THE EDINBURGH ENCYCLOPÆDIA; CONDUCTED BY DAVID BREWSTER, LL.D. F. R. S. LOND. AND EDIN. AND M. R. I. A. CORRESPONDING MEMBER OF THE ROYAL ACADEMY OF SCIENCES OF PARIS, AND OF THE ROYAL ACADEMY OF SCIENCES OF WITH THE ASSISTANCE OF GENTLEMEN EMINENT IN SCIENCE AND LITERATURE. IN EIGHTEEN VOLUMES. VOLUME VII. ROD EDINBURGH: PRINTED FOR WILLIAM BLACKWOOD; AND JOHN WAUGH, EDINBURGH; JOHN MURRAY; BALDWIN & CRADOCK; THE EDINBURGH ENCYCLOPÆDIA. Columbus. COLUMBUS, or COLON, CHRISTOPHER, the wellknown 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 persons to whom he addressed himself, that at the time he wrote A. D. 1501, he had been engaged nearly forty 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 betaken themselves, for several generations, to a sea-faring life, and, as it appears, with very little emolument or success; 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 ancestors, he was about to engage. Besides the more necessary 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 be 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 decerning enough to mark the indications of his genius, and able as well as willing to support him, during the Columbus. prosecution of his studies. Columbus was not one of 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, he hastened to qualify himself for the honourable discharge of its du ties. 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 merchandise. 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 undertook 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 ascertain 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 1647," says he, 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, especially from the port of Bristol. When I was there the sea was not frozen, but the tides were so great, that in some places they rose and fell 26 braccios (about 45 feet). I have likewise been in the Portuguese fort of St George del Mina, under the equinoctial, and can witness that it is not uninhabitable, as • Before Columbus received his commission from Ferdinand and Isabella, he usually designed himself Columbus de Terra Rubra. |