ine].
Navarrete, _Coleccion_, tom. ii. p. 232.]

[Sidenote: Christopher's early years.]

[Sidenote: Christopher and Bartholomew at Lisbon.]

On the whole, then, it seems most probable that the Discoverer of
America was born in the city of Genoa in 1436, or not much later. Of his
childhood we know next to nothing. Las Casas tells us that he studied at
the University of Pavia and acquired a good knowledge of Latin.[421]
This has been doubted, as incompatible with the statement of Columbus
that he began a seafaring life at the age of fourteen. It is clear,
however, that the earlier years of Columbus, before his departure for
Portugal, were not all spent in seafaring. Somewhere, if not at Pavia,
he not only learned Latin, but found time to study geography, with a
little astronomy and mathematics, and to become an expert draughtsman.
He seems to have gone to and fro upon the Mediterranean in merchant
voyages, now and then taking a hand in sharp scrimmages with Mussulman
pirates.[422] In the intervals of this adventurous life he was probably
to be found in Genoa, earning his bread by making maps and charts, for
which there was a great and growing demand. About 1470, having become
noted for his skill in such work, he followed his younger brother
Bartholomew to Lisbon,[423] whither Prince Henry's undertakings had
attracted able navigators and learned geographers until that city had
come to be the chief centre of nautical science in Europe. Las Casas
assures us that Bartholomew was quite equal to Christopher as a sailor,
and surpassed him in the art of making maps and globes, as well as in
the beauty of his handwriting.[424] In Portugal, as before in Italy, the
work of the brothers Columbus was an alternation of map-making on land
and adventure on the sea. We have Christopher's own word for it that he
sailed with more than one of those Portuguese expeditions down the
African coast;[425] and I think it not altogether unlikely that he may
have been with Santarem and Escobar in their famous voyage of 1471.

[Footnote 421: Las Casas, _Historia_, tom. i. p. 46.]

[Footnote 422: The reader must beware, however, of some of the
stories of adventure attaching to this part of his life, even
where they are confirmed by Las Casas. They evidently rest upon
hearsay, and the incidents are so confused that it is almost
impossible to extract the kernel of truth.]

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