COLUMBUS, CHRISTOPHER, the Latinized form of the Italian Colombo, and the Spanish Colon, the great naviga tor who added a new hemisphere to our globe; born near Genoa, probably in 1451. He was the son of a wool-comber; at tended for some little time the school of learning in Pavia, where he evinced a taste for astronomy and cosmography; and early went to sea, and made several voyages in the Mediterranean. Settling in Lisbon, in 1470, he married the daugh ter of an Italian named Palestrello, once a navigator in the Portuguese service, and with her obtained some valuable charts, journals, and memoranda. While constructing maps and charts for the live lihood of his family, Columbus gained the belief of a great land in the west.
To qualify himself for his great enter prise he made several voyages to the Azores, the Canaries, and the coast of Guinea—then the limit of European navi gation in this direction. Not until about 1482 or 1483 did he find opportunity to lay his scheme before John II. of Portu gal. This monarch referred it to a junta of nautical and scientific men, who de cided against it. The king, however, tak ing advantage of a detailed plan obtained from Columbus under false pretenses, se cretly sent out a vessel to examine the route. Too timid to venture far from the beaten track, the pilots soon returned to Lisbon to throw ridicule on the proj ect. Disgusted with the duplicity of his sovereign, Columbus secretly left Lisbon in 1484, taking with him his motherless boy Diego. He found his way to Genoa, where the republic treated his project with scorn. Disappointed, but not de spairing, Columbus turned his steps to ward Spain. Weary and hungry, he stopped one day at the gate of the Fran ciscan convent, La Rabida, in Andalusia, to beg some bread and water for his child. This day was the turning-point in his career. The superior of the convent, Juan Perez de Marchena, passing at the mo ment, entered into conversation with the traveler, and was so struck with the grandeur of his views that he used all his influence to procure him the favor able consideration of Ferdinand and Isa bella, and it was to the latter, not the king, to whom he owed assistance in his project.
Eight years of disappointment passed, during which Columbus applied to other courts, and without avail, when he found himself in command of three small ves sels, only one of which was decked, with 120 men, ready to start on his adventur ous enterprise. Columbus claimed, as re ward, to be nominated high-admiral and governor-general and viceroy over all the lands he discovered, with a tenth of the produce of the countries. On Aug. 3,
1492, he set sail from the bar of Saltes, near Palos. Delaying a month at the Ca naries to refit, he started thence, on Sept. 6, over unknown seas. His crew soon be came openly mutinous, but Columbus never finched in his determination to press on. On Oct. 12 his perseverance was rewarded with the sight of land, which proved to be one of the Bahama Islands. Here he solemnly planted the cross, giving the island the name of San Salvador. After discovering several other of the West India Islands, including Cuba and Haiti, or San Domingo, at the latter of which, called by him Hispaniola, he settled a small colony, he set sail again for Spain, where he arrived March 15, 1493, and was received with every dem onstration of joy and admiration by the people and the court. In September of the same year he sailed from Cadiz on the second expedition, with 17 ships and 1,500 men. In this voyage he discovered the Caribbee Islands, Jamaica, etc., but calumnies at home forced him to return in 1496. Having cleared himself with his sovereigns, he, in 1498, set out on a third expedition. This time, steering more to the S., he discovered Trinidad and the mouths of the Orinoco, and landed at Paria, on the coast of South America. After these discoveries Columbus steered for Hispaniola, where he found every thing in disorder. Enemies in Spain had been at work, and an officer named Bo badilla had been appointed to supersede him as governor, and by this person Co lumbus was sent home in chains. This unworthy treatment excited the indigna tion of the Spanish people to such a de gree that Ferdinand was forced to dis avow all knowledge of the disgraceful affair. But Columbus failed to obtain re dress from the king. The spirit of adven ture, however, was not crushed and he set out on May 9, 1502, with four vessels and 150 men to seek a passage uniting the Atlantic and Pacific oceans, which he imagined lay somewhere between Hon duras and Paria. The voyage was disas trous, and the constitution of Columbus r__ 'er recovered from the shock which it sustained. In coasting Central America he got a hint which, if followed up, might have led to the discovery of Mexico and the Pacific; but the mutinous character of his crew forced him aside to seek for gold, and having added little of impor tance to his previous discoveries, he re turned to Spain in November, 1504. Isa bella was dead; Ferdinand proved basely ungrateful, and he was permitted to die in poverty at Valladolid, on May 20, 1506.