Columbus（哥伦布）

Columbus was born in 1451 in Genoa（热那亚，意大利一城市）. His father was a wool merchant（羊毛商）. When he was 26 years old, he became to make merchant voyages（商业航行）. The farthest countries he reached were Iceland（冰岛，欧洲北部一国家） and Guinea（几内亚）.
　　At that time, many European countries became stronger and stronger. Their ships reached Africa and Asian. They got gold, silver, silk, tea and other things from the orient（东方诸国）. Columbus wanted to make another way to China and India.
　　On August 2, 1492, Columbus left Spain and began his first voyage. He had three ships. After two months’ hard sailing, on October 12, they got to an island in the Bahamas（巴哈马群岛）. On October 29, they reached Cuba（古巴）. But a few days later, one of his ships left them. And on December 25, his flagship（旗舰） sunk（沉没）. Fortunately（幸运的是）, the ship that left them rejoined him again. They went back to Lisbon（里斯本，葡萄牙首都） on March 4, 1493.
　　Although they didn’t get to rich orient countries and took back wealth, they found a new place that nobody had gone to. Columbus thought it was India and called the islands the West Indies（西印度群岛）. From 1493 to 1504, he sailed to America three times. He reached most of the coast of southern America and set up many colonies（殖民地）.
    On May 20, 1506, Columbus died because of disease（疾病）.