, drawing, painting; and Columbus is said to have written a
singularly beautiful hand. For a short time he was at the University of
Pavia, but he went to sea when he was only fourteen. After being engaged
in the Syrian trade for many years, he had made several voyages to
Guinea, occupying his time when not at sea in the construction of charts
for sale, thereby supporting not only himself, but also his aged father,
and finding means for the education of his brothers. Under these
circumstances he had obtained a competent knowledge of geography, and,
though the state of public opinion at the time did not permit such
doctrines to be openly avowed, he believed that the sea is everywhere
navigable, that the earth is round and not flat, that there are
antipodes, that the torrid zone is habitable, and that there is a
proportionate distribution of land in the northern and southern
hemispheres. [Sidenote: His argument for lands to the west.] Adopting
the Patristic logic when it suited his purpose, he reasoned that since
the earth is made for man, it is not likely that its surface is too
largely covered with water, and that, if there are lands, they must be
inhabited, since the command was renewed at the Flood that man should
replenish the earth. He asked, "Is it likely that the sun shines upon
nothing, and that the nightly watches of the stars are wasted on
trackless seas and desert lands?" But to this reasoning he added facts
that were more substantial. One Martin Vincent, who had sailed many
miles to the west of the Azores, related to him that he had found,
floating on the sea, a piece of timber evidently carved without iron.
Another sailor, Pedro Correa, his brother-in-law, had met with enormous
canes. On the coast of Flores the sea had cast up two dead men with
large faces, of a strange aspect. Columbus appears to have formed his
theory that the East Indies could be reached by sailing to the west
about A.D. 1474. He was at that time in correspondence with Toscanelli,
the Florentine astronomer, who held the same doctrine, and who sent him
a map or chart constructed on the travels of Marco Polo. He offered his
services first to his native city, then to Portugal, then to Spain, and,
through his brother, to England; his chief inducement in each instance
being that the riches of India might be thus secured. In Lisbon he had
married. While he lay sick near Belem an unknown voice whispered to him
in a dream, "God will cause thy name t