This page has been validated.
HOW TO GET STRONG
man; there was no man in Scotland that was thought a match for him except Sir William Wallace; and now that Wallace was dead, Bruce was held the best warrior in Scotland."—Tales of a Grandfather, p. 78.
COLUMBUS (1446–1506).
A wool-comber's son wanted to go to sea; fitted at the University of Pavia; at fourteen, with a relative, an admiral of the Genoese service, sailed the Mediterranean; and up the Levant for some years; once or twice to Guinea; met navigators of note; made up his mind to sail West, and so reach India; was sure the earth was round; cut its girth into 24 hours of 15 degrees each, making 360 degrees, from Ptolemy's globe, and an early map of Tyre; was sure that the ancients knew 15 hours from the Canary Isles to Thine, in Asia; that the Portuguese advanced one hour more to the Cape Verde Isles; leaving 8 hours unexplored. The ideas of Marco Polo and Strabo agreed with this; a Portuguese pilot had taken from the ocean, 1350 miles west of Portugal, a piece of oddly carved wood; and a piece like it had drifted to the Island of Porto Santo; sugar-cane had been washed on the Madeiras; huge pines on the Azores; and two drowned men, not like any ever seen in Europe, had come ashore at Flores from the west. He sailed once a hundred leagues northwest beyond Thule, probably Iceland; and was surprised to find that the sea was not frozen; was refused aid at Genoa and Portugal by Alphonso. King John favored him, but his learned advisers called it visionary; lost his wife and property; was about the Spanish coast for seven years; was mentioned for bravery in fighting the Moors; never let go of his plan; was sure from the Scriptures that Christianity would be extended to the ends of the earth; thought that he was heaven's instrument to that end; had letters of encouragement from Henry VII. of England and Charles VIII. of France; interested Palos sailors, the best in Spain; had a hearing before Ferdinand and Isabella; was refused; had gone two leagues; was recalled; Ferdinand said that the exchequer was empty; Isabella said: "I undertake the enterprise for my own crown of Castile; and will pledge my jewels to raise the necessary funds."
And she kept her word like a Queen. And he—a true sailor—heeded not storm; nor superstition; nor threats; nor mutiny; but
282
