The Life of Columbus

by Sir Arthur Helps

GEORGE BELL & SONS,
LONDON: YORK STREET, COVENT GARDEN
NEW YORK: 66, FIFTH AVENUE, AND
BOMBAY: 53, ESPLANADE ROAD
CAMBRIDGE: DEIGHTON, BELL & CO.

THE LIFE OF COLUMBUS

CHIEFLY BY SIR ARTHUR HELPS K.C.B. AUTHOR OF "THE SPANISH CONQUEST IN AMERICA" "FRIENDS IN COUNCIL" ETC.

LONDON GEORGE BELL AND SONS 1897

First published 1868.
Reprinted 1869, 1873, 1874, 1877, 1878, 1881,
1883, 1887, 1890, 1892.
Included in Bohn's Standard Library, 1896,
Reprinted 1897.

TO
WILLIAM HENRY STONE,
THIS LIFE OF COLUMBUS
IS DEDICATED
WITH SINCERE ESTEEM AND REGARD
BY HIS AFFECTIONATE.
FRIEND,
ARTHUR HELPS.
London, October, 1868

PREFACE.

This Life of Columbus is one of a series of biographies prepared under my superintendence, and for the most part taken verbatim from my "History of the Spanish Conquest in America."

That work was written chiefly with a view to illustrate the history of slavery, and not to give full accounts of the deeds of the discoverers and conquerors of the New World, much less to give a condensed memoir of each of them.

It has, therefore, been necessary to rearrange and add considerably to these materials, and for this assistance I am indebted to the skill and research of Mr. Herbert Preston Thomas.