is admiral of the seas and lord
of the Indies, who gave to Castille and Leon a new world?

Was he the ill-tempered and crack-brained adventurer of the skeptic
biographer, who weighed all men by the sum of ages and not by the age in
which they lived, or the religious hero who carried a flaming cross into
the darkness of the unknown West, as his reverential historians have
painted him?

There have been over six hundred biographers of this strange and
colossal man, advancing all degrees of criticism, from filial affection
to religious and fanatical hate, yet those who dwell in the lands he
discovered know him only by his achievements, caring nothing about the
trivial weaknesses of his private life.

One of his fairest critics has said he was the conspicuous developer of
a great world movement, the embodiment of the ripened aspirations of his
time.

His life is enveloped in an almost impenetrable veil of obscurity; in
fact, the date and the place of his birth are in dispute. There are no
authentic portraits of him, though hundreds have been printed.

There are in existence many documents written by Columbus about his
discoveries. When he set sail on his first voyage he endeavored to keep
a log similar to the commentaries of Caesar. It is from this log that
much of our present knowledge has been obtained, but it is a lamentable
fact that, while Columbus was an extraordinary executive officer, his
administrative ability was particularly poor, and in all matters of
detail he was so careless as to be untrustworthy. Therefore, there are
many statements in the log open to violent controversy.

TALES OF THE EAST.

It is probable that the letters of Toscanelli made a greater impression
on the mind of Columbus than any other information he possessed. The
aged Florentine entertained the brightest vision of the marvelous worth
of the Asiatic region. He spoke of two hundred towns whose bridges
spanned a single river, and whose commerce would excite the cupidity of
the world.

These were tales to stir circles of listeners wherever wandering mongers
of caravels came and went. All sorts of visionary discoveries were made
in those days. Islands were placed in the Atlantic that never existed,
and wonderful tales were told of the great Island of Antilla, or the
Seven Cities.

The sphericity of the earth was becoming a favorite belief, though it
must be borne in mind that education in those days was confined to the
cloister, and