. Our country's story; an elementary history of the United States . heylooked upon the plan as a wild andhopeless scheme. It is probable that fivehundred years before this time some hardy mariners of Norwayand Sweden sailed south from the settlement that they had madein Greenland, and even tried to found a colony in Massachusetts;but there is little reason to think that any one in Italy knewof their voyages. It w^as one of the citizens of Genoa ^^iio had asked for thismoney, a man named Christopher Columbus. He was born inGenoa, and all through his boyhood he had seen ships cominginto the harb
. Our country's story; an elementary history of the United States . heylooked upon the plan as a wild andhopeless scheme. It is probable that fivehundred years before this time some hardy mariners of Norwayand Sweden sailed south from the settlement that they had madein Greenland, and even tried to found a colony in Massachusetts;but there is little reason to think that any one in Italy knewof their voyages. It w^as one of the citizens of Genoa ^^iio had asked for thismoney, a man named Christopher Columbus. He was born inGenoa, and all through his boyhood he had seen ships cominginto the harbor and unloading rich cargoes of spices, pearls, per-fumes, silks, ivory, and fine Cashmere shawls. These luxurieswere brought from eastern Asia, or the Indies, as people thencalled that country. The journey was long and hard, for thegoods had to be taken on the backs of camels across great tractsof land to the eastern shore of the Black Sea. Then they wereput on board ships and carried past Constantinople and over theMediterranean to Genoa COLUMBUS SHOWS THE WAY. CARAVAN TKAVEL IN ASIA Columbus went to sea when he was fourteen, and three or four yrears later there were few rich cargoes from the Indies unloaded Why this it the wharves of Genoa. The reason was that the Greeks had ^^ ost Constantinople to the Turks, and the Turks would not allow :;he Genoese vessels to pass through the Bos- did not believe half the stories that were bold about the iangers of the Sea of Darkness, md he reasoned: If the earth is Lound, we can sail across the Atlantic to the very coast of Asia, Columbuss Mid that would be a much easier journey than to go by the Black ^^soning Sea. He thought that it would be an exceedingly short way,for even the learned men who believed that the worldwas round thought it only half as large as it reallyis. He had studied and read and thought, and hefelt sure that he was right. Only a rich city or a king could provide moneyfor such an expedition. Genoa
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Keywords: ., bookcentury1900, bookdecade1900, bookpublisherbosto, bookyear1908
