously dumped upon the labor market.

Hence the two main conditions necessary for the successful exploitation of a colony were present.A small number of people were possessed of a great deal of surplus wealth which they were eager to invest in almost anything that promised a fair return upon their money.While thousands of others were so poor and hungry and miserable that they were willing to go anywhere，even to the end of the terrible American wilderness，if only they could escape from their present hopeless surroundings.

The American wilderness meanwhile looked quite as bleak as it had done fifty years before.An attempt of Bartholomew Gosnold to found a small settlement in Buzzard’s Bay in Massachusetts had completely failed.But the first rumors of the recent discoveries of a certain Champlain were at last beginning to spread across the continent.The Frenchman’s description of those vast inland seas whose shores he and his Indian friends had visited revived the hope that，after all，there might be something in file theory（then still generally held）that the northern American range of mountains was in reality a narrow strip of land and that the finding of a direct passage from the Atlantic to the Pacific was only a question of time.

In addition，please remember that the average man is incurably optimistic.The terrible fate of the colonists of Roanoke Island had already been forgotten.On the other hand，the stories of the few sailors who had followed Sir Waiter to Virginia and who told that the Indians were covered with ornaments which looked for all the world like gold，those wild yarns once more began to be circulated from ale-house to ale-house and lost nothing in the repeating.A few serious minded people were more impressed with the statement，credited to Sir Walter himself，that Virginian soil was the richest soil on earth and would raise plentiful crops of anything that the hand of man cared to entrust to her mercies.But as such agricultural endeavors implied the diligent use of spades and plows and other implements which are apt to cause calluses on dainty fingers，the prospective immigrants preferred to dream of gold and only laughed knowingly when told that the curse of GenesisⅢ，verse 19，held as good in the year 1600 as it did a couple of weeks after the day of creation.

This refusal to take the matter seriously was almost to cost them their lives，as they were to learn shortly afterwards.For the business of founding new trading companies was at last taken in hand by some very reputable merchants.Royal grants were forthcoming with quite unusual speed.It was still highly doubtful whether His Majesty had any right to dispose of lands which，strictly speaking，did not belong to him.But as they did not belong to any one else，or to be more accurate，as they seemed of such slight value that no one thus far had taken the trouble to claim them for his own，the English charters were deemed to be quite as valid as those signed by their Majesties of Portugal and Spain.

The London Company，which was to have jurisdiction over the southern half of Virginia，was ready first.On the twentieth of December of the year 1606 three ships with forty sailors and more than a hundred colonists set sail for the west.Five months later，when their skippers had not the slightest idea where they were，a convenient eastern storm blew them into the Chesapeake Bay.They dropped anchor and explored the region until they found a convenient place for a fort.It was situated on the hanks of a river and they called this stream the James River in honor of their generous sovereign，King James I of England.

Then，at last，they opened the sealed box which contained the secret instructions about the management of the new colony and settled down to enjoy life.

It was the thirteenth of May of the year 1607 and everybody was full of hope.

Six months later，half of them were dead and the others were thinking of means to escape.All their dreams had proved false.The wide bays which looked so well from the seaside were only bogs.The forest stretched a thousand miles beyond the horizon.The“direct passage”to India remained as unfindable as before.

And to cap the climax，the gold of which the sailors of Sir Walter had spoken was only“fool’s gold”the brassy yellow metal known technically as“pyrites，”a substance used in the manufacture of sulphuric acid but of no particular value.

No，if ever there was a body of disillusioned and disgruntled men，it was the malaria-infested population of Jamestown.

It is hard to say what foolish things they ultimately would have done if they had been left to their own fate.But fortunately for all concerned they had among them a man who appreciated the value of discipline and knew how to maintain it.That was the glorious play-boy of our early historical days，the incomparable John Smith of Lincolnshire.After incredible adventures on land and sea he now became a sort of“one-man colony”and by sheer single-handed fortitude and good humor he kept the grousing brotherhood together until relief could reach them from England.

Even then it seemed very unlikely that the London shareholders would ever get a single penny of their invested money back.In their despair they took heroic measures to keep the Virginia hearth-fires burning.They emptied orphan asylums.

They became frequent visitors to the homes for foundlings.They stole boys and girls from the street.But all to no avail.

And then（as the movies have it）the unexpected happened.One of the original promoters of the London Company，John Rolfe，appeared in Jamestown.

This man was interested in tobacco.For several years past Virginia tobacco had been sent to London but no one had bought the stuff.It was too bitter and the connoisseurs stuck to the Spanish variety which was imported from the West Indies.

Rolfe surmised（and he guessed correctly）that the bitterness of the Virginia product was due to the way in which the leaves were cured.Tobacco that was good enough for an American Indian was apparently not quite good enough for an English gentleman.Rolfe made a few experiments and finally devised a method by which Virginia tobacco could be cured so that it tasted quite as sweet as the Cuban variety.The new product was an instantaneous success.Money began to flow to the banks of the James River in a plentiful supply.There was a boom in real estate.So great was the demand for labor that black slaves from the Guinea coast were soon being imported by the shipload（the first of them came in 1619，a date we shall never forget or outlive），and theold neglected grain fields，the disused gardens，yea，even certain parts of the highroads were now used to raise the profitable weed.

The Tudors had had their rose.

The Stuarts now had their tobacco blossoms.

And believe me，those thrifty Scotchmen knew a profitable posy when they saw one.

The original investors of the London Company had been graciously allowed to bankrupt themselves in an enterprise that had seemed foredoomed to failure.Now，however，the whole world was beginning to smoke Virginia tobacco，to snuff Virginia tobacco，to chew Virginia tobacco.

What more natural than that His Majesty should at once clamor for a share of this unexpected revenue？

Where there was a will there invariably was a way with the members of this ancient and unscrupulous house of Stuart.

In the year 1624 the charter of the London Company was annulled.

