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    Christopher Columbus: The Story of the Intrepid Italian Explorer
    Christopher Columbus: The Story of the Intrepid Italian Explorer
    Christopher Columbus: The Story of the Intrepid Italian Explorer
    Ebook74 pages1 hour

    Christopher Columbus: The Story of the Intrepid Italian Explorer

    By Martin Howard

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    About this ebook

    Christopher Columbus' astonishing life is a story of inspiration, bravery, incredible achievement and terrible hardship. As the explorer who took three small boats across the Atlantic and found an undiscovered continent, he was a hero - but his greed for gold and power brought tragedy on the people living there, and eventually caused his own downfall. His amazing story captures the excitement and urgency of the Golden Age of Discovery.

    Lives in Action is a series of narrative biographies that recount the lives of some of the key figures in history. Page-turning, thrilling plots that read like fiction will keep the most reluctant reader hooked.
    LanguageEnglish
    PublisherBloomsbury Publishing
    Release dateMar 14, 2013
    ISBN9781408163696
    Christopher Columbus: The Story of the Intrepid Italian Explorer
    Author

    Martin Howard

    Martin Howard is Head of the School of Languages, Literatures and Cultures at University College Cork, Ireland. His research interests include study abroad, second language acquisition and sociolinguistics. He is Chair of the European COST Action, ‘Study Abroad Research in European Perspective’.

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      Book preview

      Christopher Columbus - Martin Howard

      Prologue: Staring at the Sea

      Christopher Columbus sat on the edge of the dock and stared out across the sea. Below his feet water surged and gurgled. Towards the horizon the Mediterranean Sea was as blue as the summer sky. A breeze stirred the ten-year-old boy’s sandy hair and filled the loose sails of great wooden ships, making them bump against the dock. Behind him was the tall Torra della Lanterna, Genoa’s great lighthouse, which, when evening fell, would burn a huge lamp of olive oil to guide ships safely into the port.

      Out of the way, boy!

      A tanned and bearded sailor with a gold ring in his ear aimed a friendly kick at Christopher’s backside. A ship had just arrived and the crew were busy unloading a cargo of cloth from Flanders. Christopher dodged the kick and grinned up at the seaman.

      The port was Christopher’s favourite place. As long as he could remember he had loved the cries of the white gulls as they dived for fish and scraps, the creaking timbers and booming sails of the great ships, the sight of sailors climbing the ropes and rigging as if they were monkeys, and the smells of the ships and the sea. He loved listening to the rough – and usually rude – shouts of seamen glad to be back in port after a long voyage, or getting ready to set off for their next destination, and he loved that when he was here he felt as if he was at the centre of the world.

      At the great, bustling port of Genoa, in the north of Italy, ships arrived from and sailed to many other harbours around the Mediterranean Sea, and further away. Some sailed out through the narrow Straits of Gibraltar between Spain and North Africa, onto the endless Atlantic Ocean, then north up the coasts of Spain, Portugal, and France to England or south down the western coast of mysterious Africa. To the young boy it seemed that the sailors who crowded the port had been everywhere and seen everything. The sailors always had news from other parts of the world. He heard about explorers in Africa, sea battles with pirates, and maps that were becoming ever larger as brave ships sailed to places that no one had seen before.

      At the port of Genoa, the whole world seemed to be buzzing with excitement.

      Christopher longed to be on one of the ships leaving the harbour, preferably one going to far distant shores. He dreamed of being one of those famous men whose adventures were known far and wide.

      His family had agreed to let him go to sea when he was fourteen. In the meantime, Christopher was learning to read and write in the old language of Latin and already knew his numbers. Over the next few years he would be taught a little about drawing, maps, geography and how to use the sun and stars to find a direction. His father had also spoken with one of his cousins, a well-known sailor called Colombo. Colombo had agreed that when the time came, he would take Christopher on board his own ship.

      The year was 1461. The ten-year-old boy, who was called Cristoforo Colombo in Italian, and who would become the most famous seafarer alive under the Spanish name Cristóbal Colón, turned away from the sea with a sigh. There might be danger and adventure at the ends of the Earth, but at that moment he was supposed to be studying. In the pages of his books the world came alive, from the pyramids of Egypt to the island of Cipango far to the east and the lands of China where the Grand Khan was said to rule a vast land of untold riches. Beyond that were said to be lands filled with monsters and strange beasts.

      Reading about faraway lands wasn’t as good as visiting them for himself but thinking about his books, Christopher started to walk more quickly. He couldn’t wait to find out what other places were waiting for him to discover.

      1

      The First Voyage

      Christopher watched over the stern as the Torra della Lanterna grew smaller. With a friendly wind behind, he was sailing onto the Mediterranean. The sea air was fresh, sunlight sparkled on the water and, aside from the grumbling of sailors and the creaking ropes and timbers, all was quiet.

      The ship, Christopher’s new home, was one of a type called ‘galleys’; narrow ships that had been used around the Mediterranean for hundreds of years. This one was about eighty feet long and fifteen feet wide, with three masts that carried square sails. Beneath the deck were benches where the crew could sit and row if the wind dropped.

      The galley’s sails billowed above. Below Christopher’s feet, the deck rolled and the sun beat down on his face. The waving figures on the dock, his family, had already become too small to see.

      Four years had passed quickly. It was now the late summer of 1465 and Christopher Columbus had just celebrated his fourteenth birthday. He had grown into a quiet, religious boy, who was often lost in a book, but he had good manners and a winning smile.

      You there! Boy! a voice shouted. Christopher looked round to see the fierce-faced

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