EARLY SPANISH ADVENTURE.
Towards the close of the fifteenth century, Spain achieved her final triumph over the infidels of Granada, and made her name glorious through all generations by the discovery of America. The religious zeal1 and romantic daring which a long course of Moorish2 wars had called forth3 were now exalted4 to redoubled fervor5. Every ship from the New World came freighted with marvels6 which put the fictions of chivalry7 to shame; and to the Spaniard of that day America was a region of wonder and mystery, of vague and magnificent promise. Thither8 adventurers hastened, thirsting for glory and for gold, and often mingling9 the enthusiasm of the crusader and the valor10 of the knight-errant with the bigotry11 of inquisitors and the rapacity12 of pirates. They roamed over land and sea; they climbed unknown mountains, surveyed unknown oceans, pierced the sultry intricacies of tropical forests; while from year to year and from day to day new wonders were unfolded, new islands and archipelagoes, new regions of gold and pearl, and barbaric empires of more than Oriental wealth. The extravagance of hope and the fever of adventure knew no bounds. Nor is it surprising that amid such waking marvels the imagination should run wild in romantic dreams; that between the possible and the impossible the line of distinction should be but faintly drawn13, and that men should be found ready to stake life and honor in pursuit of the most insane fantasies.
Such a man was the veteran cavalier Juan Ponce de Leon. Greedy of honors and of riches, he embarked14 at Porto Rico with three brigantines, bent15 on schemes of discovery. But that which gave the chief stimulus16 to his enterprise was a story, current among the Indians of Cuba and Hispaniola, that on the island of Bimini, said to be one of the Bahamas, there was a fountain of such virtue17, that, bathing in its waters, old men resumed their youth. 1 It was said, moreover, that on a neighboring shore might be found a river gifted with the same beneficent property, and believed by some to be no other than the Jordan. 2 Ponce de Leon found the island of Bimini, but not the fountain. Farther westward18, in the latitude19 of thirty degrees and eight minutes, he approached an unknown land, which he named Florida, and, steering20 southward, explored its coast as far as the extreme point of the peninsula, when, after some farther explorations, he retraced21 his course to Porto Rico.
Nine years later he attempted to plant a colony in Florida; the Indians attacked him fiercely; he was mortally wounded, and died soon afterwards in Cuba. 3
The voyages of Garay and Vasquez de Ayllon threw new light on the discoveries of Ponce, and the general outline of the coasts of Florida became known to the Spaniards. 4 Meanwhile, Cortes had conquered Mexico, and the fame of that iniquitous23 but magnificent exploit rang through all Spain. Many an impatient cavalier burned to achieve a kindred fortune. To the excited fancy of the Spaniards the unknown land of Florida seemed the seat of surpassing wealth, and Pamphilo de Narvaez essayed to possess himself of its fancied treasures. Landing on its shores, and proclaiming destruction to the Indians unless they acknowledged the sovereignty of the Pope and the Emperor, he advanced into the forests with three hundred men. Nothing could exceed their sufferings. Nowhere could they find the gold they came to seek. The village of Appalache, where they hoped to gain a rich booty, offered nothing but a few mean wigwams. The horses gave out, and the famished24 soldiers fed upon their flesh. The men sickened, and the Indians unceasingly harassed25 their march. At length, after two hundred and eighty leagues 5 of wandering, they found themselves on the northern shore of the Gulf26 of Mexico, and desperately27 put to sea in such crazy boats as their skill and means could construct. Cold, disease, famine, thirst, and the fury of the waves, melted them away. Narvaez himself perished, and of his wretched followers28 no more than four escaped, reaching by land, after years of vicissitude29, the Christian30 settlements of New Spain. 6
The interior of the vast country then comprehended under the name of Florida still remained unexplored. The Spanish voyager, as his caravel ploughed the adjacent seas, might give full scope to his imagination, and dream that beyond the long, low margin31 of forest which bounded his horizon lay hid a rich harvest for some future conqueror32; perhaps a second Mexico with its royal palace and sacred pyramids, or another Cuzco with its temple of the Sun, encircled with a frieze33 of gold. Haunted by such visions, the ocean chivalry of Spain could not long stand idle.