Virginia ceased to be the exclusive possession of a small group of private individuals.It became a full-fledged colony with a Royal Governor who drove in a coach and four，who was surrounded by flunkeys in livery，and ruled his domains with the assistance of a miniature parliament that was composed exclusively of representatives from among the landed gentry.

History，as I said a few pages back，moves in strange ways her purposes to fulfill.

The“holy herb of the Indians”succeeded in doing what the old dreams of unlimited wealth in the form of gold and silver had not been able to accomplish.

Almost overnight the nefarious weed changed the northern part of the American continent from a howling wilderness into the potential home of millions of respectable English settlers.第九章　零下20度的新天堂导读“五月花号”的故事是令人熟知的，也往往是被人扭曲和夸大的。要了解详情，还要从清教徒，或者不信奉国教者说起。

宗教改革后的欧洲，思想桎梏卷土重来，长老的法令与教皇的一样冰冷严酷。北欧和英国的君主也为了自己的利益树立起国教的清规戒律。同时也有一些人对现存宗教感到失望，他们希望进一步改革宗教以寻求思想自由，这些人就是所谓的清教徒，在英国他们也被称为不信奉国教者。而在国教的一统权威下，不信奉国教者如同异端遭到驱逐和打压。为此，他们选择了漂泊他乡。

1607年，一批不信奉国教者为逃脱宗教压迫而背井离乡，来到荷兰。在那里他们暂时获得了安宁，但是生活的艰辛和思乡的愁怨挥之不去。而西班牙和荷兰的战争又给他们蒙上了一层前途未卜的阴影。在这种情况下，他们选择的是：继续漂泊。

于是，“五月花号”载着这样的一群人在大西洋上漂泊了两个多月，最终他们着陆了，但是在他们面前的不是预想中的维吉尼亚，而是一个陌生的地方。失望和恼怒使得一部人企图离开这里，走向维吉尼亚，但这对剩下的人来说，无异于死亡。

一些人出来倡议，他们需要一部法规，为了整体的利益，他们应该团结一致，共渡难关。这部法规最终形成了，而在它的约束下，人们最终都留了下来，并且熬过了那段艰难的寒冬时光。他们证明了自己，并且将这片荒凉的土地改造成一片适宜人居住的殖民地。由此，他们的勇气得到了报偿。在千里之外，一个新的家园开始出现。HE habit of preaching is apt to be strong in those who ever answered to the flattering title of professor.And nowhere in the Tpresent volume could I hold forth with more eloquence upon certain mistaken methods of historiography than right here.For I have now reached the point at which American history，in the minds of many people，ceases to be just another episode in the endless annals of the human race and becomes something apart；something different；a manifestation of that strange Divine Will which three thousand years before had divided the people of the world into two definite categories；into those who were“chosen”and those who were forever condemned to dwell beyond the pale.

Such an idea may be flattering to the pride of the fortunate“insiders.”But it is rather a reflection upon the intelligence and fairness of the Great Spirit，which ruleth all of us.Yea，verily，as I see this world，it is a demonstration of such colossal spiritual arrogance that it would be unbelievable if it were not true.

It greatly annoys me to read the sanctimonious stories told by the survivors of the Mayflower.How one particular sailor used to poke fun at the poor landlubbers when they were seasick；how this particular fellow was thereupon stricken down with a terrible disease and was the first to die and to be buried at sea；and how all the other sailors were deeply impressed，because they felt that the just hand of God was upon them.

The poor gob who was obliged to mop up a messy deck ten times a day may have had a perfectly good reason for his uncharitable remarks.And his widow and his children may have regarded the matter in a very different light.

Nor can I agree with Cotton Mather，that it was Providence which had cleared the hillsides of Boston Bay of all pernicious creatures（read“Indians”）in order to make room for what the Reverend Doctor was pleased to call“a sounder growth.”Undoubtedly Brother Mather regarded himself as a much nobler specimen of the human race than Chief Massasoit，but the poor natives who had all of them died of smallpox or measles a short time before the arrivalof the first shipload of Puritans may have failed to understand why they should themselves have to be exterminated in order to provide a group of bungling farmers with a necessary supply of corn.That does not mean that I，who keep a furnace and a couple of open wood fires going that I may with more or less comfort live through a typical Connecticut winter，fail to appreciate the courage which made those people“stick”when every instinct of self-preservation must have told them to go back.They did a good job.But although they were dumped upon a frozen coast during the worst time of the year they were not half as badly off as scores of other early immigrants who died to the last man from hunger and thirst，who were eaten up by the Indians（yes，some tribes did eat human flesh）or disappeared into the wilderness，never again to be seen by the eyes of their white brethren.

These early immigrants knew the risks they were taking.They had everything to gain and nothing to lose.

They gambled with fate and won beyond their most cherished dreams.

They crossed the ocean to escape starvation，to raise tobacco，to grow rich and to run their own churches as pleased them.Quite unbeknown to themselves they founded one of the largest empires of modern times and erected a state which，generally speaking，has accepted their ideas as the moral law of the land.Isn’t that glory enough for any group of small-town bakers and wheelwrights and tallow-makers？

As for the actual voyage of the Pilgrim fathers，it has been so often told that almost any child is familiar with the details.

The Pilgrims were Puritans.That may mean a great deal and it may mean very little.There never was a Puritan sect as there have been Presbyterian sects and Baptist sects and Methodist sects.Puritanism was a philosophy of life，it was not a product of Protestantism.There have been and there still：are many Puritan Catholics.The Crusades were caused by Puritan Mohammedans.There are Puritan Hindus.There are many Puritan Freethinkers.It all depends upon the taste and the inclinations of the individual.

Now there were many people in Europe immediately after the Reformation who felt that the movement towards purging the spirit of man from all worldly desire and temptation had not gone far enough.They knewthat something had been gained.The old spiritual prison had been destroyed.But its place had been taken by a hundred new little lockups and the new masters，so it soon appeared，intended to be quite as severe and as exacting as the old ones had been.

But that was not all.

