ofit; and though they must work hard, they would have
an honest business and an occupation for their lives.

But Christopher was an adventurous boy and preferred the crowded harbor
and the busy docks of Genoa to the stuffy weaving room. In his spare
time he was constantly beside the water, talking with the sailors from
all parts of the earth and hearing wonderful tales of adventure that
stirred his blood. The sea was a dangerous place in those days, for not
only were the ships small and badly built so that they could only with
the greatest difficulty weather the gales that beat in vain against the
steel sides of our great ships to-day, but there were many outlaws and
pirates who followed the sea and made every voyage a peril. There were
dark-skinned Moslems or Moors who would swoop in their swift boats upon
Christian craft to kill or capture all on board, selling their
prisoners into the horrible slavery of the Far East. There were also
fearful tales of serpents and dragons that lived in the far waters of
the "Sea of Darkness," for so the Atlantic Ocean was known among the
seafaring men of Italy, Spain and Portugal, and stories galore of gold
and undiscovered land. And many of the more adventurous youths of those
days became sailors to see with their own eyes the marvels that the
mariners would describe, while splicing rope upon the docks.

When ten years old, however, Christopher was made to work in the wool
shop and became his father's apprentice, with little free time from the
loom to go about his own affairs. It is thought that he did not take
kindly to this business and he may have run away, for a few years later
we hear rumors of him in the University of Pavia, where, although a lad
in his teens, he was greatly interested in the studies of geography and
astronomy. He had already learned all that was then known about the
science of navigation and the use of the few rude instruments with
which mariners determined their position on the sea. He had also
mastered the science of making maps and was so skilful at drawing them
that he could earn his living by this means. He had taken his first
trips as a sailor and visited many ports in the immediate vicinity of
Genoa and perhaps he had gone even farther, for the love of adventure
and of a wandering life were in his blood.

When a very young man the wanderings of Columbus brought him to
Portugal, where he lived for a time, at Lisbon, with his brother
Bartholomew, who al