COLUMBUS, CHRISTOPHER (the usual Eng lish form, adopted from the Latinized form of the Italian Colomlm, which was the original spelling of the family name. After the discov erer entered the Spanish service be became known as Cristobal Colon) (c.1446-1506). The discoverer of America. Columbus was born in 1445 or 1446. The best authorities surmise that his birth took place in the village of Terra rossa. near Genoa, to which city his father, Do meni•o Columbus, removed alsnit 1451, in order to be nearer the centre of the wool trade, from which he derived his livelihood. The exact date of Columbus's birth has been a subject of debate, opinions varying from 1436 to 1457, but the most trustworthy evidence seems to show that he was born not long before -March 25, 1446. lie was early apprenticed to his father's trade, and is referred to in legal documents dated 1472 and 1473 as living in Genoa or Lavona. and en gaged in the wool trade. There is probably no foundation in fact for the stories which describe him as baying received a university education at Pavia. He probably left home and went to sea in 1473, visiting various Mediterranean ports and eventually leaching, Lisbon, where he lived until 1484 or 1485. After he had become famous, stories relating exploits of his early youth as a corsair and pirate, or as pilot or commander of a war vessel belonging to Rene d'Anjon, Count of Provenee, became current. but most of the details of these stories are inconsistent with known his torical facts. The Portuguese were at this time the most skillful sailors in Europe, and among them Columbus may easily have acquired all the knowledge and skill which his later career re veals. lie engaged in the business of map-mak ing, besides participating in several expeditions to Guinea, on the African coast, to the eastern Mediterranean, and to England, all of these being voyages which Portuguese merchant vessels were accustomed to make frequently. Slightly more unusual and adventurous was a voyage, to which the definite date 1477 is assigned, to the island of Thule or Iceland.
Columbus's interest in cartography explains his writing a letter concerning the shape of the earth to the learned Italian Toscanelli, accom panying it with one of his globes to illustrate his queries. This elicited the famous reply from
Toscanelli, which is ordinarily accepted as mark ing the time when Columbus began to devote himself to the problem of a direct route from Europe to the Asiatic spice-lands. During one of his Mediterranean voyages be revisited Genoa, it is sometimes maintained, and tried to secure financial assistance which would enable him to test his theories of a direct ocean passage across the Atlantic to Asia, but without success. It is reported also that, he tried to enlist help in Ven ice, and there is nothing improbable in the story. In Portugal, where he had married Philippa Moniz or Munk, who is said to have been a daughter of Bartholome Perestrello, the first governor of Porto Santo, in the Madeiras, and a prominent figure in the history of Portuguese expansion, Columbus secured the ear of the King, who evinced much interest in his p:an. The would-be discoverer, however, demanded so large a share of the prospective benefits that the King, who would have had to stand all the finan cial risk and the burden of popular disappoint ment in case of failure, was unable to make terms with him. As no compromise could be ar ranged. the King was persuaded by his courtiers to test the plan of Columbus by sending a vessel to see if the Atlantic offered any insuperable dif ficulty to the proposed voyage. An adventurer from Madeira, Fernam Dominguez do Arco. had petitioned the King for a giant of the lordship an island in the west which persistent rumor declared could be seen from the Azores at certain season-s. Dominguez do Arco was therefore sent off to search for his island, and when be returned nnsucessful, with terrifying tales of the dangers of the great ocean, the King was convinced that the scheme of Columbus was chimerical. Colum bus felt that an attempt had been made to cheat him of his great idea, and so he hastily wont to Spain, in the winter of 1484-85, leaving his wife and young children behind.