Professor, Captain Nemo went on, if you're amenable, we'll go back in time to 1702.

教授，尼摩船长又说，请您注意，我们现在要回溯到 1702年了。

You're aware of the fact that in those days your King Louis XIV thought an imperial gesture would suffice to humble the Pyrenees in the dust, so he inflicted his grandson, the Duke of Anjou, on the Spaniards.

您知道，在这个时期，您的法国国王路易十四以为专制君主做一下手势，比利牛斯山就得缩人地下去，他一定要西班牙人接受他的孙子一安儒公爵做他们的国王。

Reigning more or less poorly under the name King Philip V, this aristocrat had to deal with mighty opponents abroad.

这国王在菲力五世的称号下，统治了西班牙。可是统治得不高明。他对外有了问题，跟强大的敌人发生争执。

In essence, the year before, the royal houses of Holland, Austria, and England had signed a treaty of alliance at The Hague,

就在一年前，荷兰、奥地利和英国王室在海牙订了同盟协定，

aiming to wrest the Spanish crown from King Philip V and to place it on the head of an archduke whom they prematurely dubbed King Charles III.

目的要把菲力五世的王冠摘下来，戴在奥地利某亲王的头上，它们过早地又把查理三世的称号给了这位亲王。

Spain had to withstand these allies. But the country had practically no army or navy.

西班牙当然要抵抗这个同盟，可是它很缺乏士兵和海员，

Yet it wasn't short of money, provided that its galleons, laden with gold and silver from America, could enter its ports.

不过金钱是有的。但是有一个条件，那就是要装过美洲金银的船只能够进入它的海港中来。

Now then, late in 1702 Spain was expecting a rich convoy, which France ventured to escort with a fleet of twenty-three vessels under the command of Admiral de Chateau-Renault, because by that time the allied navies were roving the Atlantic.

就是在1702年终。西班牙政府正在等着一队载有大量全钱的运输船，由法国派二十三艘战舰护送，指挥宫是夏都·雷诺海军大将，冈为，这时候有敌人们联合的海军在大西洋上巡逻。

This convoy was supposed to put into Cadiz, but after learning that the English fleet lay across those waterways, the admiral decided to make for a French port.

这队运输船本来要开到加的斯港，但法国海军司令接到英国舰队在这一带海域巡逻的情报，就决定把这队船开万吨呢。

The Spanish commanders in the convoy objected to this decision. They wanted to be taken to a Spanish port, if not to Cadiz, then to the Bay of Vigo, located on Spain's northwest coast and not blockaded.

不错，不过提炼这些银，所花的费用比所得的利益还大。在这湾中就不同了，我只需捡拾人们所丢掉的就行了。

Admiral de Chateau-Renault was so indecisive as to obey this directive, and the galleons entered the Bay of Vigo.

还不仅在这维哥湾中，在其他千百处的失事地点也一样，这都由我的海底地图标记下来了。