The reader will not go far in the perusal of this volume without perceiving that I have endeavoured to emancipate myself from the thraldom of that uncritical admiration in which it has been fashionable to hold the Discoverer, ever since Washington Irving threw over the subject the romantic and bewitching charm of his literary skill. Irving revealed the spirit with which he wrote when he decried what he was pleased to call “that pernicious erudition which busies itself with undermining the pedestals of our national monuments.” Irving’s was not the spirit of modern scholarship. We should seek the truth at whatever hazard. While directed by this motive in the course of all my investigations into the life and work of Columbus, I have tried, on the one hand, to avoid the common error of bringing him to the bar of the present age for trial, and, on the other, not to shrink from judging him in accordance with those canons of justice which are applicable alike to all time. C. K. A. CORNELL UNIVERSITY, March 10, 1892. TABLE OF CONTENTS. PAGES CHAPTER I. EARLY YEARS. [1446-1484] 1-33 Genoa, 1.--Place of Birth, 2.--Time of Birth, 4.--Family, 6. --Early Studies, 7.--Early Maritime Experience, 9.--Piratical Expeditions, 10.--Voyage to Africa, 11.--Voyage to Iceland, 12.-- Experience as Bookseller and Mapmaker, 14.--Removal to Portugal, 16. --Marriage, 17.--Children, 19.--Commercial Speculation, 21.-- Extent of his Experience, 21.--Theory of the Sphericity of the Earth, 23.--Progress of the Idea, 25.--Cardinal d’Ailly’s _Imago Mundi_, 27.--Causes of Delay, 27.--Discoveries by the Norsemen, 28.-- Toscanelli’s Letters, 29.--General Approaches to the Discovery, 32. CHAPTER II. ATTEMPTS TO SECURE ASSISTANCE. [1484-1492] 34-73 Necessity of Assistance, 34.--Improbability that he applied to Genoa and Venice, 35.--Applications to Portugal, England, and France, 36.--Attitude of Portugal, 37.--Departure of Columbus for Spain, 41.--Course after reaching Spain, 43.--Condition of Spain, 44. --Inquisition, 44.--Plague, 45.--Debasement of the Coin, 45. --War against the Moors, 46.--Support of Columbus, 47.--First Encouragement, 48.--Audience at Salamanca, 49.--Nature of the Discussion, 52.--Friendliness of Deza, 53.--Result, 53.--Delays, 53.--Occupations of the Court, 54.--Thought of going elsewhere, 55.--Summons to a New Conference, 56.--Stipends of Money, 57.-- Visit to Portugal, 57.--Visit to Medina Celi, 58.--Opinions of Scientific Men, 60.--Disgust of Columbus, 61.--Visit to La Rabida, 62.--Service of Perez, 63.--Favourable Inclination of the Court, 64.--Inadmissible Terms demanded, 65.--Story of the Jewels, 67.-- Successful Representations, 67.--Columbus secures his Commission, 68. --Misfortune of these Extraordinary Powers, 70.--Survey of Sources of Assistance, 72.