Sources of information concerning the life of Columbus; Las Casas and Ferdinand Columbus 335 The Biblioteca Colombina at Seville 336, 337 Bernaldez and Peter Martyr 338 Letters of Columbus 338 Defects in Ferdinand's information 339, 340 Researches of Henry Harrisse 341 Date of the birth of Columbus; archives of Savona 342 Statement of Bernaldez 343 Columbus's letter of September, 1501 344 The balance of probability is in favour of 1436 345 The family of Domenico Colombo, and its changes of residence 346, 347 Columbus tells us that he was born in the city of Genoa 348 His early years 349-351 Christopher and his brother Bartholomew at Lisbon 351, 352 Philippa Moñiz de Perestrelo 352 Personal appearance of Columbus 353 His marriage, and life upon the island of Porto Santo 353, 354 The king of Portugal asks advice of the great astronomer Toscanelli 355 (p. xxx) Toscanelli's first letter to Columbus 356-361 His second letter to Columbus 361, 362 Who first suggested the feasibleness of a westward route to the Indies? Was it Columbus? 363 Perhaps it was Toscanelli 363, 364 Note on the date of Toscanelli's first letter to Columbus 365-367 The idea, being naturally suggested by the globular form of the earth, was as old as Aristotle 368, 369 Opinions of ancient writers 370 Opinions of Christian writers 371 The "Imago Mundi" of Petrus Alliacus 372, 373 Ancient estimates of the size of the globe and the length of the Œcumene 374 Toscanelli's calculation of the size of the earth, and of the position of Japan (Cipango) 375, 376 Columbus's opinions of the size of the globe, the length of the Œcumene, and the width of the Atlantic ocean from Portugal to Japan 377-380 There was a fortunate mixture of truth and error in these opinions of Columbus 381 The whole point and purport of Columbus's scheme lay in its promise of a route to the Indies shorter than that which the Portuguese were seeking by way of Guinea 381 Columbus's speculations on climate; his voyages to Guinea and into the Arctic ocean 382 He may have reached Jan Mayen island, and stopped at Iceland 383, 384 The Scandinavian hypothesis that Columbus "must have" heard and understood the story of the Vinland voyages 384, 385 It has not a particle of evidence in its favour 385 It is not probable that Columbus knew of Adam of Bremen's allusion to Vinland, or that he would have understood it if he had read it 386 It is doubtful if he would have stumbled upon the story in Iceland 387 If he had heard it, he would probably have classed it with such tales as that of St. Brandan's isle 388 (p. xxxi) He could not possibly have obtained from such a source his opinion of the width of the ocean 388, 389 If he had known and understood the Vinland story, he had the strongest motives for proclaiming it and no motive whatever for concealing it 390-392 No trace of a thought of Vinland appears in any of his voyages 393 Why did not Norway or Iceland utter a protest in 1493? 393