of the dove. Thus, he had first found land where men thought there was
ocean, and he was the messenger of the Holy Spirit to those who sat in
darkness. It has also been assumed that he took the name of Christopher,
"the Christ-bearer," for similar reasons. But there is no doubt that
he was baptized "Christopher," and that the family name had long been
Columbo. The coincidences of name are but two more in a calendar in
which poetry delights, and of which history is full.

Christopher Columbus was the oldest son of Dominico Colombo and Suzanna
Fontanarossa. This name means Red-fountain. He bad two brothers,
Bartholomew and Diego, whom we shall meet again. Diego is the Spanish
way of writing the name which we call James.

It seems probable that Christopher was born in the year 1436, though
some writers have said that he was older than this, and some that he was
younger. The record of his birth and that of his baptism have not been
found.

His father was not a rich man, but he was able to send Christopher, as a
boy, to the University of Pavia, and here he studied grammar, geometry,
geography and navigation, astronomy and the Latin language. But this was
as a boy studies, for in his fourteenth year he left the university and
entered, in hard work, on "the larger college of the world." If the date
given above, of his birth, is correct, this was in the year 1450, a few
years before the Turks took Constantinople, and, in their invasion of
Europe, affected the daily life of everyone, young or old, who lived in
the Mediterranean countries. From this time, for fifteen years, it
is hard to trace along the life of Columbus. It was the life of an
intelligent young seaman, going wherever there was a voyage for him. He
says himself, "I passed twenty-three years on the sea. I have seen all