seaman's life are harsh and rough; and we may be sure that on the tiny,
rudely furnished, poorly equipped sailboats of the fifteenth century it
was a thousand times harsher and rougher. Then, too, the work to be done
in and around the Mediterranean was no occupation for children; it
quickly turned lads into men. Carrying cargo was the least of a
shipowner's business; he was more often hiring out vessels and crews to
warring kings, to Portuguese who carried on a slave trade, or to fight
pirates, the dread of the Mediterranean. Slaves rowed the Mediterranean
galleys, and in the bow stood a man with a long lash to whip the slaves
into subjection. With all these matters did Christopher Columbus become
acquainted in the course of time, for they were everyday matters in the
maritime life of the fifteenth century; but stern though such
experiences were, they must have developed great personal courage in
Christopher, a quality he could have none too much of if he was to lead
unwilling, frightened sailors across the wide unknown sea.




CHAPTER III

"LANDS IN THE WEST"


By moving from Genoa to Lisbon, Columbus found himself in a much better
atmosphere for developing into a discoverer. The genius of a discoverer
lies in the fact that he yearns for the unknown; and Portugal faced the
Atlantic Ocean, that immense unexplored "Sea of Darkness" as it was then
called. Italy, as we know, was the greater country, but it faced the
Mediterranean, and every nook and corner of the Mediterranean were known