6 Columbus crossed the ocean

Who were the first explorers? Some of the earliest ocean voyages were made by the Polynesian peoples of New Guinea. As long as 3,500 years ago, they began leaving their homeland to explore the vast Pacific Ocean in nothing bigger than canoes. Over the centuries, different groups of Polyncsians settled on thousands of Pacific islands. Where was Punt? As people sailed off in canoes from New Guinea, thousands of kilometres away in Egypt, much bigger trading ships were sent to the land of Punt. This was many kilometres south of Egypt at the tip of the Red Sea. Punt was discovered by Egyptian explorers in ancient times. Who was Hanno? A thousand years later, Hanno set sail from the trading city of Carthage on what is today the coast of Tunisia. Hanno was one of the first known explorers. Hanno's ships headed west into the Atlantic then south, hugging the African coast. They may have sailed as far as the country we now call Sierra Leone. About 2,300 years ago, the Greek explorer Pytheas sailed north past Spain, France and Britain. He may have even reached Norway.

谁是第一批探险家？ 最早的航海是由新几内亚的波利尼西亚人进行的。 早在3500年前，他们就开始离开自己的家园，乘坐独木舟探索浩瀚的太平洋。 几个世纪以来，不同的波利尼西亚人在数千个太平洋岛屿上定居。 庞特在哪里？当人们乘独木舟从数千公里外的埃及新几内亚出发时，更大的商船被派往庞特岛。 它位于埃及以南许多公里处的红海之端。 庞特是古代埃及探险家发现的。 汉诺是谁？一千年后，汉诺从贸易城市迦太基启航，迦太基位于今天的突尼斯海岸。 汉诺是最早的探险家之一。 汉诺的船队向西进入大西洋，然后向南，环绕非洲海岸。 他们可能已经航行到我们现在称为塞拉利昂的国家。 大约2300年前，希腊探险家皮西亚斯向北航行，经过西班牙、法国和英国。 他甚至可能到达了挪威。

Why did people go exploring? Over the centuries, explorers have had all sorts of reasons for heading off on their travels. Some were looking for new lands to trade with, or to settle and farm. Others wanted to spread word of their religion. Some hoped to win fame or riches, and many simply set off in search of adventure. In about the year 1000CE, a daring band of Viking explorers led by Leif Eriksson became the first Europeans to sail across the Atlantic Ocean to North America. These maps show the routes of the explorers mentioned in this book.

人们为什么要去探险？ 几个世纪以来，探险家们有各种各样的理由开始他们的旅行。 一些人在寻找新的土地进行贸易，或者定居和耕种。 其他人想要传播他们的宗教。 一些人希望赢得名声或财富，许多人只是为了寻求冒险。 大约在公元1000年，一支由雷夫·埃里克森带领的勇敢的维京探险队成为第一批横渡大西洋到达北美的欧洲人。 这些地图显示了这本书中提到的探险家的路线。

What made early explorers starstruck? The first explorers had no compasses to help them find their way. Instead, they learned how to use the position of the stars in the night sky to guide them. The Sun's position helped them in the daytime. In the 15th century CE, sailors used a cross-staff to get a rough idea of where they were. They pointed it at a star so that the sliding cross piece touched the horizon on the bottom and the star on the top. A scale on the bar was used with a book of tables to work out the sailors' position. The compass was invented in China Chinese sailors were using it to help them find their way more than 1,000 years ago. Why did explorers often get lost? Ancient maps were mainly guesswork because people knew so little of the world. World maps didn't begin to improve until the 16th century CE, when explorers made the first round-the-world voyages. For centuries, Europeans based their maps on this one, drawn by the Greek scholar Ptolemy in the 1005 CE. Early explorers worked out how fast they were travelling by timing how long it took a floating object to travel their ship's length.

是什么让早期探险者追星族？ 第一批探险者没有指南针来帮助他们找路。 相反，他们学会了如何利用夜空中星星的位置来指引他们。 白天太阳的位置对他们很有帮助。 在公元15世纪，水手们使用十字杖来大致了解自己的位置。 他们把它对准一颗星星，这样，滑动的十字片就会在底部触到地平线，在顶部触到星星。 吧台上的天平和一册表格一起用来计算水手们的位置。 指南针是中国发明的，1000多年前，中国水手就用它来帮助他们找路。 为什么探险家经常迷路？ 古代地图主要是猜测，因为人们对世界知之甚少。 直到公元16世纪，探险家进行了第一次环球航行，世界地图才开始改进。 几个世纪以来，欧洲人的地图都是以这幅图为基础的，这幅图是希腊学者托勒密在公元1005年绘制的。 早期的探险者通过计算漂浮物走过他们船的长度所需要的时间来计算他们的航行速度。

When did the East discover the West? In 127BCE, after a long and very dangerous journey, a traveller called Chang Chi'en reached Samarkand in Central Asia. He was the first known Chinese explorer to journey outside China, and the first to learn of the great civilizations of the West, such as ancient Rome. Soon after he began his travels, Chang Chi'en was taken prisoner by China's enemies, the Huns. It was 10 years before he escaped! Who set sail in junks? Chinese explorers did—junks are Chinese sailing ships. One of the greatest Chinese explorers was called Cheng He. Chinese junks dwarfed European ships by Zheng He's time, the early 15th century CE. Zheng He's fleet of junks sailed as far as Ecst Africa and brought home a giraffe! Whose journey lasted 24 years? The Arab explorer Ibn Battuta's adventures began in 1325, when he set out from his home town of Tangier in Morocco. He was so bitten by the travel bug that he didn't return home again until 1349! Ibn Battuta wrote a book about his travels, but his memory wasn't always that good. He said he'd seen hippos with horse-like heads, and that the pyramids were cone-shaped!

