h century it became apparent that the commercial rivalry
between Venice and Genoa would terminate to the disadvantage of the
latter. The irruption of the Tartars and invasion of the Turks had
completely dislocated her Asiatic lines of trade. In the wars between
the two republics Genoa had suffered severely. Partly for this reason,
and partly through the advantageous treaties that Venice had made with
the sultans, giving her the privilege of consulates at Alexandria and
Damascus, this republic had at last attained a supremacy over all
competitors. The Genoese establishments on the Black Sea had become
worthless.

[Sidenote: Attempt to reach India by the west.] With ruin before them,
and unwilling to yield their Eastern connexions, the merchants of Genoa
had tried to retrieve their affairs by war; her practical sailors saw
that she might be re-established in another way. There were among them
some who were well acquainted with the globular form of the earth, and
with what had been done by the Mohammedan astronomers for determining
its circumference by the measurement of a degree on the shore of the Red
Sea. These men originated the attempt to reach India by sailing to the
west.

[Sidenote: Opposition to this scheme.] By two parties--the merchants and
the clergy--their suggestions were received with little favour. The
former gave no encouragement, perhaps because such schemes were unsuited
to their existing arrangements; the latter disliked them because of
their suspected irreligious nature. The globular form had been condemned
by such fathers as Lactantius and Augustine. In the Patristic Geography
the earth is a flat surface bordered by the waters of the sea, on the
yielding support of which rests the crystalline dome of the sky. These
doctrines were for the most part supported by passages from the Holy
Scriptures, perversely wrested from their proper meaning. Thus Cosmas
Indicopleustes, whose Patristic Geography had been an authority for
nearly eight hundred years, triumphantly disposed of the sphericity of
the earth by demanding of its advocates how in the day of judgment, men
on the other side of a globe could see the Lord descending through the
air!

Among the Genoese sailors seeking the welfare of their city was one
destined for immortality--Christopher Columbus.

[Sidenote: Columbus, early life of.] His father was a wool-comber, yet
not a man of the common sort. He procured for his son a knowledge of
arithmetic