Discoverers and Explorers | Page 5

eagerly read, and the facts that it stated
were so remarkable that many people refused to believe them. It stirred
others with a desire to travel and see those lands for themselves.
Traveling by land, however, was very dangerous, because of the bands
of robbers by which the country was occupied. These outlaws robbed
every one whom they suspected of having any money, and often
murdered travelers in order to gain their possessions. Sea travel, too,
was just as dangerous, but in a different way.

You will remember why sailors dared not venture far out upon the
ocean and search for a water route to the Eastern countries and islands.
The time was soon coming, however, when they would dare to do so,
and two wonderful inventions helped navigators very much.
One came from the finding of the loadstone, or natural magnet. This is
a stone which has the power of attracting iron. A steel needle rubbed on
it becomes magnetized, as we say, and, when suspended by the center
and allowed to move freely, always swings around until it points north
and south. Hung on a pivot and inclosed in a box, this instrument is
called the mariners' compass. It was of great importance to sailors,
because it always told them which way was north. On cloudy days, and
during dark, stormy nights, when the sun and stars could not be seen,
the sailors could now keep on their way, far from land, and still know
in which direction they were going.
[Illustration: Mariners' Compass.]
The other invention was that of the astrolabe. This was an instrument
by means of which sailors measured the height of the sun above the
horizon at noon, and could thus tell the distance of the ship from the
equator. It is in use on all the ships at the present time, but it has been
greatly improved, and is now called the quadrant.
The compass and the astrolabe, together with improved maps and
charts, made it possible for navigators to tell where their ship was when
out of sight of land or in the midst of storm and darkness. This made
them more courageous, and they ventured a little farther from the coast,
but still no one dared to sail far out upon the Sea of Darkness.

COLUMBUS.
One day a man appeared in Portugal, who said he was certain that the
earth was round, and that he could reach India by sailing westward.
Every one laughed at him and asked him how he would like to try. He
answered that he would sail round the earth, if any one would provide

him with ships.
[Illustration: Christopher Columbus.]
People jeered and scoffed.
"If the earth is a sphere," they said, "in order to sail round it you must
sail uphill! Who ever heard of a ship sailing uphill?"
But this man, whose name was Christopher Columbus, remained firm
in his belief.
When a boy, Columbus had listened eagerly to the stories the sailors
told about strange lands and wonderful islands beyond the water. He
was in the habit of sitting on the wharves and watching the ships. Often
he would say, "I wish, oh, how I wish I could be a sailor!"
At last his father, who was a wool comber, said to him, "My son, if you
really wish to become a sailor, I will send you to a school where you
will be taught navigation."
Columbus was delighted at this, and told his father that he would study
diligently. He was sent to the University of Pavia, where he learned all
the geography that was then known, as well as how to draw maps and
charts. He became a skillful penman, and also studied astronomy,
geometry, and Latin.
But he did not spend a long time at his studies, for at the age of
fourteen he went to sea. What he had learned, however, gave him an
excellent groundwork, and from this time forward he made use of every
opportunity to inform himself and to become a scholarly man.
His first voyage was made with a distant relative, who was an
adventurous and daring man, and who was ever ready to fight with any
one with whom he could pick a quarrel. In course of time Columbus
commanded a ship of his own, and became known as a bold and daring
navigator. He made a voyage along the coast of Africa as far south as
Guinea, and afterwards sailed northward to Iceland.

At an early day he became familiar with the wildest kind of adventure,
for at this time sea life on the Mediterranean was little more than a
series of fights with pirates. Some say that during one of these conflicts
Columbus's ship caught fire. In order to save his life, he