were lost sight of, most people took it for granted that the world was
flat. After many centuries the "sphere" idea was resurrected and talked
about by a few landsmen, and believed in by many practical seamen; and
it is quite possible that the young Cristoforo had learned of the theory
of a sphere-world from Genoese navigators even before he went to sea.
Wherever the idea originated is insignificant compared with the fact
that, of all the men who held the same belief, Columbus alone had the
superb courage to sail forth and prove it true.

Columbus, writing bits of autobiography later, says that he took to the
sea at fourteen. If true, he did not remain a seafarer constantly, for
in 1472-73 he was again helping his father in the weaving or wool-
combing business in Genoa. Until he started on his famous voyage,
Columbus never kept a journal, and in his journal we find very little
about those early days in Genoa. While mentioning in this journal a trip
made when he was fourteen, Columbus neglects to state that he did not
definitely give up his father's trade to become a sailor until 1475.
Meanwhile he had worked as clerk in a Genoese bookshop. We know he must
have turned this last opportunity to good account. Printing was still a
very young art, but a few books had already found their way to Genoa,
and the young clerk must have pored over them eagerly and tried to
decipher the Latin in which they were printed.

At any rate, it is certain that in 1474 or 1475 Cristoforo hired out as
an ordinary sailor on a Mediterranean ship going to Chios, an island
east of Greece. In 1476 we find him among the sailors on some galleys
bound for England and attacked by pirates off the Portuguese Cape St.
Vincent.

About Columbus's connection with these pirates much romance has been