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 Lisbon, Columbus made up his mind to try to do what no other man, at that time, dared attempt,--that was to cross the Atlantic Ocean. He thought that by doing so he could get directly to Asia and the Indies, which, he believed, were opposite Portugal and Spain. If successful, he could open up a very profitable trade with the rich countries of the East, from which spices, drugs, and silk were brought to Europe. The people of Europe could not reach those countries directly by ships, because they had not then found their way round the southern point of Africa. [Illustration: This map shows how Columbus (not knowing that America lay in the way) hoped to reach Asia and the East Indies by sailing west.] 6. Columbus tries to get help in carrying out his plans.--Columbus was too poor to fit out even a single ship to undertake such a voyage as he had planned. He asked the king of Portugal to furnish some money or vessels toward it, but he received no encouragement. At length he determined to go to Spain and see if he could get help there. On the southern coast of Spain there is a small port named Palos.[9] Within sight of the village of Palos, and also within plain sight of the ocean, there was a convent,[10]--which is still standing,--called the Convent of Saint Mary.