Hernando de Soto was the companion of Pizarro in the conquest of Peru. He had come to America a needy34 adventurer, with no other fortune than his sword and target. But his exploits had given him fame and fortune, and he appeared at court with the retinue35 of a nobleman. 7 Still, his active energies could not endure repose36, and his avarice37 and ambition goaded38 him to fresh enterprises. He asked and obtained permission to conquer Florida. While this design was in agitation39, Cabeca de Vaca, one of those who had survived the expedition of Narvaez, appeared in Spain, and for purposes of his own spread abroad the mischievous40 falsehood, that Florida was the richest country yet discovered. De Soto's plans were embraced with enthusiasm. Nobles and gentlemen contended for the privilege of joining his standard; and, setting sail with an ample armament, he landed at the bay of Espiritu Santo, now Tampa Bay, in Florida, with six hundred and twenty chosen men, a band as gallant41 and well appointed, as eager in purpose and audacious in hope, as ever trod the shores of the New World. The clangor of trumpets42, the neighing of horses, the fluttering of pennons, the glittering of helmet and lance, startled the ancient forest with unwonted greeting. Amid this pomp of chivalry, religion was not forgotten. The sacred vessels43 and vestments with bread and wine for the Eucharist were carefully provided; and De Soto himself declared that the enterprise was undertaken for God alone, and seemed to be the object of His especial care. These devout44 marauders could not neglect the spiritual welfare of the Indians whom they had come to plunder45; and besides fetters46 to bind47, and bloodhounds to hunt them, they brought priests and monks48 for the saving of their souls.
The adventurers began their march. Their story has been often told. For month after month and year after year, the procession of priests and cavaliers, crossbowmen, arquebusiers, and Indian captives laden50 with the baggage, still wandered on through wild and boundless51 wastes, lured52 hither and thither by the ignis fatuus of their hopes. They traversed great portions of Georgia, Alabama, and Mississippi, everywhere inflicting53 and enduring misery54, but never approaching their phantom55 El Dorado. At length, in the third year of their journeying, they reached the banks of the Mississippi, a hundred and thirty-two years before its second discovery by Marquette. One of their number describes the great river as almost half a league wide, deep, rapid, and constantly rolling down trees and drift-wood on its turbid56 current.
The Spaniards crossed over at a point above the mouth of the Arkansas. They advanced westward, but found no treasures,—nothing indeed but hardships, and an Indian enemy, furious, writes one of their officers, "as mad dogs." They heard of a country towards the north where maize57 could not be cultivated because the vast herds58 of wild cattle devoured59 it. They penetrated60 so far that they entered the range of the roving prairie tribes; for, one day, as they pushed their way with difficulty across great plains covered with tall, rank grass, they met a band of savages61 who dwelt in lodges62 of skins sewed together, subsisting63 on game alone, and wandering perpetually from place to place. Finding neither gold nor the South Sea, for both of which they had hoped, they returned to the banks of the Mississippi.
De Soto, says one of those who accompanied him, was a "stern man, and of few words." Even in the midst of reverses, his will had been law to his followers, and he had sustained himself through the depths of disappointment with the energy of a stubborn pride. But his hour was come. He fell into deep dejection, followed by an attack of fever, and soon after died miserably64. To preserve his body from the Indians, his followers sank it at midnight in the river, and the sullen65 waters of the Mississippi buried his ambition and his hopes.
The adventurers were now, with few exceptions, disgusted with the enterprise, and longed only to escape from the scene of their miseries66. After a vain attempt to reach Mexico by land, they again turned back to the Mississippi, and labored67, with all the resources which their desperate necessity could suggest, to construct vessels in which they might make their way to some Christian settlement. Their condition was most forlorn. Few of their horses remained alive; their baggage had been destroyed at the burning of the Indian town of Mavila, and many of the soldiers were without armor and without weapons. In place of the gallant array which, more than three years before, had left the harbor of Espiritu Santo, a company of sickly and starving men were laboring68 among the swampy69 forests of the Mississippi, some clad in skins, and some in mats woven from a kind of wild vine.
Seven brigantines were finished and launched; and, trusting their lives on board these frail70 vessels, they descended71 the Mississippi, running the gantlet between hostile tribes, who fiercely attacked them. Reaching the Gulf, though not without the loss of eleven of their number, they made sail for the Spanish settlement on the river Panuco, where they arrived safely, and where the inhabitants met them with a cordial welcome. Three hundred and eleven men thus escaped with life, leaving behind them the bones of their comrades strewn broadcast through the wilderness72.
De Soto's fate proved an insufficient73 warning, for those were still found who begged a fresh commission for the conquest of Florida; but the Emperor would not hear them. A more pacific enterprise was undertaken by Cancello, a Dominican monk49, who with several brother ecclesiastics74 undertook to convert the natives to the true faith, but was murdered in the attempt. Nine years later, a plan was formed for the colonization75 of Florida, and Guido de las Bazares sailed to explore the coasts, and find a spot suitable for the establishment. 8 After his return, a squadron, commanded by Angel de Villafane, and freighted with supplies and men, put to sea from San Juan d'Ulloa; but the elements were adverse76, and the result was a total failure. Not a Spaniard had yet gained foothold in Florida.