东方是什么时候发现西方的？ 公元前127年，经过一次漫长而危险的旅行，一位名叫张启恩的旅行者到达了中亚的撒马尔罕。 他是已知的第一个到国外旅行的中国探险家，也是第一个了解古罗马等西方伟大文明的人。 在他开始旅行后不久，他就被中国的敌人——匈奴俘虏了。 10年后他才逃出来！谁开着帆船起航？ 中国探险家——帆船是中国的帆船。 中国最伟大的探险家之一叫程和。 在郑和时代（公元15世纪早期），中国的帆船使欧洲的船只相形见绌。 郑和的船队远航到西非，却带回了一只长颈鹿！谁的旅程持续了24年？ 阿拉伯探险家伊本·白图泰（Ibn Battuta）的冒险始于1325年，当时他从家乡摩洛哥的丹吉尔出发。 他非常喜欢旅行，直到1349年才再次回家。伊本·白图泰写了一本关于他旅行的书，但他的记忆力并不总是那么好。 他说他见过长着马头的河马，金字塔是锥形的！

What was the Silk Road? In the centuries following Chang Chi'en's journey to Central Asia, traders began using his route to carry all sorts of luxury goods between China and Europe. Europeans named it the Silk Road, because silk was top of their list when shopping for Chinese luxuries. For centuries no one outside China knew how silk was made. The punishment for giving away the secret was death. Then, in the 550s CE, the Roman emperor sent two monks to China as spies. Cleverly, they hid silkworm caterpillar eggs in their walking sticks and managed to smuggle them out of China the secret was out! Silk thread comes from the cocoons of silkworm caterpillars that munch away on mulberry leaves. Which Italian teenager travelled the Silk Road? Marco Polo was only 17 in 1271, when he set out from Venice with his father and uncle. The three travellers sailed to the Middle East. Then they journeyed overland, becoming the first-known Europeans to make it to the Silk Road's end, in China. No one knows when the Italians first made ice cream, but Marco Polo may have brought a recipe for water ices back with him from China.

什么是丝绸之路？在张启恩出使中亚之后的几个世纪里，商人们开始利用这条路线在中国和欧洲之间运送各种奢侈品。 欧洲人将其命名为丝绸之路，因为丝绸是他们购买中国奢侈品的首选。 几个世纪以来，中国以外的人都不知道丝绸是如何制成的。 泄露秘密的惩罚是死刑。 然后，在公元550年代，罗马皇帝派了两名僧侣到中国当间谍。 他们聪明地把蚕卵藏在手杖里，偷偷带出了中国。丝线来自于咀嚼桑叶的蚕毛虫的茧。 哪个意大利少年走过丝绸之路？ 1271年，年仅17岁的马可·波罗随父亲和叔叔从威尼斯出发。 这三个旅行者乘船去了中东。 然后他们走陆路，成为第一批到达丝绸之路终点中国的欧洲人。 没有人知道意大利人是什么时候开始制作冰淇淋的，但马可·波罗可能从中国带回了一份制作水冰的配方。

Why did Columbus cross the ocean? When the great Italian-born explorer Christopher Columbus set sail from Spain in 1492, he was hoping to find a western sea route to China. He hoped that sailing there would be quicker and safer than travelling overland along the Silk Road. Did he find what he was looking for? Columbus never found his western sea route. Nor did he know he had reached the Americas. He always believed that the West Indies, where he first landed, were part of Asia. Like other Europeans of his day, Columbus had no idea that the Americas and the islands of the West Indies lay between him and China. The first European to sail to India was Portugal's Vasco da Gama, in 1497-98. Unlike Columbus, he headed south around Africa and then east, not west. What was life like on board? Ordinary sailors ate and slept on the bare boards of the ship's deck —they had no tables and no beds. A sailor's life was hard work, with few home comforts. Things improved after Columbu's men got to the West Indies and spotted the local people sleeping in hanging beds. The European name for this nifty invention was the hammock.

哥伦布为什么要横渡大洋？ 当出生于意大利的伟大探险家克里斯托弗·哥伦布于1492年从西班牙起航时，他希望找到一条通往中国的西方海上航线。 他希望在那里航行会比沿着丝绸之路陆路旅行更快、更安全。 他找到他要找的东西了吗？ 哥伦布从未找到他的西海路。 他也不知道他已经到达了美洲。 他一直认为，他第一次登陆的西印度群岛是亚洲的一部分。 和同时代的其他欧洲人一样，哥伦布不知道美洲和西印度群岛在他和中国之间。 第一个航行到印度的欧洲人是葡萄牙的瓦斯科·达·伽马（Vasco da Gama），时间是1497-98年。 与哥伦布不同的是，他向南绕过非洲，然后向东，而不是向西。 船上的生活是怎样的？ 普通水手在甲板上的光秃秃的木板上吃饭和睡觉——他们没有桌子，也没有床。 水手的生活是艰苦的，很少有家的舒适。 哥伦布的人到达西印度群岛后，发现当地人睡在吊床上，情况有所改善。 这个可爱的发明在欧洲被称为吊床。