Genoa, like other large Italian cities, was teeming with this new spirit
of investigation and adventure when Cristoforo Colombo (in his native
land his name was pronounced Cristof'oro Colom'bo) was born there or
first came there to live. Long before, Genoa had taken an active part in
the Crusades, and every Genoese child knew its story. It had carried on
victorious wars with other Italian seaports. It had an enormous
commerce. It had grown rich, it was so full of marble palaces and
churches, and it had such a glorious history, that its own people loved
to call it _Genova la Superba_ (Superb Genoa).

Although Cristoforo's family were humble people of little or no
education, the lad must have had, or made, many opportunities for
acquiring knowledge. Probably he _made_ them; for, as a boy in
those days generally followed his father's trade, Cristoforo must have
spent a good deal of time in "combing" wool; that is, in making the
tangled raw wool ready for weaving. Perhaps he was sent to school, the
school supported by the "Weavers' Guild." But between working at home
and going to school, he evidently made many little trips down to the
busy wharves.

Was there ever any spot more fascinating than the wharves in olden days
--in that far-off time when there were no books to read, and when a boy's
only chance of hearing about other countries was to go and talk to the
crew of each vessel that came into port? The men to whom our lad talked
had sailed the whole length and breadth of the biggest body of explored
water, the Mediterranean. Some had gone farther east, into the Black
Sea; and still others--bravest of all--had passed beyond the Straits of
Gibraltar and out on to the great unknown ocean. It was to these last,
we may be sure, that the adventurous boy listened most eagerly.