COLUMBUS, or COLON, CHRISTOPIIF.R, the well ithown discoverer of America. He was a citizen of the republic of Genoa, and born in the year 1447. The exact place of his birth has not been ascertained ;• and it is only by inference from certain statements made by Columbus himself, in the letters which he addressed to Ferdinand and Isabella, the rulers of Spain, that the date of his nativity has been obtained with any measure of correctness. These letters are preserved in the life of the Genoese navigator, written by Don Ferdinand his son. In one of them Columbus informs the exalted per sons to whom lie addressed himself, that at the time he wrote, A. D. 1501, he had been engaged nearly forty i years in the profession and life of a seaman ; and in another letter he states, that he went to sea so early as the age of fourteen. The statements in both instances are deliberately made by Columbus himself ; there is no reason therefore to doubt their accuracy, or to dispute the inference that this illustrious navigator was born in the year 1447.
The family from which Columbus was sprung had be taken themselves, for several generations, to a sea-faring life, and, as it appears, with very little emolument or suc cess ; for the immediate parents of the navigator seem to have been in indigent circumstances at the time of his birth. They were able, however, in one way or another, to give to Columbus such an education, as fitted him for the profession, in which, after the example of his ances tors, he was about to engage. Besides the more neces sary branches, they had him instructed in geometry, astronomy, and cosmography, and in the art of drawing ; in every thing, in short, which was held to he requisite or proper at that time, to form a skilful and successful adventurer upon the seas. Such an education must have been attended with considerable expence ; but so little of the early life of this extraordinary man is known, that we have not the means of ascertaining how the expence was defrayed, whether by assistance of wealthy relatives, or whether the young Columbus was so fortunate as to meet with a patron, at once discerning enough to mark the indications of his genius, and able as well as willing to support him, during the prosecution of his studies.
Columbus was not one or those whose abilities remain concealed till late in life, and who, after a youth spent in idleness or vice, or sleepy stupidity, have awakened, at a more advanced age, in all the ardour and activity of genius. Having chosen his profession, lie hastened to qualify himself for the honourable discharge of its duties. He is said to have imbibed the instructions of his teachers with a surprising quickness : He speedily mastered the Latin tongue, and attained to a competent knowledge of geometry, astronomy, and the theory of navigation. At the age of fourteen, as we have already stated, he went to sea. He made his first voyages to those parts of the Mediterranean which were frequented by his countrymen the Genoese, trading with the inhabitants, and satisfied, as it seems, for a time, with the gains of reputable mer chandise. But the ardour of his mind was not to be repressed, and a prouder career and a higher destiny awaited him. When not older than twenty, he under took a voyage of curiosity, or rather of discovery ; for so perhaps we might be permitted to call it, as one object which he had in view undoubtedly was, to ascer tain whether the frigid zone was habitable. Accordingly
he stretched into the northern seas, ran along a part of the coast of Iceland, the limit and extremity of former enterprises, and pushed into the ocean which lies beyond the arctic circle. " In February 1467," says lie, in a memorandum upon the subject, " I sailed 100 leagues beyond Thule or Iceland, the northern part of which is 73 degrees distant from the equinoctial, and not 63 degrees, as some suppose; neither does it lie upon the line where Ptolemy begins the west, but considerably more to the westward. To this island, which is as large as England, the English carry on a trade, from the port of Bristol. When I was there the sea was not frozen, but the tides were so great, that in sonic places they rose and fell 26 braceios (about 45 feet.) I have likewise been in the Portuguese fort of St George del Nlina, under the equinoctial, and can witness that it is not uninhabitable, as sonic have supposed." Life of Columb. Churchill's Voyages, vol. ii. In this voyage, the fortune of Columbus, as a merchant, was not increas ed in any remarkable degree, but he derived from it a large accession of skill and experience in the nautical art ; and lie now began, perhaps for the first time, to taste the sweets of reputation, and to know something of the inexpressible pleasure which results from the as surance or having done what no one has ever executed or even attempted bt fare. The next adventure of Colum bus, which his biographers have recorded, was of a kind somewhat different. Not long after his return from the northern occar,, he appears to have entered the service of Columbus junior, as he was called, a famous sea-cap •ain of those times, but in what capacity our adventurer was employed, we have not been able to learn. The officer alluded to, who was of the same family as well as of the samb name with the discoverer of America, commanded a small squadron fitted out at his own ex pence, and carried on a piratical warfare against the Venetians and the Turks, the rivals of the Genoese at this period, in the commerce and the sovereignty of the Mediterranean. In the service of the captain just men tioned, Columbus established his character, not only for skill and dexterity in naval affairs, but also for courage. His valour was tried in many severe conflicts, and his life often exposed to danger. On one hazardous occa sion in particular, he escaped with great difficulty. Hav ing attacked, along with the rest of the fleet under the orders of his relative, some Venetian galleys which were returning, deeply and richly laden, from the coast of Flanders, in the ardour of the combat, he grappled with one of the enemy's vessels, and in this situation, fast locked to his antagonist by means of strong iron hooks and chains, the ship in which he served unfortunately took tire. In a moment, all was terror, and outcry, and on fu s i on . But Columbus, distinguished as much by his coolness and presence of mind, as by his bravery in action, threw himself into the sea, and partly by swim ming, and partly by the support of an oar which he found accidentally within his reach, got safe to land. This engagement took place not far from the harbour of Lis bon, and the distance between the vessel and the shore is said to have been more than two leagues.