American Men of Action | Page 6

behind each horizon.
It was there, too, high courage was developed and endurance, for it was
there that men did battle hand to hand with nature's mightiest forces. It
was the one career of the age which called to the bold and adventurous
spirit. What training Columbus received or what voyages he made we
know not; but when, at about the age of thirty, he steps into the light of
history, it is as a man with a wide and thorough knowledge of both the

theory and practice of seamanship; a man, too, of keen mind and
indomitable will, and with a mighty purpose brooding in his heart.
It was natural enough that his eyes should turn to Portugal, for Portugal
was the greatest sea-faring nation of the age. Her sailors had discovered
the Madeira Islands, and crept little by little down the coast of Africa,
rounding this headland and that, searching always for a passage to India,
which they knew lay somewhere to the east, until, at last, they had
sailed triumphantly around the Cape of Good Hope. It is worth
remarking that Columbus's brother, Bartholomew, of whom we hear so
little, but who did so much for his brother's fame, was a member of that
expedition, and Columbus himself must have gathered no little
inspiration from it.
So to Lisbon Columbus went, and his ardent spirit found a great
stimulus in the adventurous atmosphere of that bustling city. He went
to work as a map-maker, marrying the daughter of one of the captains
of Prince Henry the Navigator, from whom he secured a great variety
of maps, charts and memoranda. His business kept him in close touch
with both mariners and astronomers, so that he was acquainted with
every development of both discovery and theory. In more than one
mind the conviction was growing up that the eastern shore of Asia
could be reached by sailing westward from Europe--a conviction
springing naturally enough from the belief that the earth was round,
which was steadily gaining wider and wider acceptance. In fact, a
Florentine astronomer named Toscanelli furnished Columbus with a
map showing how this voyage could be accomplished, and Columbus
afterwards used this map in determining his route.
That the idea was not original with Columbus takes nothing from his
fame; his greatness lies in being the first fully to grasp its meaning,
fully to believe it, fully to devote his life to it. For the last measure of a
man's devotion to an idea is his willingness to stake his life upon it, as
Columbus staked his. The idea possessed him; there was room in him
only for a dogged determination to realize it, to trample down such
obstacles as might arise to keep him from his goal. And obstacles
enough there were, for many years of waiting and disappointment lay

before him--years during which, a shabby and melancholy figure,
laughed at and scorned, mocked by the very children in the streets, he
"begged his way from court to court, to offer to princes the discovery of
a world." And here again was his true greatness--that he did not despair,
that his spirit remained unbroken and his high heart still capable of
hope.
Yet let us not idealize him too much. The eagerness to reach the Indies
was wholly because of the riches which they possessed. The spice trade
was especially coveted, and tradition told of golden cities of fabulous
wealth and beauty which lay in the country to the east. The great
motive behind all the early voyages was hope of gain, and Columbus
had his full share of it. Yet there grew up within him, in time,
something more than this--a love of the project for its own
sake--though to the very last, a little overbalanced, perhaps, by his great
idea, he insisted upon the rewards and honors which must be his in case
of success.
With his route well-outlined and his plans carefully matured, Columbus
turned naturally to the King of Portugal, John II., as a man interested in
all nautical enterprise, and especially interested in finding a route to the
Indies. That crafty monarch listened to Columbus attentively and was
evidently impressed, for he took possession of the maps and plans
which Columbus had prepared, under pretense of examining them
while considering the project, placed them in the hands of one of his
own captains and dispatched him secretly to try the route. That captain,
whose name has been lost to history, must afterwards have been
chagrined enough at the manner in which he missed immortal fame, for,
after sailing a few days to the westward, he turned back and reported to
his royal master that the thing could not be done. His was not the heart
for such an enterprise.
Columbus, learning of the