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COLUMBUS 78 COLUMBUS Court; the State Capitol; the Ohio State University; Central Ohio Insane Asy- lum; Odd Fellows' Hall; Masonic Tem- ple; the Franklin County Court House; Soldiers and Sailors' Memorial ; Columbus Public Library; and Y. M. C. A. building, and among 70 Protestant and 10 Roman Catholic churches are: Trinity Church (P. E.), St. Joseph's Cathedral (R. C), Second Presbyterian, St. Paul's (Germ. Luth.), Broad Street (M. E.), Wesley Chapel, and the Third Avenue. The edu- cational institutions include the Ohio State University, Columbus Normal School, Capital University, and several public and private high and secondary schools. History. — Columbus was laid out in 1812; became the seat of the State gov- ernment in 1816; and was incorporated as a city in 1834, with a population of less than 4,000. Pop. (1910) 181,548; (1920) 237,031. COLUMBUS, CHRISTOPHER, the Latinized form of the Italian Colovibo, and the Spanish Colon, the great naviga- tor who added a new hemisphere to our globe; born near Genoa, probably in 1451, He was the son of a wool-comber; at- tended for some little time the school of learning in Pavia, where he evinced a taste for astronomy and cosmography; and early went to sea, and made several voyages in the Mediterranean. Settling in Lisbon, in 1470, he married the daugh- ter of an Italian named Palestrello, once a navigator in the Portuguese service, and with her obtained some valuable charts, journals, and memoranda. While constructing maps and charts for the live- lihood of his family, Columbus gained the belief of a great land in the west. To qualify himself for his great enter- prise he made several voyages to the Azores, the Canaries, and the coast of Guinea — ^then the limit of European navi- gation in this direction. Not until about 1482 or 1483 did he find opportunity to lay his scheme before John II. of Portu- gal. This monarch referred it to a junta of nautical and scientific men, who de- cided against it. The king, however, tak- ing advantage of a detailed plan obtained from Columbus under false pretenses, se- cretly sent out a vessel to examine the route. Too timid to venture far from the beaten track, the pilots soon returned to Lisbon to throw ridicule on the proj- ect. Disgusted with the duplicity of his sovereign, Columbus secretly left Lisbon in 1484, taking with him his motherless boy Diego. He found his way to Genoa, where the republic treated his project with scorn. Disappointed, but not de- spairing, Columbus turned his steps to- ward Spain. Weary and hungry, he stopped one day at the gate of the Fran- ciscan convent. La Rabida, in Andalusia, to beg some bread and water for his child. This day was the turning-point in his career. The superior of the convent, Juan Perez de Marchena, passing at the mo- ment, entered into conversation with the traveler, and was so struck with the grandeur of his views that he used all his influence to procure him the favor- able consideration of Ferdinand and Isa- bella, and it was to the latter, not the king, to whom he owed assistance in his project. Eight years of disappointment passed, during which Columbus applied to other CRISTOFORO COLOMBO NATO M-CCCCXLIl MORTO MD-YI CHRISTOPHER COLUMBUS courts, and without avail, when he found himself in command of three small ves- sels, only one of which was decked, with 120 men, ready to start on his adventur- ous enterprise. Columbus claimed, as re- ward, to be nominated high-admiral and governor-general and viceroy over all the lands he discovered, with a tenth of the produce of the countries. On Aug. 3, 1492, he set sail from the bar of Saltes, near Palos. Delaying a month at the Ca- naries to refit, he started thence, on Sept. 6, over unknown seas. His crew soon be-