Christopher Columbus was born in Genoa, in Italy. The date of his birth is uncertain. His father was a humble wool comber, but Columbus received a fair education. He knew Latin, wrote a good hand, and drew maps exceedingly well. He sometimes supported himself by making maps and charts. He was well informed in geography as it was then understood. At fourteen he went to sea, and before he sailed on his great voyage, he had been almost all over the known world. He had gone some distance down the newly discovered coast of Africa, with the Portuguese, and north as far as Iceland. Columbus married the daughter of a Portuguese navigator, and came into possession of his charts. He was a man of great perseverance, and he held to his idea of sailing to the west through many long years of discouragement. He made four voyages to America, setting out on the first in 1492, the second in 1493, the third in 1498, and the fourth in 1502. Though a great navigator, he was not a wise governor of the colonies he planted, and he had many enemies. In 1500 he was cruelly sent home to Spain in chains. But Ferdinand and Isabella, as well as the people, were shocked at this degradation, and he was at once set free. His last voyage was unfortunate, and when he returned to Spain, in November, 1504, the monarchs paid little attention to him. Queen Isabella died soon after his return, while Columbus lay sick, and when the great navigator came to court the king was deaf to his petitions. Worn out with fatigue, exposure, and anxiety, the great admiral died on the 20th of May, 1506.

It is now about four hundred years since Columbus discovered America. Before that time people in Europe knew nothing of any lands on the western side of the Atlantic. Trade with India was carried on by caravans, and travelers who had gone to China and Japan brought back wonderful stories of the riches of their cities, and of the curious people who lived in those far-away countries. In order to reach these lands of wonder and to open a trade with India by sea, the Portuguese had been for a long time pushing their discoveries down the western coast of Africa. But the seamen of that time sailed mostly in the Mediterranean, and they were timid in the Atlantic Ocean. The Portuguese sent out expedition after expedition, for seventy years, before they succeeded in discovering the Cape of Good Hope, and they had not yet got around that cape when Columbus offered to find a new and shorter way to India.

As learned men already believed the world to be round, Columbus asked: Why try to get to India and China by going around Africa? Why not sail straight to the west around the world to Asia? He did not know that America was in the way, and he thought that the world was smaller than it is, and he believed that he could reach the rich lands of gold and spices in Asia by sailing only two or three thousand miles to the westward. So that Columbus discovered America in consequence of two mistakes.

He first offered to make this discovery for the city of Genoa, in which he was born. Then he offered his plan to the King of Portugal. By a voyage on the great Atlantic Ocean seemed a dreadful thing in those days. It was called the "Sea of Darkness," because no one knew anything about it and people believed that it was inhabited by hideous monsters. As the world was round, some thought that, if a ship sailed down the sides of it, it would find it impossible to get back tip again. They said that people could not live on the other side of the world because they would be upside down.

The King of Portugal was an enlightened man, and the ideas of Columbus made an impression on him after a while. But he did not like to grant the great rewards demanded by the navigator if he should find land; so he secretly sent out a ship under another commander to sail to the westward and see if there was any land there. The sailors on this ship were easily discouraged, and they returned laughing at Columbus and his notions. When Columbus found that he had been cheated, he left Portugal to offer his idea to the King and Queen of Spain, the celebrated Ferdinand and Isabella. The Spanish monarchs were very busy in their war with the Moors, and Columbus, who was poor and obscure, spent about seven years in trying to persuade them to furnish him ships and sailors. At length, after he had waited so long, they refused his terms, and he set out for France, but certain officers of Queen Isabella, who believed in Columbus's theory, persuaded her to call him back and to send him on his own terms.

Columbus sailed from Spain, with three small vessels, on the 3rd of August, 1492, and was more than two and his discovery months on the voyage. The sailors were more and more frightened as they found themselves going farther and farther out of the known world. They sometimes threatened to pitch Columbus overboard and return. He kept their courage up by every means he could think of, even by concealing from them how far they had come. One night, Columbus saw a light, and at two o'clock the next morning, which was the 12th of October, 1492, a sailor on one of the vessels raised the cry "Land!" There was the wildest joy on the ships. Those who had hated Columbus, and wished to kill him, now reverenced him.

Instead of finding the rich cities of Asia, Columbus had come upon one of the smallest of the West India islands, which was inhabited by people entirely naked, and living in the rudest manner. He afterward discovered larger islands, and then sailed homeward.

He carried with him some gold and some of the inhabitants of the islands. He was received by Ferdinand and Isabella with the greatest honor. They even made him sit down in their presence, a favor never shown except to the greatest grandees. The people who had believed him a fool when he went away, followed him with cheers as he walked along the street.

Columbus, in his second voyage to America, planted a colony on the island of Hispaniola, or Haiti. In this and in two other voyages he discovered other islands and a portion of the coast of South America, which he first saw in 1498. He never knew that he had found a new world, but lived and died in the belief that the large island of Cuba was a part of the mainland of Asia.



DISCOVERIES BEFORE COLUMBUS

There is some reason to believe that America may have been visited from Europe before the time of Columbus. The inhabitants of Scandinavia (the country now divided into Denmark, Sweden, and Norway) were known as Norsemen. In the old romantic tales of Scandinavia there are stories which go to show that these Norsemen, under the command of Leif, the son of Eric, in the year 1001, and afterward, probably explored the coast of America from Labrador southward for some distance. Fanciful theories have been built on these stories, such as the notion that the old stone windmill at Newport, R. I., is a tower built by the Norsemen. There is also a tradition in Wales that one Madoc, a Welsh prince, in the year 1170, discovered land to the west of Ireland, and took a colony thither, which was never heard of afterward. If these stories of Leif and Madoc represent real voyages, the discoveries which they relate would probably never have been recalled to memory if Columbus had not opened a wide door at the right moment.