ad before the
Royal Geographical Society of England, June 20, 1892.

In the present year the fourth centenary of the discovery of America by
Columbus will be celebrated with great enthusiasm in Spain, in Italy,
and in America. That discovery was, without any doubt, the most
momentous event since the fall of the Roman Empire in its effect on the
world's history. In its bearings on our science, the light thrown across
the sea of darkness by the great Genoese was nothing less than the
creation of modern geography. It seems fitting, therefore, that this
society should take some share in the commemoration, and that we should
devote one evening in this session to a consideration of some leading
points in the life of the foremost of all geographers. * * *

Much new light has been thrown upon the birth and early life of
Columbus, of late years, by the careful examination of monastic and
notarial records at Genoa and Savona. At Genoa the original documents
are still preserved. At Savona they no longer exist, and we are
dependent on copies made two centuries ago by Salinerius. But both the
Genoa and Savona records may be safely accepted, and we are thus
furnished with a new and more interesting view of the early life of
Columbus. Our thanks for this new light are mainly due to the laborious
and scholarly researches of the Marchese Marcello Staglieno of Genoa,
and to the work of Mr. Harrisse. We may take it as fully established
that the original home of Giovanni Colombo, the grandfather of the great
discoverer, was at Terrarossa, a small stone house, the massive walls
of which are still standing on a hillside forming the northern slope of
the beautiful valley of Fontanabuona. Here, no doubt, the father of
Columbus was born; but the family moved to Quinto-al-Mare, then a
fishing village about five miles east of Genoa. Next we find the father,
Domenico Colombo, owning a house at Quinto, but established at Genoa as
a wool weaver, with an apprentice. This was in 1439. A few years
afterward Domenico found a wife in the family of a silk weaver who lived
up a tributary valley of the Bisagno, within an easy walk of Genoa.
Quezzi is a little village high up on the west side of a ravine, with
slopes clothed to their summits in olive and chestnut foliage, whence
there is a glorious view of the east end of Genoa, including the church
of Carignano and the Mediterranean. On the opposite slope are the
scattered houses of the hamlet of Gine