ore wool can be spun into thread and
woven into cloth the tangled locks must be combed out straight and
smooth; once this was all done by hand.]

2. Columbus becomes a sailor.--When he was fourteen Columbus went
to sea. In those days the Mediterranean[5] Sea swarmed with war-ships
and pirates. Every sailor, no matter if he was but a boy, had to stand
ready to fight his way from port to port.

In this exciting life, full of adventure and of danger, Columbus grew
to manhood. The rough experiences he then had did much toward making
him the brave, determined captain and explorer[6] that he afterwards
became.

[Footnote 5: Mediterranean (Med'i-ter-ra'ne-an).]

[Footnote 6: Explorer: one who explores or discovers new countries.]

3. Columbus has a sea-fight; he goes to Lisbon.--According to some
accounts, Columbus once had a desperate battle with a vessel off the
coast of Portugal. The fight lasted, it is said, all day. At length
both vessels were found to be on fire. Columbus jumped from his
blazing ship into the sea, and catching hold of a floating oar,
managed, with its help, to swim to the shore, about six miles away.

He then went to the port of Lisbon.[7] There he married the daughter
of a famous sea-captain. For a long time after his marriage Columbus
earned his living partly by drawing maps, which he sold to commanders
of vessels visiting Lisbon, and partly by making voyages to Africa,
Iceland, and other countries.

[Footnote 7: Lisbon: see map in paragraph 21.]

4. What men then knew about the world.--The maps which Columbus made
and sold were very different from those we now have. At that time
not half of the world had been discovered.[8] Europe, Asia, and a
small part of Africa were the chief countries known. The maps of
Columbus may have shown the earth shaped like a ball, but he supposed
it to be much smaller than it really is. No one then had sailed round
the globe. No one then knew what lands lay west of the broad Atlantic;
for this reason we should look in vain, on one of the maps drawn by
Columbus, for the great continents of North and South America or for
Australia or the Pacific Ocean.

[Illustration: The light parts of this map show how much of the world
was then well-known; the white crosses show those countries of
Eastern Asia of which something was known.]

[Footnote 8: See map in this paragraph.]

5. The plan of Columbus for reaching the Indies by sailing
west.--While living in Li