The sixteenth century was a typical post-war period.A number of profiteers had made millions.The princes of northern Europe and England，having“appropriated”（governments and royal families，as is well known，do not“steal”—they merely“confiscate”and“appropriate”）the immensely rich possessions of the Church，had bestowed vast riches upon their supporters and had then established a set of religious rules of their own which were just as binding as those of Rome.

Under the circumstances a truly serious man who had hoped that the great reform would give him a chance to develop his own soul after his own convictions was just as badly off as he had been a generation before.He was no longer obliged to be on his guard against the spies of the Inquisition.But Heaven help him if rumor of his heresies reached the ears of the nearest bishop or if he gave offense to the newly enriched classes of ennobled royal henchmen.

Under those circumstances the dissenters did what dissenters have always done.They went“underground.”They met in deserted stables.They came together in country lanes and when their ministers had their ears cut off or their noses slit，they thought themselves fortunate that they were thought worthy of martyrdom for the sake of something that was much nearer and dearer to them than mere life.

Such conditions，however，could not last forever.The weaker brethren made their peace with the authorities.And the others fled.

In the year 1607 one such group of sorely beset heretics had escaped from England to Holland and had settled down in the good town of Amsterdam.They were dreadfully poor.They lived in the slums and the strong Dutch trade unions（call them guilds，if you think that more romantic）did not look with favor upon this sudden invasion of“foreign labor.”As for the invaders，far away from their own villages，deprived of the familiar sights and smells andsounds of rural England，they were miserably unhappy.After a while they could not stand it any longer.And so they moved from Amsterdam to Leyden，which was the chief manufacturing city of the Dutch Republic and there they hoped to have a better chance to make a living and to be a little nearer to those green fields which reminded them of home.

The Dutch authorities，who knew perfectly well what the King of England，with his high conception of a“sovereign by the Grace of God，”thought of them（“a pack of dirty little rebels，my friend！”），did not treat these fugitives unkindly.They gave them a place to worship.They allowed them to import their own ministers，to conduct services in their own language.But once outside the meeting-house，the world in which the poor Puritans found themselves was Dutch，the schools were Dutch，the language was Dutch，and therefore，to the mind of a middle-class Englishman，“foreign”and decidedly inferior.

It would perhaps be unfair to accuse this British colony in Leyden of the dastardly sin of“hyphenation.”Let us be charitable and merely say that they were homesick.

Furthermore，they worried about the future of their children.In the year 1621 the twelve years’truce between Spain and her rebellious possessions in the Low Countries would come to an end.It was by no means sure that the Republic would be able to maintain its independence.In case of a reconquest of Holland by the armies of His Most Catholic Majesty，what would become of these English men and women who were known to have left their country because they actually out-heresied their own heretical master？

No，all things considered，it was better for the Puritans to go while the going was still good.

Just then the London Company had opened a new drive for prospective settlers in Virginia.The first consignment of Virginia tobacco had just reached the market of London and had brought good prices.The shareholders had taken fresh courage.All that was needed now for complete success was an abundant supply of cheap labor.There was，of course，one serious objection.The Leyden community of separatists（or non-conformists or Brownites or Puritans-whatever they were called）might prove to be a disturbing element in acolony that was predominantly Episcopalian.But America was three thousand miles away and Virginia was very big.Somewhere in the wilderness there probably was a spot where those dissenters could be located without causing too much of a public scandal.

It was not easy to collect the money necessary for such wholesale migration.In the year 1620 it cost as much to get a single steerage passage across the ocean as it costs us to-day to transport two people in the first class of a fast steamer.Somehow or other the funds were found，but by the terms of the loan the prospective settlers gave up all hope of obtaining individual pieces of land.They were to be part of a communistic enterprise.There were to be no private possessions in their new home save such things as were considered to be part of a man’s household goods.

In July of the year 1620 an old vessel of some sixty tons was sent from England to Holland to carry the immigrants to Southampton.Endless delays caused these poor people to spend the greater part of the summer in the harbor of Southampton.At last in September they bade farewell to their native shore.It was really much too late in the year to cross the ocean with any degree of comfort or safety.And furthermore the Mayflower（that probably was the name of the ship，although we do not know for certain）was no ocean greyhound.It took her two months to do the distance between Plymouth and the coast of America.Neither can her captain be given a testimonial of unusual fitness as a navigator.Instead of landing his passengers in the Chesapeake Bay（as he had been told to do）he carried them nine hundred miles out of their course，almost shipwrecked them a couple of times on a coast with which he was totally unfamiliar and finally dropped anchor in an unknown bay entirely surrounded by low snow-covered mountains.

It began to dawn upon the poor travelers that something was wrong.They had started out to work for the London Company and they found themselves within the jurisdiction of the Plymouth Company.Nothing on earth，however，would induce them to go back to the high seas.They sent out a boat to explore the nearby coast and decided upon a site that seemed a little less barren than the rest and there they built themselves a village of their own which they called Plymouth.

So far，so good.But among the passengers of the Mayflower were some who had a little money and some who had none.The latter（a good many of them of the servant class）had been full of hope of the riches awaiting them in Virginia.Through no fault of their own they saw themselves condemned to a continuation of their humdrum existence.They protested.The charter which they had seen had mentioned Virginia.They believed in law and order.They would go to Virginia if they had to walk.

This looked like mutiny and a very dangerous sort of mutiny.For the number of Pilgrims was dwindling fast through sickness and death and if there were any further desertions，all the settlers would surely perish.

Under such conditions，however，there are always a few energetic men who take charge of the situation and turn defeat into victory.They now came forward and drew up a sort of written constitution for the conduct of the survivors and being saturated with Biblical phraseology，they called this document a“Covenant”and regarded it with a great deal of solemn respect.

All those who signed the piece of parchment（and the disgruntled ones too were persuaded to affix their mark）promised to obey such“just and equal laws and ordinances as shall be thought most meet and convenient for the general good of the colony.”