That name, as the Spaniards of that day understood it, comprehended the whole country extending from the Atlantic on the east to the longitude77 of New Mexico on the west, and from the Gulf of Mexico and the River of Palms indefinitely northward78 towards the polar sea. This vast territory was claimed by Spain in right of the discoveries of Columbus, the grant of the Pope, and the various expeditions mentioned above. England claimed it in right of the discoveries of Cabot; while France could advance no better title than might be derived79 from the voyage of Verazzano and vague traditions of earlier visits of Breton adventurers.
With restless jealousy80 Spain watched the domain81 which she could not occupy, and on France especially she kept an eye of deep distrust. When, in 1541, Cartier and Roberval essayed to plant a colony in the part of ancient Spanish Florida now called Canada, she sent spies and fitted out caravels to watch that abortive82 enterprise. Her fears proved just. Canada, indeed, was long to remain a solitude83; but, despite the Papal bounty84 gifting Spain with exclusive ownership of a hemisphere, France and Heresy85 at length took root in the sultry forests of modern Florida.
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1 zeal | |
n.热心,热情,热忱 | |
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2 moorish | |
adj.沼地的,荒野的,生[住]在沼地的 | |
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3 forth | |
adv.向前;向外,往外 | |
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4 exalted | |
adj.(地位等)高的,崇高的;尊贵的,高尚的 | |
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5 fervor | |
n.热诚;热心;炽热 | |
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6 marvels | |
n.奇迹( marvel的名词复数 );令人惊奇的事物(或事例);不平凡的成果;成就v.惊奇,对…感到惊奇( marvel的第三人称单数 ) | |
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7 chivalry | |
n.骑士气概,侠义;(男人)对女人彬彬有礼,献殷勤 | |
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8 thither | |
adv.向那里;adj.在那边的,对岸的 | |
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9 mingling | |
adj.混合的 | |
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10 valor | |
n.勇气,英勇 | |
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11 bigotry | |
n.偏见,偏执,持偏见的行为[态度]等 | |
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12 rapacity | |
n.贪婪,贪心,劫掠的欲望 | |
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13 drawn | |
v.拖,拉,拔出;adj.憔悴的,紧张的 | |
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14 embarked | |
乘船( embark的过去式和过去分词 ); 装载; 从事 | |
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15 bent | |
n.爱好,癖好;adj.弯的;决心的,一心的 | |
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16 stimulus | |
n.刺激,刺激物,促进因素,引起兴奋的事物 | |
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17 virtue | |
n.德行,美德;贞操;优点;功效,效力 | |
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18 westward | |
n.西方,西部;adj.西方的,向西的;adv.向西 | |
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19 latitude | |
n.纬度,行动或言论的自由(范围),(pl.)地区 | |
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20 steering | |
n.操舵装置 | |
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21 retraced | |
v.折回( retrace的过去式和过去分词 );回忆;回顾;追溯 | |
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22 regained | |
复得( regain的过去式和过去分词 ); 赢回; 重回; 复至某地 | |
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23 iniquitous | |
adj.不公正的;邪恶的;高得出奇的 | |
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24 famished | |
adj.饥饿的 | |
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25 harassed | |
adj. 疲倦的,厌烦的 动词harass的过去式和过去分词 | |
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26 gulf | |
n.海湾;深渊,鸿沟;分歧,隔阂 | |
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27 desperately | |
adv.极度渴望地,绝望地,孤注一掷地 | |
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28 followers | |
追随者( follower的名词复数 ); 用户; 契据的附面; 从动件 | |
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29 vicissitude | |
n.变化,变迁,荣枯,盛衰 | |
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30 Christian | |
adj.基督教徒的;n.基督教徒 | |
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31 margin | |
n.页边空白;差额;余地,余裕;边,边缘 | |
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32 conqueror | |
n.征服者,胜利者 | |
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33 frieze | |
n.(墙上的)横饰带,雕带 | |
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34 needy | |
adj.贫穷的,贫困的,生活艰苦的 | |
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35 retinue | |
n.侍从;随员 | |
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36 repose | |
v.(使)休息;n.安息 | |
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37 avarice | |
n.贪婪;贪心 | |
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38 goaded | |
