COLUMBUS
COLUMBUS
some sum in recognition of his services. He was
married to Cornelia B. Colton of Philadelphia,
^vho after his death became the wife of Simeon
B. Chittenden. He received the degree of A.M.
from Yale, in 1828. Among his published works
are: Ship and Shore in Madeira, Lisbon and the
Mediterranean (1835) ; A Visit to Athens and Constan-
tinople (1836) ; Three Years in California (1850) ;
Deck and. Port: Incidents of a Cruise to California
<1850). He died in Philadelphia, Pa., Jan. 22, 1851.
COLUMBUS, Christopher, discoverer, was
born in or near Genoa, between March 15, 1446,
and March 20, 1447 ; the eldest son of Domenico
and Susanna Fontanarossa Colombo, and grand-
son of Giovanni Colombo who lived probably in
■Quinto al Mare. Domenico settled himself in
Genoa about 1439, and being a wool weaver brought up his son Christopher to that trade. The boy appears to have spent some little time at the University of Pavia, but when fourteen years old he became a sailor and in 1484 entered the service of Spain- Previous to this time he had visited Bris- tol, England, and pos- sibly Iceland, and it is not improbable that in this way he learned of the existence of a continent west of Iceland wliich had been visited by the Northmen four centuries before. This knowledge, either historical or legendary, if possessed by Columbus does not seem to have influenced his decision to reach India by sailing to the west on the theory that the world was round, and the presence of an intervening continent did not apparently en- ter into his calculations. There were various incidents connected with his early life as a sailor. On one occasion he was sent by King Een6 to France to recover a captured galley, and his crew becoming mutinous, he deceived them by with- holding the knowledge of the real purpose of his voyage. At another time his vessel was wrecked in a naval engagement near Cape St. Vincent in 1470, and supported by a spar he reached the shores of Portugal. He journeyed to Lisbon where he married Donna Felipa, daughter of Parestrello, an Italian navigator who had com- manded the affairs of Porto Santo for the king. Here Columbus resided with his bride and here a son, Diego, was born. On this island he had access to the most recent charts and papers re-
2Cf«nn£-Ns^
lating to maritime discovery as they had been
left by his wife's father; and added to this infor-
mation he had as daily companions sailors w^ho
had studied the science of navigation. His mind,
thus directed, rapidly matured plans for the
carrying out of his dream of acquiring wealth
and renown by discovering a new route Avestward
to India. This was about 1474 and he set about
to secure a patron with confidence and courage
sufficient to fit him out an expedition. The king
of Portugal referred the matter to his council
and to a board of marine, both bodies rejecting
the project as visionary. At the same time, how-
ever, they surreptitiously sent out a caravel to
try the route, but the sailors, becoming alarmed
after several days' sail, returned and reported no
land in sight. Still the king was not disposed to
give up the project although subjecting himself
to the ridicule of his council. Columbus, while
waiting, had suffered the loss of his wife and
property and in 1484 he secretly left Lisbon and
set out for Spain. He then appealed to the senate
of Genoa and again to the King of Portugal, to
the King of England by letter, and finally to the
rich and powerful dukes of Medina, Sidonia and
Medina Cell in Spain. The Duke of Medina Cell
gave him directions to Isabella, Catholic queen
of Castile. She referred the scheme of the ven-
turesome and ambitious mariner to a jury of ec-
clesiastics who discouraged it, and only through
the good ofl&ces of Jean Perez de Marchena, a
monk and confessor to the queen, was he brought
into the presence of Ferdinand and Isabella and
allowed to plead his cause. His project was not
received with favor, but finally, after several
years of unremitting effort, the king and queen
on April 17, 1492, just as Columbus was on the
eve of his departure for France, accepted his pro-
posals and Columbus was created an admiral of
the seas and lands he should discover, and was
fitted out with three small vessels. The Santa
Maria with fifty men, which he commanded, and
two caravels, the Pinta and the Xiiia, with thirty-
five men each, sailed from the bar of Saltes, an
island near Palos, on Friday, Aug. 3, 1492. He
stopped at the Canary islands and on Sept. 6, 1492,
set the prows westward. His voj-age was full
of adventure, mutiny and discontent, and on
Friday, Oct. 12, 1492, he discovered land, probably
Watling's island, one of the Bahamas. Colum-
bus named the island San Salvador and continued
his voyage to Cuba and Hayti, which he named
Hispaniola and took possession of in the name of
the king and queen of Spain, leaving a small
colony of Spaniards. Columbus's treatment of
the natives was inhuman in the extreme and his
conduct as admiral was devoid of any trace of
Christian compassion. While he planted the
cross on the soil of the new world, he failed to
