Ridpath's history of the world : being an account of the principal events in the career of the human race from the beginnings of civilization to the present time : comprising the development of social institutions and the story of all nations . himself, he demon-strated the possibilityof doing so. Thegreat mistake madeby him and otherswho shared his opin-ions was not concern-ing the figure of theearth, but in regardto its size. He be-lieved the world tobe no more than tenthousand or twelvethousand miles incircumference. He,therefore, confidentlyexpected that aftersailing about


Ridpath's history of the world : being an account of the principal events in the career of the human race from the beginnings of civilization to the present time : comprising the development of social institutions and the story of all nations . himself, he demon-strated the possibilityof doing so. Thegreat mistake madeby him and otherswho shared his opin-ions was not concern-ing the figure of theearth, but in regardto its size. He be-lieved the world tobe no more than tenthousand or twelvethousand miles incircumference. He,therefore, confidentlyexpected that aftersailing about miles to the westward he should arrive at the East do that was the great purpose of his life. Christopher Columbus was l)orn at Ge-noa, in the year 1435. He was carefully edu-cated, and then devoted himself to the s^feHis ancestors had been seamen before own inclination as well as his early train-ing made him a sailor. For twenty years hetraversed the Mediterranean and the jiarts ofthe Atlantic adjacent to Europe; he visitedIceland, and then turned to the south. Theidea of reaching the Indies by crossing theOcean had already jwssessed him. Few things in human history are moretouching than the story of the struggles of. CHRISTOPHER COLUMBlS. Columbus. His first formal application wasmade to John 11., of Portugal. By that sov-ereign the matter presented was referred toa body of learned men who declared the proj-ect to be absurd. In the next place the ad-venturer left Lisbon, and in 1484 went toSpain. At the same time he mafle applica-tion to the courts of Genoa and Venice, butboth refused to aid him. He next appealedto the dukes of Southern Spain, and by themwas turned away. He then repaired to Cor-dova, and from that place followed the Span-ish court to Salamanca. At last he was intro-duced to the king, who heard him withindifference, and then turned him over toa Council of Eccle-siastics. This body,instead of consider-ing the scientific pos-sibility of the th


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Keywords: ., bookcentury1800, bookdecad, booksubjectworldhistory, bookyear1800