This was not meant to be a declaration of independence.It was merely another expression of that practical English spirit which for centuries has been so very characteristic of the English nation and which makes British revolutionists behead their sovereign and their statesmen with every semblance of decency and respect.

What was even more to the point，the thing worked.

The Covenant kept the Pilgrims together during a winter of such severity and during a period of such intense misery that only a strict form of voluntary discipline could prevent the people from committing all sorts of excesses.

If I am not mistaken（but I am quoting from memory）only one man was actually hanged during the first five years of the colony’s existence，and that is a very line record as colonies go.

But undoubtedly the final success of this experiment（and the mere fact that several of the immigrants actually survived that first winter was in itself agreat accomplishment），the final and lasting triumph of this settlement in a cold and inhospitable country，was primarily due to the exceptional character of the men who were chosen to be the leaders.

They were strong men of pronounced convictions.

They knew what they wanted.

They were dead serious.

And they had burned their bridges behind them.They had left the old world for good and all.Whatever happened there was to be no return to the Gomorrah of European wickedness.

Thus was founded the New Zion of the West.

And those who lay still under the frozen snow of Cole’s Hill knew that all was well with the world and that they had not died in vain.第十章　准备在大西洋西岸创建更幸福的新英格兰导读

伊丽莎白女王时期兴起的清教主义是一种生活观念，它崇尚俭朴、严谨，对享乐和恣意放荡嗤之以鼻。在英国人追求品行完善之时，王朝却更迭了。新到来的斯图亚特王族的国王们是彻头彻尾的教条主义者，他们依《圣经》行事，不容得一丝拐弯。同时，这几位英国的国王却对西班牙国王钦佩得五体投地，这正刺痛了英国人的伤心处，因为正是这位西班牙王国曾经想通过无敌舰队和穿黑袍的耶稣会士重新让英国屈服于教皇和天主教的御座之下。为此，英国人因国王的行为感到不安。而这些不熟悉英国政治的外来统治者，又企图让君权神授在英国重现。国王和人民的矛盾愈来愈深，眼见国家到了一个危急的时刻。此时，一些人希望离开罪恶的旧英格兰，去海外建立纯洁的新英格兰。

这项事业的发起人名叫约翰·温瑟罗普。他的新英格兰计划是在人间建立天堂。在新英格兰，人们应该是纯洁、高尚的，由清教徒组成人民代表机构来进行治理，而《旧约全书》将成为最高的规范。同时，温瑟罗普还改革了殖民机构，规定殖民政府应该由移民股东组成，这大大提高了行政效率，也确保了移民在新大陆的生存。

这块新的殖民地就是后来的波士顿，它确实成功了，很快成为人口稠密、商旅往来的要地。而这座清教主义的城堡也激励了旧英格兰的清教徒们，使他们坚持为真理和自由而战。

在英格兰革命之后，新英格兰依然保留了下来，对于新一代的年轻人来说，这里已是他们的家园。T was during the early seventies of the sixteenth century that William the Silent，in despair at the slow progress of the war of Dutch Iindependence，suggested to his followers that they leave their native land and move to America.

“Far better，”so he exclaimed，“to experience freedom in the wilderness of a distant continent than to bear slavery amidst the comforts of an uncongenial home.”

Since then millions of other men and women have felt that same urges have put the impulse into practice and have left their old homes for the uncertain adventure of a new and unknown hemisphere.

Rarely，however，has a plan for a wholesale migration been worked out with more care and more intelligence than that which gave birth to those settlements which soon afterwards came to be known as the New England.

A few pages back I said that Puritanism was not a creed or a sect but a point of view.Now let me add that although Puritanism，in the popular mind，is usually associated with the idea of poverty and meekness，there were many members of the ruling classes of England who were staunch Puritans and ready to make every sort of sacrifice for their convictions.This need not surprise us.They were the children and grandchildren of people who had been the contemporaries of good Queen Bess.The austere virtues which were a characteristic of this younger generation were the normal reaction after a period that had drunk too much and had eaten too much and had danced too much and had gambled too much and had exhausted the pleasures of the flesh so thoroughly that people shuddered at the mere mention of the word“pleasure.”

Unfortunately for all concerned，just when England was beginning to turn serious，the British crown fell into the hands of a small group of outsiders，men who could not possibly gauge the national temper as Henry VIII and Elizabethhad been able to do.The Tudors，almost without exception，had been tyrants of a very unpleasant sort.But they had known just exactly how far they could go with their subjects without driving them into open rebellion，when it was safe to drop an unwelcome bill into the royal ash-can and when it was good policy to bestow a knighthood upon the sponsor of a new law.

The Stuarts，on the other hand，whose ancestors had begun their career“stewarding”（or managing）certain estates in Brittany early in the eleventh century，had done well enough in this world，but they were Scotchmen and not Englishmen，as they were soon to learn to their everlasting grief and sorrow.

The autocracy of the Tudors had been tempered by their red-blooded joviality，by a bucolic sense of humor，by the feeling that very often more could be accomplished by a good dinner and a couple of bottles of Malmsey than by a strict appeal to the letter of the law or Scripture.

The autocratic Stuarts were backed by the Presbyterian version of Holy Writ and knew of no compromise.And as a result，from the very beginning of the reign of James I（he succeeded his cousin Elizabeth in the year 1603）there was friction between the crown and the people and that friction continued and grew in importance until it drove the Stuarts into exile and brought England to the verge of ruin.

Poor，slovenly James was indeed a sad case.Think of his childhood and early upbringing！Two months before he was born his mother had watched her husband murder her private secretary，David Rizzio，who was also supposed to be her lover.The little boy with his shriveled legs，his shiftless temper，his secret desire for revenge upon a world that had been cruel to him，was totally unfit to rule a country in which the divine right of kings was being questioned on all sides.His son Charles was able to shed the funny Scottish burr of his father，but for the rest he failed just as completely to understand the true temper of his subjects.James，with all his profound knowledge of Protestant theology，had been at heart a regular pro-Spanisher.

