and “Legends of the Conquest of Spain.”  He was an industrious man of letters, having an excellent style, wide knowledge, and pleasant humour.  His chief work was the “Life of George Washington,” of which we give an epitome elsewhere.  Other writings include “A History of New York, by Diedrich Knickerbocker,” the celebrated “Sketch Book,” “Bracebridge Hall,” “Tales of a Traveller,” and a “Life of Goldsmith.”  Irving did not marry, and died on November 28, 1859, in his home at Sunnyside on the Hudson River, and is buried at Tarrytown.  The “Life of Columbus” was published in 1828 and is now obtainable in a number of popular editions.

The Years of Waiting

Christopher Columbus was born in Genoa about 1435, of poor but reputable parents.  He soon evinced a passion for geographical knowledge, and an irresistible inclination for the sea.  We have but shadowy traces of his life till he took up his abode in Lisbon about 1470.  His contemporaries describe him as tall and muscular; he was moderate and simple in diet and apparel, eloquent, engaging, and affable.  At Lisbon he married a lady of rank, Dona Felipa.  He supported his family by making maps and charts.

Portugal was prosecuting modern discovery with great enthusiasm, seeking a route to India by the coast of Africa; Columbus’s genius conceived the bold idea of seeking India across the Atlantic.  He set it down that the earth was a terraqueous globe, which might be travelled round.  The circumference he divided into twenty-four hours.  Of these he imagined that fifteen hours had been known to the ancients; the Portguese had advanced the western frontier one hour more by the discovery of the Azores and the Cape de Verde Islands; still, about eight hours remained to be explored.  This space he imagined to be occupied in great measure by the eastern regions of Asia.  A navigator, therefore, pursuing a direct course from east to west, must arrive at Asia or discover intervening land.

The work of Marco Polo is the key to many of the ideas of Columbus.  The territories of the Great Khan were the object of his search in all his voyages.  Much of the success of his enterprise rested on two happy errors; the imaginary extent of Asia to the east, and the supposed smallness of the earth.  Without these errors he would hardly have ventured into the immeasurable waste of waters of the Atlantic.

A deep religious sentiment mingled with his thoughts; he looked upon himself as chosen from among men, and he read of his discovery as foretold in Holy Writ.  Navigation was still too imperfect for such an undertaking; mariners rarely ventured far out of sight of land.  But knowledge was advancing, and the astrolabe, which has been modified into the modern quadrant, was being applied to navigation.  This was the one thing wanting to free the mariner from his long bondage to the land.