Page:The life of Christopher Columbus.djvu/75

] blood. His ancestors descended from a military stock, originally come from Lombardy, the collateral branches of which had taken root in Piedmont, and on the Plaisantin; whilst others, transplanted into Liguria, found themselves obliged to turn to naval affairs, and to trading. Undoubtedly, in the first half of the fifteenth century, there existed several Colombos, united by ancient parentage; but their conditions becoming widely diverse, their relations to each other partook of their difference of rank. Some attained high positions by their services or their fortune, whilst others occupied only secondary positions, or were even ignored in marine traffic. Such were the parents of John Anthony Colombo, who served in the Indies in quality of Captain, under the Admiral of the Ocean. Others, still, inhabiting the market-towns of Liguria, attended to the cultivation of their small farms. It was these bonds of parentage, and of vicinity, that gave occasion to the pretensions that afterwards arose in regard to the true country of Christopher Columbus.

The coat-of-arms of the Columbuses bore three argent doves, surmounted by the emblem of justice, and having, as a device, these three words: Fides, Spes, Charitas; Faith, Hope, Charity. Except in slight shades of difference, these arms were common to the several branches of the ancient Lombardian family.

Several writers have advanced the opinion that at Genoa the business of a wool-comber did not derogate from one's nobility. We have not been able, to verify the value of this assertion. Whatever may have been the importance acquired by the body corporate of wool-combers in Liguria, we doubt whether a gentleman of noble descent would have the desire to become aggregated with it. But it is certain that a tradition of dignity, of lovalty, and of honor existed under the roof of the artisan; and that whether or not he had borne the arms of his ancestors, Dominic Columbus always appeared to bear them in his mind and in his conduct. He made his family models of sanctity