To him the King of Spain had always seemed the greatest monarch of the earth and he would have given anything he possessed if he could have gained the good-will of this mighty potentate.That his Protestant subjects held the very name of Catholic Philip in abhorrence and regarded the Spanish court as theante room of Hades，made little difference to him.And now，so it appeared，the son was to follow in his father’s footsteps.It was very disconcerting to honest Englishmen，whose uncles and brothers and cousins had been burned by the Inquisition as“blasphemous heretics，”to hear that their future sovereign，as plain Mr.Brown，had gone to Madrid to woo a granddaughter of one no less than that Philip II who，as the husband of Bloody Mary，had clone his best to bring the British Isles back to the True Faith by means of the Armada and the Jesuits.And when this same Charles finally came to the throne and continued the mistaken policies of his father，when he tried to tax his subjects without their approval，and endeavored to rule the country as it there were no House of Commons，then a great many people began to feel sincerely worried about the near future.

That this effort to foist an unlimited monarchy upon the unwilling people of England would end only a few decades later with a final and painful encounter between His Majesty and Jack Ketch was something which no one then could foresee.For the moment it looked as if the Crown would be victorious.Small wonder that many people，despairing of the future of their old fatherland，made plans to save at least part of the wreckage and went forth to establish a New England upon the shores of a distant land while there was still time.

The leader in this movement was one John Winthrop，a Suffolk man.He was the son of well-to-do parents，he studied in Cambridge and then became a lawyer.But he drifted into politics，as almost any honest man was obliged to do in those days when the ancient liberties of England were at stake，and soon he found himself one of the leaders of the opposition to the Stuart tyranny.His fear of Catholic plots was very great.Wherever he looked he saw signs of the Popish menace and one of the reasons why he hoped to establish a British colony on the other side of the Atlantic was his fear that the Jesuits from Canada might in time overrun the entire northern part of the continent.The New England which he hoped to found would Stand as a bulwark against Roman aggression when the old England had failed.

Winthrop，however，was primarily a business man and he proceeded very cautiously.He did not wish to turn his colony into another Virginia.Persons of low morals，people who worshiped the flesh（the“scum”as he called them inhis picturesque although somewhat direct English）need not apply.Neither did Winthrop show any tendency to make his new England less intolerant than the old one had been or to turn it into a haven of refuge for all those who elsewhere had suffered for their private opinion.

Within the confines of his Massachusetts domains the Old Testament was to be the law of the land.There was to be a form of popular representation，but the land was to be ruled by the Puritans and for Puritans.The others were either to comply to these ordinations or stay away.

In the month of March of the year 1630 John Winthrop sailed for America.Before he left，he and his associates had quietly passed a measure which soon proved to be a master-stroke-the actual government of the colony was to be vested in those shareholders who should migrate to the new world.No more absentee landlordism，no more colonists starving to death while the stockhol-ders，three thousand miles away，were vaguely deliberating about the best methods to relieve their distress.

At first Winthrop had planned to Settle down at Salem，where several white people had already built a village.But the Salem colony had not done very well and Winthrop，who feared that it would be bad for the morale of the newcomers if they were regaled with the hard-luck stories of the early arrivals，moved further southward and dropped anchor in a bay which the omnipresent John Smith had visited sixteen years before.In the beginning the village which he built was called Trimontaine，the town of the three mountains.A short time afterwards the name was changed to Boston in honor of a city in Lincolnshire which had been the home of several of the immigrants.

If Charles or any of his henchmen had appreciated the true nature of Mr.Winthrop’s venture，it is doubtful whether they would have let any other Englishmen proceed to Massachusetts-For the colony actually became what Winthrop had intended it to be-a stronghold of Puritanism.The population increased by leaps and bounds.Less than a dozen years after the founding of Boston there were sixteen thousand people living within the jurisdiction of the Massachusetts Company.More than two hundred ships had visited the harbors of New England and millions of dollars had been invested in the New England trade.

It is true that Massachusetts could not send a large number of volunteers to the mother country to help the dissenters in their warfare upon the endless encroachments of the royal masters.But the very existence of a place where their own principles were the dominant factors in the social and religious life of the community gave the home-staying Puritans courage to keep up the good fight.And so well did they acquit themselves of their self-appointed task that Charles lost both his crown and his head.

Once the old country had been purged of its wickedness and sin，there was no longer any strict need for a Puritan state outside the national gates.A few people returned.But a new generation of native-born youngsters stood ready to take their place.

They had never known anything else.

The land in which they lived suited them.

They looked around and said，“This is home.”第十一章　荷兰西印度公司错误的投资导读

荷兰人是精明的商人，12世纪时，便靠着经营鳕鱼而发了财。后来当西欧人忙于彼此征战而无暇生产生活必需品时，荷兰的商人们转卖谷物，着实赚了一把。

宗教改革将欧洲分裂了，荷兰站在新教这一边，这意味着将与西班牙国王势不两立。这位国王不择手段地将荷兰的王冠戴在了自己头上，并将天主教的教条强加给荷兰。反抗开始了，荷兰人在海上的娴熟表现最终使他们获得了自由。而此时，他们也走出欧洲海域，向更远大的海洋进发。

荷兰东印度公司很快获得成功，富饶的令人垂涎的香料群岛已被纳入囊中。但是，谨慎的荷兰人还是担心，因为通往东印度的航道是人人皆可前往的，他们需要一条自己的航道，这样他们的垄断权力才更有保证。

于是向北冰洋的探险开始了，荷兰人企图在冰天雪地中开辟出一条更为快捷的通往东方的道路。但是北冰洋的冷峻表情显示了它对这批探险者的不欢迎态度，荷兰的努力一次次失败了。

不甘心的荷兰人又试图在西北方向有所突破。在这些人中，哈德逊船长在后来的哈德逊湾附近做了一系列的考察，并认为这是一片有希望的土地。但是船长的报告并没有引起人们足够的重视，而他自己也成了一场水手哗变的牺牲品。

