Page:The life of Christopher Columbus.djvu/96

72 overtures and his scientific proofs, the Council did not accede to his offer.

Thus dismissed by Venice, as he had been by Genoa, Columbus repaired to Savone, to visit and console his father, then upwards of seventy years of age.

We say Savone, and not Genoa, because, previously to the year 1469, Dominic Columbus had left the "marble city" to settle at Savone; later, he returned to Genoa. This intermediary residence, which lasted more than seventeen years, appears to us to be the principal cause that has contributed to the incertitude and the errors of historians in regard to the true country of Christopher Columbus.

How different are the fortunes of men in this world! Some, from the outset, find in decent comforts the rewards of industry, of foresight, and economy; others, notwithstanding the regularity of their labors, and the privations they patiently endure, never break the yoke of the painful labor to which they seem doomed. Their recompense is reserved wholly for eternity. They receive, here below, only the pledges of the immortal hope inherent in the consolations of faith. The life of Dominic Columbus was only an unceasing struggle against obscure tribulations. His pecuniary embarrassments, and the ill-success of his industry, persuaded him that he would succeed better in Savone than in Genoa. The unfortunate easily become the sport of illusions.

The sojourn of Columbus with his parents at this time, was about a year. He was as much attached, and as submissive to them, as he was in his childhood; he aided them from his straitened resources, and was so identified with them, living under the same roof, and taking part in the same labors, that he was considered as belonging to the corporation of wool-combers. But it is certain that in this humble dwelling he drew marine charts, and copied