English and the World · Spain · 29 · Cádiz · A1–C2 · A1–A2 free
Columbus sailing for the Americas, English fleets burning the harbour, and merchants on their towers watching for the ships of the Indies. Choose your level.
Columbus and the English
In 1492 Columbus sailed from Palos, in Huelva, with three small ships. A year later, on 25 September 1493, he left from Cádiz on his second voyage. This time he had seventeen ships and more than a thousand men. In 1502 his fourth and last voyage started in Cádiz, too.
Cádiz was rich, and Spain’s enemies knew it. In 1587 the English sailor Francis Drake came into the harbour and burned about thirty Spanish ships. In 1596 an English and Dutch army took the city and stayed for about two weeks. When they left, they burned many houses.
Cádiz in the 18th century
For a long time, the ships for the Americas left from Seville. But the river Guadalquivir was not deep enough for big ships, and in 1717 the king moved the office of the trade to Cádiz. The 18th century was the city’s golden age.
Rich merchants built tall houses with towers on the roof. From the towers, they watched the sea for their ships. Today there are more than a hundred towers in the old town. The highest, the Torre Tavira, is about 45 metres above the sea. The merchants’ money also paid for a new cathedral with a golden dome.
🦉 Want more? Sophia explains numbers, a, the and other little words before nouns in A Box, The Box, No Box At All (Philo & Sophia, Lesson 21).
Language: numbers and ordinals
| Type | Use | Example |
|---|---|---|
| cardinal numbers | how many | three ships, seventeen ships, a thousand men |
| ordinal numbers | order: which one | his second voyage, the fourth voyage, the 18th century |
| dates | we write 25 September, we say “the twenty-fifth of September” | on 25 September 1493 |
| years | we usually say them in two parts | 1493 = “fourteen ninety-three”, 1717 = “seventeen seventeen” |
⚠️ Ordinals: first (1st), second (2nd), third (3rd), then -th: fourth, fifth, twelfth, twentieth. Watch the spelling: fifth, ninth, twelfth. And a hundred towers, two hundred towers: no ✗ hundreds after a number.
Read the texts first. Press “Check my answers” at the end.
Choose the best answer.
1. Where did Columbus start his second voyage?
2. What did Francis Drake do in 1587?
3. Why did the trade move from Seville to Cádiz?
4. Why did the merchants build towers?
Write the number in words.
5. In 1492 Columbus had small ships. (3)
6. In 1493 he had ships. (17)
7. Drake burned about ships. (30)
8. There are more than a towers in the old town. (100)
Write the ordinal in words.
9. In 1493 Columbus left on his voyage. (2nd)
10. His and last voyage started in 1502. (4th)
11. His voyage started in Palos. (1st)
12. The golden age of Cádiz was the century. (18th)
Go there!
Visit: climb the Torre Tavira and look at the city in its camera obscura, a dark room with a moving picture of the streets. Count the towers on the roofs! Then walk to the Cathedral and its golden dome, and along the sea wall.
Your task: write six sentences about your town with numbers and ordinals: how many people, how many churches, the first, the second, the oldest century.
It tells how Columbus sailed twice from Cádiz, how Drake burned its harbour and Essex burned its streets, how a silting river made Cádiz the gateway of the Indies instead of Seville, and how its merchants built more than a hundred towers to watch for their ships, with grammar, practice, etymology and a visit plan.
The A1–A2 version above is free for everyone.
It tells how Columbus sailed twice from Cádiz, how Drake burned its harbour and Essex burned its streets, how a silting river made Cádiz the gateway of the Indies instead of Seville, and how its merchants built more than a hundred towers to watch for their ships, with grammar, practice, etymology and a visit plan.
The A1–A2 version above is free for everyone.