几经周折，终于有一批荷兰人在美洲留了下来，像所有的殖民者那样，他们驱逐土著居民，建立起自己的领地。荷兰的美洲殖民地以曼哈顿岛为中心，一座新的城镇建立起来，当时它被叫做新阿姆斯特丹。

但是荷兰西印度公司的状况日益惨淡，移民稀少，财政支持也很薄弱，而专横和贪污却在此盛行；同时，清教徒又一直与荷兰人摩擦不断，这使得美洲的新荷兰成为一块麻烦而又糟糕的地方。最后在1674年，为此而头疼的荷兰议会放弃了在新荷兰的权利，作为补偿，它对圭亚那的权利得到认可。于是，荷兰得到了南美洲的一块湿漉漉的荒地，却放弃了新阿姆斯特丹——它后来的名字叫做纽约。这是精明的荷兰人做的一笔“好”生意。HEN Caesar first Chased the green-faced savages of the British Isle，the eastern shore of the North Sea consisted of a vast Wswamp which stretched from the mouth of the Rhine to that of the Elbe and was inhabited by frogs，herons and by those Germanic tribes whom the Romans（for reasons unknown）called the Batavians.In due process of time the marshes were reclaimed，the rivers were brought to terms by means of a complicated system of dikes and the descendants of the wild Teutons settled down to make a living as fishermen，pirates and small-scale traders.

During the twelfth century the herring，for some mysterious cause，moved from the Baltic to the North Sea.A Dutch genius promptly invented a new and superior way of preserving that useful fish.And as all the world observed the Catholic fast-days and was obliged to go without meat for half of each week，a pleasant tasting pickled fish which could be kept for long periods of time without the help of an ice-chest was a very welcome addition to the international diet.

Soon the whole of the continent was eating Dutch herring and the Dutch merchants were rapidly growing rich.Unfortunately it was not possible to go fishing all the year around.For the herring，at certain stated times，withdrew to the less shallow parts of the ocean that it might there raise its family in comfort and peace and the primitive nets of that period could not follow their prey to such a great depth.

It was necessary to find some other profitable occupation for the ships from Amsterdam and Middelburg while the fisheries stood at a standstill.

Fortunately（fortunately for the Dutch，but not for any one else）the people of western Europe were so busy fighting each other that they were never able to provide for their own needs.In order to keep alive，Spain and France and Italy were obliged to import large quantities of grain from abroad.The Dutchmen offered to act as middlemen anti grain-carriers.They went to Dantzic，loaded their vessels with wheat and sold their cargoes at an enormous profit in Cadiz or Livorno.

Then came the Reformation and the Hollanders，like all people who live in countries where it rains for the greater part of the year，became enthusiastic partisans of the ideas propounded by Luther anti Calvin.This of course brought them into difficulties with King Philip of Spain，who by a process of dynastic marriages，murders and robberies，happened to be their lawful sovereign.Exasperated by His Majesty’s ideas upon the subjects of theology and taxation，they threw off the Spanish yoke and began a war of independence which lasted eighty years.

During the first twenty years they were sorely beset.Then their superior ability as navigators began to tell.After the year 1590 the Dutch highjackers were so successful that no Spanish treasure galleon ventured upon the high seas without a convoy of at least half a dozen men-of-war.And then in the year 1595 an adventurous sailor，Jan Huygen van Linschoten，published his famous little book in which he told his compatriots exactly how they could go to the Indies by way of the Cape of Good Hope.

Linschoten，as a boy，had run away from home and had taken service with the Portuguese.That is how he happened to know all about Calicut and Goa and far-away Macao.Even so it took the first Dutch vessels which went to Java more than two years for the round trip.But the profits of suck voyages promised to be so enormous that“India Companies”sprang up like mushrooms.

In order to bring some system into the commercial chaos that followed and save the little trading societies from a competitive warfare that would be disastrous to all of them，the leading statesman of Holland，Johan vanOldenbarneveldt，suggested a merger.This was brought about in the year 1602 and within a very short period of time the United East India Company had made herself mistress of those spice islands which more than a century before had lured Columbus on his western voyage.

Like all their contemporaries，the“Gentlemen Seventeen”who managed the affairs of the company and who，during a period of almost two hundred years，administered a gigantic colonial empire without once giving an accounting to their stockholders were thorough believers in the system of monopoly.The Indies were theirs and they meant to keep all foreigners out.But the road to the Indies by way of the Cape was at the disposal of every one.Evidently it would be to the advantage of the Dutch to have a little Indian route of their own.

During the latter half of the sixteenth and the first quarter of the seventeenth centuries，repeated efforts were made to establish direct communications between Amsterdam and Batavia by way of Siberia.After four or five expeditions had found themselves hopelessly lost in the ice of the Arctic Ocean and one had been forced to spend a most uncomfortable winter on the northern shore of Novaya Zemlya，the enthusiasm for the north-eastern passage died out.But in the year 1608 the learned geographers and map-makers of Amsterdam（and just then they were making the charts by which all the world sailed）once more came to the conclusion that the idea was feasible and they persuaded the directors of the Amsterdam branch of the East India Company to give the eastern route one more trial.

Heemskerk，the commander of the ill-fated polar expedition of the year 1596，was dead.He had been killed fighting the Spaniards.But there was a captain in England，Hudson by name，who had gained quite a reputation as an explorer in the services of the British Muscovy Company.The Hollanders sent for Hudson，gave him a contract and a ship and a few dozen sailors，and bade him find a passage to the Indies by way of the North Pole.

On the fifth of April of the year 1609 the Halve Maen left the road of Texel.A month later，the ship was in Barents Sea.But it was already“too late in the year”（polar expeditions have a fascinating habit of being either too late or too early）and Hudson was obliged to return.He made directly for the FaroeIslands，where he hoped to get fresh water and fresh supplies，and then hecalled together a meeting of all Ms sailors and asked what he should do next.

