f the earth was as great as they supposed, it would
require three years to make the voyage.

Several, with still greater absurdity, advanced as an objection that
should a ship succeed in reaching the extremity of India, she could
never get back again, as the rotundity of the globe would present a kind
of mountain up which it would be impossible for her to sail even with
the most favourable wind.

The mariner replied in answer to the scriptural objection that the
inspired writers were not speaking technically as cosmographers, but
figuratively, in language addressed to all comprehensions, and that the
commentaries of the fathers were not to be considered as philosophical
propoundings, which it was necessary either to admit or refute.

In regard to the impossibility of passing the torrid zone, he himself
stated that he had voyaged as far as Guinea under the equinoxial line,
and had found that region not only traversable, but abounding in
population, fruits, and pasturage.

Who was this simple mariner who could thus dare to differ from so many
learned sages?  His person was commanding; his demeanour elevated; his
eye kindling; his manner that of one who had a right to be heard, while
a rich flow of eloquence carried his hearers with him.  His countenance
was handsome; his hair already blanched by thought, toil, and privation.

He was no other than Columbus, who, after his proposals had been
rejected by the Court of Portugal, had addressed himself to that of
Spain, and had, year after year, waited patiently to obtain a hearing
from Ferdinand and Isabella, then occupied in their wars against the
Moors.

He had been a seaman from the age of fourteen.  He was born in the city
of Genoa about the year 1435, where his father, Dominico Colombo,
carried on the business of a wool comber, which his ancestors had
followed for several generations.  He was the eldest of three brothers,
the others being Bartholomew and Diego.  He had at an early age evinced
a desire for the sea, and accordingly his education had been mainly
direct