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