He himself suggested that they sail westward and try to find that large bay of which his friend，the jovial John Smith，had told him a couple of years before and which，according to bat honest swashbuckler，might be the long-sought gap in the barrier.The sailors，who thus far had seen nothing more exciting than icebergs and walruses，were all for a plan that would get them back to a warm climate and shouted“Yes？”

No sooner said than done.The anchor was lifted and Hudson（as he hoped）was on Ms way from Thorshavn to Peking，via America and other points west.

On the third of September of the year 1609 he actually found an opening in the land through which the currents raced at such terrific speed that it really seemed like the connecting link between the Atlantic and the Pacific.Those terrible currents still exist.They play havoc with the inexperienced engineers of small motor boats and they cause many anxious moments to the caprains of our transatlantic liners.Technically they are known as the Hudson River.They offer a pleasant mode of communication to those who wish to proceed leisurely from New York to Albany，but they do not run quite as far west as California.

Ere he left，poor Hudson had begun to suspect as much.He made，however，the best of his disappointment and wrote a report which stated that the land he had discovered was rich in fur and fish；that it offered unexcelled opportunities for the settlement of a colony and that the banks of the river which he had explored were very beautiful.A year later he once more sailed for the North，fully convinced that this time he would succeed.He got as far as the Hudson Bay and spent the winter in James Bay.Early the next spring he tried to push further westward（he only had about three thousand more miles to go）.But his crew refused to follow him.They mutinied.They put their captain and eight sick men in a small boat and left them to the mercies of the Arctic Seas.

The records of the great voyages of the fifteenth and sixteenth centuries contain much that is not flattering to our human nature.This premeditated murder of a brave captain and eight helpless invalids by a group of disgruntled sailors seems to hold the record for callous bestiality.Our Latin friends can count themselves happy that it was not done by members of their own race.They never would have heard the last of it.

Meanwhile，in Amsterdam，the board of directors of the India Company had taken due notice of what Captain Hudson had told them and then had done nothing.They wanted nutmeg and pepper.They were not interested in scenery.If others wished to profit by the captain’s discovery，they were entirely welcome.

Others did so wish to profit.Adriaen Block explored Long Island Sound，sailed up the Connecticut River as far as Hartford，and then by way of Nantucket paid a visit to Massachusetts Bay，seventeen years before the founding of Boston.

Cornelius May went southward，sailed past a cape which he modestly called after himself，and next reached a large bay and river which he called the South Bay and the South River and which in due time came to be known as the Delaware Bay and the ditto river.

As all of these visitors were interested in buying furs and as they paid what the Indians considered good prices in beads，guns and gin，they were able to establish pleasant relations with the natives who regarded them as a race of Santa Clauses and did not mind if they spent a few weeks on their shores.

These amiable contacts，however，were rudely disturbed when a few occasional Dutchmen remained behind，cleared a bit of land and commenced to poach upon the preserves of the savages.Then there was trouble and soon the smoldering ashes of a ruined farmhouse told that East and West，after their age-old habit，had met and had failed to appreciate each other.But the number of permanent settlers increased very slowly and although there were many people in the old Netherlands who said that“something ought to be done with these American possessions，”very little progress was made.It was difficult to enthuse a Dutch directors’meeting unless there was a chance for large and immediate profit and it was not until the year 1621 that the Dutch West India Company was founded and was given a monopoly of the trade along the coast of Africa and the coast of North and South America，including the banks of the Hudson River.

In due course of time a governor was appointed to administer the territory of the New Netherlands，small groups of political refugees were persuaded totry their luck in a world that was a little less crowded，the island of Manhattan was made the center of the local government and a town was built at the confluence of the Hudson and East Rivers and was called Nieuw Amsterdam.

On paper，all this sounded very beautiful，but those in the know understood that it would not possibly lead to any lasting success.In England and Scotland economic conditions had driven a vast number of working people into such a state of misery that they were more than willing to try their luck elsewhere and even go to America.Furthermore，the system of primogeniture and the strong political position of the landed gentry kept millions of acres from being cultivated and deprived hundreds of thousands of peasants of the chance of ever acquiring a little farm of their own.These，too，were willing to take a risk and joined the army of emigrants.

But in the Dutch Republic，the situation was very different.The old landed aristocracy had been killed off during the long war with Spain，there were no vast estates and the carrying trades combined with an active industrial development and the tremendous profits derived from the Indian spice trade（not to mention those very considerable extras which were the reward of an occasional high jacking job）had brought about such a high and general degree of prosperity that few people felt the slightest desire to move away.

Under those circumstances the Dutch West India Company，which was never soundly financed（all the surplus money of the Republic had been sunk in the East India Company which was twenty years older）and which kept up an outward semblance of solvency by a disgraceful trade in African slaves-under these circumstances，as I have hoped to make abundantly clear，the company could not possibly hope to make a success of her adventure in American real estate.The mere business of administering her vast foreign possessions proved too much of an undertaking.Young men of ability invariably took service with the East India Company，where they were certain of a career.The West India Company had to content herself with incompetent clerks，broken-down promoters，with all sorts of third-rate crooks who，possessed of a little pull，found themselves suddenly called upon to rule a colony forty times as large as the mother country and surrounded on all sides by enemies，white or copper-colored.

The natural advantages of Nieuw Amsterdam for the purpose of international trade were just about sublime.When the city was visited by a French Jesuit in the middle of the seventeenth century，he found not less than eighteen nationalities represented among the inhabitants of the capital.The same principle of live and let live that had made the Dutch Republic the greatest inter-national counting-house of the last four centuries seems to have prevailed in the colony.But what could be done without permanent settlers，without farmers，without butchers and bakers and candlestickmakers who were willing to stick？

At the eleventh hour an effort was made to populate the colony by reviving that system of feudal land tenure which had gone out of existence in northern Europe hundreds of years before.It led to a great deal of high-handed grafting and it accomplished nothing of any practical value.The time had long since passed when a“patron”（a common，ordinary landlord）could force his tenants to send their grain to his mill and buy their salt from his store on pain of his displeasure.

