Correne wilkie biography of christopher columbus

Excerpt from A Life of Christopher Columbus

Christopher Columbus is a figure in history which presents all the variations, the shiftings, the many-colored lights of a kaleidescope. He has no fixed name in the language of the nation.

He is Columbus, Columbo, Colon, Colonus; he is Christoval Colon, and Christo pher Columbus.

He is claimed by the residents of several places as having been born in their respective localities; he was descended from noble fami lies, and his father was a humble wool-comber. He was educated at a' university, he assisted his father in his lowly occupation.

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He was a student, a wool-comber, and a sailor at the immature age of fourteen years. 'he was familiar with geography, and yet, as the facts subsequently established, he scarcely knew its simplest rudiments. These are only a few of the contrarieties in his life as recorded in his tory.

He discovered America, and yet he did noth ing of the kind.

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