Page:The Biographical Dictionary of America, vol. 02.djvu/352

 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-

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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