v.刺激( goad的过去式和过去分词 );激励;(用尖棒)驱赶;驱使(或怂恿、刺激)某人 | |
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39 agitation | |
n.搅动;搅拌;鼓动,煽动 | |
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40 mischievous | |
adj.调皮的,恶作剧的,有害的,伤人的 | |
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41 gallant | |
adj.英勇的,豪侠的;(向女人)献殷勤的 | |
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42 trumpets | |
喇叭( trumpet的名词复数 ); 小号; 喇叭形物; (尤指)绽开的水仙花 | |
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43 vessels | |
n.血管( vessel的名词复数 );船;容器;(具有特殊品质或接受特殊品质的)人 | |
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44 devout | |
adj.虔诚的,虔敬的,衷心的 (n.devoutness) | |
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45 plunder | |
vt.劫掠财物,掠夺;n.劫掠物,赃物;劫掠 | |
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46 fetters | |
n.脚镣( fetter的名词复数 );束缚v.给…上脚镣,束缚( fetter的第三人称单数 ) | |
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47 bind | |
vt.捆,包扎;装订;约束;使凝固;vi.变硬 | |
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48 monks | |
n.修道士,僧侣( monk的名词复数 ) | |
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49 monk | |
n.和尚,僧侣,修道士 | |
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50 laden | |
adj.装满了的;充满了的;负了重担的;苦恼的 | |
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51 boundless | |
adj.无限的;无边无际的;巨大的 | |
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52 lured | |
吸引,引诱(lure的过去式与过去分词形式) | |
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53 inflicting | |
把…强加给,使承受,遭受( inflict的现在分词 ) | |
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54 misery | |
n.痛苦,苦恼,苦难;悲惨的境遇,贫苦 | |
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55 phantom | |
n.幻影,虚位,幽灵;adj.错觉的,幻影的,幽灵的 | |
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56 turbid | |
adj.混浊的,泥水的,浓的 | |
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57 maize | |
n.玉米 | |
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58 herds | |
兽群( herd的名词复数 ); 牧群; 人群; 群众 | |
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59 devoured | |
吞没( devour的过去式和过去分词 ); 耗尽; 津津有味地看; 狼吞虎咽地吃光 | |
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60 penetrated | |
adj. 击穿的,鞭辟入里的 动词penetrate的过去式和过去分词形式 | |
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61 savages | |
未开化的人,野蛮人( savage的名词复数 ) | |
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62 lodges | |
v.存放( lodge的第三人称单数 );暂住;埋入;(权利、权威等)归属 | |
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63 subsisting | |
v.(靠很少的钱或食物)维持生活,生存下去( subsist的现在分词 ) | |
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64 miserably | |
adv.痛苦地;悲惨地;糟糕地;极度地 | |
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65 sullen | |
adj.愠怒的,闷闷不乐的,(天气等)阴沉的 | |
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66 miseries | |
n.痛苦( misery的名词复数 );痛苦的事;穷困;常发牢骚的人 | |
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67 labored | |
adj.吃力的,谨慎的v.努力争取(for)( labor的过去式和过去分词 );苦干;详细分析;(指引擎)缓慢而困难地运转 | |
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68 laboring | |
n.劳动,操劳v.努力争取(for)( labor的现在分词 );苦干;详细分析;(指引擎)缓慢而困难地运转 | |
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69 swampy | |
adj.沼泽的,湿地的 | |
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70 frail | |
adj.身体虚弱的;易损坏的 | |
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71 descended | |
a.为...后裔的,出身于...的 | |
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72 wilderness | |
n.杳无人烟的一片陆地、水等,荒漠 | |
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73 insufficient | |
adj.(for,of)不足的,不够的 | |
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74 ecclesiastics | |
n.神职者,教会,牧师( ecclesiastic的名词复数 ) | |
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75 colonization | |
殖民地的开拓,殖民,殖民地化; 移殖 | |
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76 adverse | |
adj.不利的;有害的;敌对的,不友好的 | |
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77 longitude | |
n.经线,经度 | |
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78 northward | |
adv.向北;n.北方的地区 | |
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79 derived | |
vi.起源;由来;衍生;导出v.得到( derive的过去式和过去分词 );(从…中)得到获得;源于;(从…中)提取 | |
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80 jealousy | |
n.妒忌,嫉妒,猜忌 | |
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81 domain | |
n.(活动等)领域,范围;领地,势力范围 | |
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82 abortive | |
adj.不成功的,发育不全的 | |
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83 solitude | |
n. 孤独; 独居,荒僻之地,幽静的地方 | |
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84 bounty | |
n.慷慨的赠予物,奖金;慷慨,大方;施与 | |
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85 heresy | |
n.异端邪说;异教 | |
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