To complicate matters still further，the Dutch were forever at loggerheads with their Puritan neighbors of Massachusetts who seemed to live under the apprehension（mentioned before）that the Lord had in some mysterious way created the northern American continent for their own benefit and that the claims of all other races，Swedes，French，Spaniards，Germans，Dutchmen，were almost an insult to Divine Providence.But this hostility on the part of a group of people who only a few years before had sought and found a refuge in the same country which they now accused of every crime under the sun was not the primary reason for the final collapse of the great New Netherland venture.

Neither can we lay all the blame on the short-sighted governors who with very few exceptions were fifty years behind the spirit of their times.In due course of events these incompetent gentlemen would have been decently buried beneath a resplendent escutcheon in some pretty little whitewashed church and their place would have been taken by more energetic and less hide-bound youngsters.

No，it was a complete lack of man-power and nothing else which made an end to the weird dream of a Dutch empire in America.

In the year 1664，during a war between Holland and England，the New Netherlands were occupied by British troops.Seven years later，a Dutch fleet reconquered the lost colony.But Holland was too much occupied with more profitable adventures in other parts of the world to bother about a stretch of land that had always been a source of trouble，the happy home of corrupt officials，discontented farmers，endless lawsuits，angry dominies，appeals to the States General，appeals to the Stadtholders，appeals for money，appeals for this，appeals for that，and not a penny of revenue.

At the peace of Westminster in the year of 1674 the States General ceded all further rights to the territory of the New Netherlands.The English from their side promised to respect Dutch possessions in Guiana where sugar could be raised in unlimited quantities and where the Dutch planters hoped to recoup themselves for the failure of their northern venture.

Looking back upon the whole procedure，the transaction was not without an aspect of the comical.

The fathers，in their wisdom，swapped New York harbor for a swamp in South America.THEY SWAPPED NEW YORK FOR A PLAGUE-RIDDEN SWAMP IN SOUTH AMERICA！

And they flattered themselves that they had done a pretty clever stroke of business！第十二章　200年前瑞典人就来到过美洲导读

现在的美国史书中存在着某种偏见，它将英国冒险者到达美洲的情景描绘得如同犹太人到达神赐之地一般，弥漫着浪漫的神圣气息；而谈到其他国家的冒险家时，则往往以一种市侩的眼光和不屑的语气看待。是的，金钱是驱使他国冒险家披荆斩棘的动力，但英国人同样摆脱不了金钱与名誉的诱惑。

在当时，当充满发财和出人头地希望的美洲向欧洲张开怀抱时，各个国家的冒险家们都跃跃欲试，纷至沓来，企图在此分得一杯羹，掘得一桶金。各色的国旗飘扬在大西洋上，满载着希望，当然，可能也将很快地收获失望。在这些人中，北方的瑞典人可谓翘楚。

17世纪上半叶，幸运之神似乎青睐了北欧的这块土地，瑞典在短时间内崛起，经过几场战争，德国和俄国的失败愈加彰显了这北方海盗的雄心。波罗的海似乎已容纳不下瑞典帆船的远大志向，为此，大规模的殖民开始了。100万瑞典人远赴重洋，但是，此时他们面对的不再是一块空白的大陆。

很快，瑞典人在美洲挣得的那一小块殖民地也被其他人所争夺去。两手空空的瑞典只好回到波罗的海，继续过自己的日子。

纵观各国的北美殖民史，有成有败。或许，英国的殖民地得到成功，乃是因为英国有大量希望离开家乡到海外重建家园的人。他们来了，他们成功了。而其他安土重迁的人们，则似乎与新大陆不再有缘。HE French（and I never yet could write a book without some reference to that peculiar wisdom of the French people which Tseems to humanize whatever it touches），the French long ago gave us a recipe for the writing of history.

“Let us compile，my friends，”so they said，“let us compile and out of seven hundred and eighty-four other books，let us make a seven hundred and eighty-fifth.”

A history of America in a hundred thousand words can hardly be a compilation.That，at least，is one crime of which I shall not be accused.But it is just as well on general principles to know what the neighbors have written，and so I have read through all the more popular volumes that have been published these last twenty years upon the subject of our national history，and I have discovered a strange mental delusion.

When the authors of most of those learned volumes write about a shipload of English adventurers approaching these shores，there is a hush upon the landscape，the children of Israel are about to cross the river Jordan and take possession of that Promised Land which never really belonged to the poor Canaanites（who have lived there since the beginning of time）and which is now awaiting the hallowed touch of the rightful owners.

But when a Swede or a Dutchman，let alone a German，decides to sink a few florins or crowns or thalers into American real estate and when he fits out a ship of his own and braves a thousand dangers and painfully establishes himself in a mosquito-ridden swamp of the Delaware River or in the heart of Connecticut，there are signs of great agitation among the professors.

Either the“King of Sweden is bitten with the bug of colonization”or“a group’of Amsterdam merchants hoped to swell their profits by selling gunpowder and schnapps to the Indians”or“a family of Augsburg bankers was seeking to increase its millions by the exploitation of recently discovered gold mines”or words to that effect.

These statements，as far as they go，are quite correct.

But they are just a little bit one-sided.

Of course those Swedes and Dutchmen and Frenchmen who took the trouble to cross the ocean and grab part of the American wilderness were out to make money.But so were their English competitors.A few British gentlemen actually came to America because they despaired of the mother country and hoped to salvage something of the ancestral virtues by establishing a new and purified England on the shores of Massachusetts Bay.But even a man of the lofty principles of Winthrop was no little angel.He knew perfectly well that with his ideas it would be impossible for him to make any sort of a career in a country ruled by the Stuarts，and being a person of tremendous ambition，he preferred to be Citizen No.1 in a small village on the Charles rather than to be Citizen No.47 in a big town on

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