PREFACE.

This “True Story of Christopher Columbus” is offered and inscribed to the boys and girls of America as the opening volume in a series especially designed for their reading, and to be called “Children’s Lives of Great Men.”  In this series the place of honor, or rather of position, is given to Columbus the Admiral, because had it not been for him and for his pluck and faith and perseverance there might have been no young Americans, such as we know to-day, to read or care about the world’s great men.

Columbus led the American advance; he discovered the New World; he left a record of persistence in spite of discouragement and of triumph over all obstacles, that has been the inspiration and guide for Americans ever since his day, and that has led them to work on in faith and hope until the end they strove for was won.

“The True Story of Christopher Columbus” will be followed by the “true story” of others who have left names for us to honor and revere, who have made the world better because they lived, and who have helped to make and to develop American freedom, strength and progress.

It will be the endeavor to have all these presented in the simple, straightforward, earnest way that appeals to children, and shows how the hero can be the man, and the man the hero.  E. S. B.

THE TRUE STORY OF CHRISTOPHER COLUMBUS

CHAPTER I. BOY WITH AN IDEA.

Men who do great things are men we all like to read about.  This is the story of Christopher Columbus, the man who discovered America.  He lived four hundred years ago.  When he was a little boy he lived in Genoa.  It was a beautiful city in the northwestern part of the country called Italy.  The mountains were behind it; the sea was in front of it, and it was so beautiful a place that the people who lived there called it “Genoa the Superb.”  Christopher Columbus was born in this beautiful city of Genoa in the year 1446, at number 27 Ponticello Street.  He was a bright little fellow with a fresh-looking face, a clear eye and golden hair.  His father’s name was Domenico Columbus; his mother’s name was Susanna.  His father was a wool-comber.  He cleaned and straightened out the snarled-up wool that was cut from the sheep so as to make it ready to be woven into cloth.

Christopher helped his father do this when he grew strong enough, but he went to school, too, and learned to read and write and to draw maps and charts.  These charts were maps of the sea, to show the sailors where they could steer without running on the rocks and sand, and how to sail safely from one country to another.