[II. COLUMBUS.]
Columbus.
It is not ascertained in what year the birth of this illustrious individual occurred. Some authorities have placed it in 1446, others have removed it back eight or ten years farther. As he died in 1506, and was said by Bernaldez, one of his cotemporaries and intimates, to have departed "in a good old age of seventy, a little more or less,"[1] it would seem, abating the vagueness of the expression, that about 1436 was the period. The place of his birth also has been a subject of controversy, but the evidence is decidedly in favor of Genoa. His parentage was humble, though probably of honorable descent. It is generally believed that his father exercised the craft of a wool-carder or weaver. Christopher was the eldest of four children, having two brothers, Bartholomew and Diego, and one sister, who was obscurely connected in life. In his early youth he was instructed at Pavia, a place then celebrated for education, and is said there to have acquired that taste for mathematical studies in which he afterwards excelled. Of geographical science he was particularly enamored, as it became also to be the favorite study of an adventurous age. It doubtless gave a direction, in some measure, to the course which Columbus pursued in life. At the early age of fourteen years, he began to follow the seas, and after continuing this profession for more than sixteen years, he proceeded to Portugal, the country of maritime enterprise at that era. Hither the adventurous spirits of Europe repaired, where they sought their fortunes in this department of business. Columbus mingled in the exciting scenes of the country and the times. Sailing from thence, he continued to make voyages to the various then known parts of the world, and while on shore, he occupied his time in the construction and sale of maps and charts. Thus furnished with all the nautical science of the times, and with a large fund of experience, he was prepared to enter upon those speculations, respecting the possibility of lands lying beyond the western waters, the result of which, when put into practice, proved to be so auspicious to the interests of mankind. What will not a single thought, when pursued as it may be, sometimes effect! In our hero, it brought to light the existence of a new world. His single object appeared to be, to find the eastern shores of Asia, or some unknown tract, by sailing due west.
How far that idea was original with him, it is not very material to ascertain. If not the first individual to conceive it, he was the first to carry it into execution. That land existed beyond the Atlantic, was a conjecture merely of the ancients. Seneca comes the nearest to a direct intimation, though as a poetic fancy it claims no serious consideration. As the idea is given by Frenau, he says:
"The time shall come when numerous years are past,
The ocean shall dissolve the band of things,
And an extended region rise at last:
And Typhis shall disclose the mighty land,
Far, far away, where none have roamed before:
Nor shall the world's remotest region be
Gibraltar's rock, or Thule's savage shore,"
Ferdinand Columbus informs us, that his father's conviction of the existence of land in the west was founded on—1, natural reason, or the deductions of science; 2, authority of writers, amounting, however, to vague surmises; 3, testimony of sea-faring persons, or rather popular rumors of land, described in western voyages, embracing such relics as appeared to be wafted from over the Atlantic to Europe. What particular intimations he may have received, either from authors or sailors, do not appear; since, in his voyage to Iceland, no mention is made of his having learned the story of the Scandinavian voyages to the northern portion of America. It is possible, however, that he may have been informed of them; and the reason why no mention was made by him was, as M. Humboldt conjectures, that he had no conception that the land discovered by the Northmen had any connection with the region of which he was in pursuit. The traditions which he may have met with, and the speculations of the times, were realized in his view. So strong was the conviction which had been wrought in his mind, from whatever cause, he was willing to jeopard life and fortune to put it to the test of experiment.