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Another two days’ sailing south and I was on another island called Nassau, the capital of a group of islands called the Bahamas. In Nassau sponges are gathered from the bottom of the sea and sent back to U. S. for US to USe. Would you believe that the sponges you use were once alive? They were once like jelly with the sponge inside. Men dive down into the sea and tear the live sponges off the rocks where they grow. Then they wash off the jelly-like part and what is left is the sponge.

Another one of the Bahama Islands is the little island on which Columbus first landed—the most famous little island A monument marks the spot where he stepped out of his little boat after his long voyage across the ocean, kneeled down in the sand, and thanked God for directing him safely to the New World. He called the island after his Saviour, “Holy Saviour,” which in Spanish is San Salvador.

There are three large islands of the West Indies—tit-tat-to, three in a row. There is also another island a little smaller, and many, many very small islands besides in the Caribbean Sea.

The largest island of all the West Indies—the first one of the tit-tat-to, three in a row islands—is Cuba. Columbus found the Indians in Cuba carrying burning torches in their mouths. They breathed in the smoke and blew it out again in a most strange and amazing fashion, as if they were dragons. It seemed an extraordinary thing for people to do—to breathe in smoke of a burning weed, for that was what it was; yet they seemed to enjoy it. No one across the water had ever seen such a sight before—people breathing fire. But now people all over the World copy the red Indians of Cuba. The weed was called tobacco. Tobacco is now grown in many parts of the World, but the finest tobacco for cigars still grows in Cuba, and Havana, the capital of Cuba, ships “Havana” cigars everywhere.

People from Spain went to live in Cuba and Cuba belonged to Spain until not so many years ago, but now Cuba belongs to itself.

参考译文

乘船往南又航行两天我就到了另一个叫做拿骚的岛屿，它是巴哈马群岛的首都。当地人从海底采收海绵，然后运到美国供我们使用。你能相信你使用的海绵曾经是活的吗？它们曾经就像是被果冻包裹着。人们潜到海底从岩石上扯下生长在上面的海绵。然后他们把果冻样的那一部分洗掉，剩下的就是海绵了。

巴哈马群岛还有一个小岛，是哥伦布最初登陆的小岛——世界上最著名的小岛。这里有一个纪念碑标示出了哥伦布下船的地点，哥伦布经过漫长的海上航行之后终于看到这个小岛，下船后他跪在沙滩上，感谢上帝指引他安全抵达了新大陆。他以救世主的名字把小岛命名为“神圣的救世主”，西班牙语中就是“圣萨尔瓦多”。

西印度群岛有三个大岛——像画“连城”游戏一样，三个岛连成一排。加勒比海还有一个小一点的岛和很多很多非常小的岛屿。

西印度群岛最大的岛——画“连城”游戏中三个一排的第一个岛——是古巴岛。哥伦布发现古巴岛上的印第安人嘴里叼着燃烧的小火把。他们以一种极为奇怪而又惊人的方式把烟吸进去然后又呼出来，好像是喷烟吐火的龙一样。人把野草燃烧冒出的烟吸进去，似乎在做一件离奇的事，因为那真就是野草；然而他们看起来却是很享受的样子。从大洋对岸来的人以前从来没有见过这种奇观——人吸火。但是现在全世界都有人在仿效古巴红皮肤的印第安人。这种野草叫做烟草。现在世界上很多地方都种植烟草，但是全世界做雪茄用的最优质的烟草还是产自古巴，古巴的首都哈瓦那把“哈瓦那”牌雪茄运送到世界各地。

来自西班牙的人直到几年前才在古巴定居下来。古巴属于西班牙，但是现在古巴是一个独立的国家。