Young folks' history of the United States . Perhaps there may yetbe found along the coast of New England some realmemorial of the Northmen ; and in the mean time, ifit were not for their own legends, it would be hard to•believe that they ever came. CHAPTER V, THE COMING OF COLUMBUS. WHATEVER may have been the truth about the Americavisit of the Northmen to America, it is certain, knowntothat, if they came, they sailed away again, never to Europeansreturn. Even their colony inGreenland was at last aban-doned ; and the memoryof Vinland almost disap-peared. For nearly fivecenturies, so far as we
Young folks' history of the United States . Perhaps there may yetbe found along the coast of New England some realmemorial of the Northmen ; and in the mean time, ifit were not for their own legends, it would be hard to•believe that they ever came. CHAPTER V, THE COMING OF COLUMBUS. WHATEVER may have been the truth about the Americavisit of the Northmen to America, it is certain, knowntothat, if they came, they sailed away again, never to Europeansreturn. Even their colony inGreenland was at last aban-doned ; and the memoryof Vinland almost disap-peared. For nearly fivecenturies, so far as we know,not a European vesselcrossed the Atlantic. Someof the older people in Ice-land may have rememberedthat their grandparents hadtold them of a country farto the west, where vinesgrew; and perhaps theyused to tell these legends,in the long, dark evenings,to the Spanish and English sailors who went on trading voyages to Iceland. Therecame a time of great commercial activity among thenations of Southern Europe ; and voyages began to be 31. TOMB OF COLUMBUS. 32 YOUNG FOLKS UNITED STATES. attempted in all directions. And one voyage was atlast undertaken that was destined to make the NewWorld known to the Old There was born at Genoa, in Italy, about 1435, ^ t)oynamed Cristoforo Colombo, or, in English, Christo-pher Columbus. His father was a weaver of cloth, buthis ancestors had been sailors; and the little Columbuswas sent to school at ten years old to learn fourteen he went to sea ; and from that time, so longas he lived, he was either making voyages or else draw-ing charts. He lived in Portugal, then in Spain, thesebeing the great seafaring nations at that day; and hesailed to almost all the ports then known. Most of hisvoyages, however, were in the Mediterranean Sea. Inthese there was almost as much fighting as sailing ; forthat sea was full of pirates. On one occasion his shipwas burnt, and he swam six miles to shore with the aidof a spar. And
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