world without falling off. At any rate, he kept on thinking and dreaming
and longing until, at last, he began doing.

Some of the sailors sent out by Prince Henry of Portugal, of whom I have
told you, in their trying to sail around Africa discovered two groups
of islands out in the Atlantic that they called the Azores, or Isles of
Hawks, and the Canaries, or Isles of Dogs. When Columbus was in Portugal
in 1470 he became acquainted with a young woman whose name was Philippa
Perestrelo. In 1473 he married her.

Now Philippa's father, before his death, had been governor of Porto
Santo, one of the Azores, and Columbus and his wife went off there to
live. In the governor's house Columbus found a lot of charts and maps
that told him about parts of the ocean that he had never before seen,
and made him feel certain that he was right in saying that if he sailed
away to the West he should find Cathay.

At that time there was an old man who lived in Florence, a city of
Italy. His name was Toscanelli. He was a great scholar and studied the
stars and made maps, and was a very wise man. Columbus knew what a wise
old scholar Toscanelli was, for Florence is not very far from Genoa. So
while he was living in the Azores he wrote to this old scholar asking
him what he thought about his idea that a man could sail around the
world until he reached the land called the Indies and at last found
Cathay.

Toscanelli wrote to Columbus saying that he believed his idea was the
right one, and he said it would be a grand thing to do, if Columbus
dared to try it. Perhaps, he said, you can find all those splendid
things that I know are in Cathay--the great cities with marble bridges,