printed with a typographical elegance which sufficiently proves the rapid advances of the new art and the diligence with which it was cultivated.

Gutenberg's printing office remained in Mentz till 1465, about which time he was ennobled by Adolphus of Nassau. He died February 24th, 1468.

PETER SCHOEFFER, who afterwards became Faust's son-inlaw, was taken into partnership with Faust after his lawsuit with Gutenberg, and to him belongs the merit of inventing matrices for casting types. Each individual type had theretofore been cut in wood or metal. This discovery so greatly facilitated the art that Schoeffer was enabled to print upwards of fifty books. He died about the year 1492.

WILLIAM CAXTON was born in Kent about the year 1410. He served an apprenticeship to Thomas Large, a London mercer. On the death of his master, Caxton went to the Netherlands as agent for the Mercers' Company, in which situation he continued about 23 years. He was commissioned, in conjunction with Richard Whitchell, to conclude a treaty of commerce between Edward IV. and Philip, Duke of Burgundy. He appears subsequently to have held some office in the household of Duke Charles, the son of Philip, whose wife, the Lady Margaret of York, became his patroness. While abroad he appears to have made the acquaintance of Faust, and from him to have learned the art of printing. At the request of his patroness he translated from the French a work which he entitled the "Recuyell of the Historyes of Troye," by Raoul le Feure, which he printed at Cologne, 1471, in folio. A copy of this book, which is regarded as the first book printed in the English language, was purchased by the Duke of Devonshire in 1812, for £1,060 10s. He subsequently printed several other books abroad, chiefly translations from the French. In 1474 he set up his press in Westminster Abbey, where he

printed "Ye game and playe of the Chesse," generally admitted to be the first typographical work executed in England. He subsequently produced between fifty and sixty volumes, most of which were composed or translated by himself. about 1492.

He died

COLUMBUS, CHRISTOPHER.*

(IN ITALIAN, CHRISTOFORO COLOMBO; IN SPANISH, SHRISTOVAL COLON)-1436-1506.

Columbus was born at Genoa. His father, a wool comber and an enlightened man in easy circumstances, sent him to Pavia, where he studied geometry, geography, astronomy, astrology, and navigation, in order to fit him for the desire of his heart, a sailor's life. He had two brothers, Bartholomew and Diego. When 14 years of age he went to sea in the merchant service. At that time it was the practice of the more wealthy shipowners of the Italian republics to arm their vessels. Religious animosity and commercial jealousies were the causes of constant feuds between themselves, the Spaniards, the Arabs, and the Mohammedans. At times these merchants let their armed vessels and crews to reigning sovereigns, to augment the strength of their little navies. It appears that at an early period Columbus abandoned the purely mercantile for this naval life, and that he spent the intervals between his naval expeditions in his favourite study of geography, and added to his slender income by the designing, engraving, and sale of marine charts.

In early manhood, when he had the command of a galley in one of these squadrons acting against the Venetians, his ship caught fire and was wrecked near Lisbon. Columbus was saved by swimming ashore. As Portugal was then famous for her

*The matter of this sketch is derived from " Christophe Colomb, par A. de Lamartine, Paris, 1883."

maritime expeditions, Columbus repaired to Lisbon, where he found countrymen and relations, and hoped to find employment congenial to his tastes. He married Felippa, the daughter of Bartolemew de Palestrello, a distinguished navigator, who had left many nautical instruments, charts, and manuscripts, which proved of great value to Columbus. They had one son, Diego. Felippa died when Diego was but a boy.

When the idea first presented itself to his mind we do not know; but we do know that the study of the charts and globes of his time convinced Columbus that they did not, and could not, rightly represent the earth's surface. If we take a terrestrial globe and cover the vast continents of America and Australia, and the islands of the Indian Ocean, with paper coloured to represent water, and revolve the globe in that condition in our hands, and if to all that portion of Asia which embraces India and the Chinese Empire we give the name India, we have before us the then known world, and are in a position to form some idea of the grandeur of the conception of Columbus. We must add, however, two facts, before we realise it, viz. : (1) The extent of Africa southward was not then known, for the Cape of Good Hope had not been discovered. The idea that India might be reached by sailing round the south of Africa was then a favourite topic of conversation. (2) There was a strange confusion in the mind even of the more intelligent, between the primitive notion that the earth was a plane, and the more advanced idea that it was a globe. That people could exist at the antipodes involved the notion of their living upside down a proposition regarded as simply absurd.

Though Columbus, so far as we know, never questioned the possibility of reaching India by rounding Africa, he maintained that there was a shorter route. He was satisfied that the existing charts did not faithfully represent the earth's surface; that the water, as shown, was out of all proportion to the land; he concluded, therefore, that India must extend much further into the ocean westward than was represented. The

idea of the existence of the continent of America never entered his brain. His belief was that there must be land where, or about where, he subsequently found that land did exist. His project was to sail through the then unknown waters westward and find it. The globe, or rather the known globe, was imperfect; he felt it to be his mission on earth to complete it. To demonstrate the truth of his theory he needed ships, and men to man them. He had no money of his own. Assistance was denied him both at Genoa and in Portugal, for none able to risk the undertaking believed in it. He resolved to offer to Spain the new world rejected by the place of his birth and by that of his adoption.

In the Spring of 1471, weary and worn, two travellers sought shelter from the burning Andalusian sun in the shade of the portico of the little monastery of Santa Maria de Rabida, near the small seaport of Palos. The elder was Columbus, the younger the lad Diego. The tall and majestic form, the noble brow, the open countenance, the pensive glance, the soft and graceful lips, and the light brown hair tinged with grey not warranted by the years of the elder, bespoke no ordinary man.

Father and son were invited in, refreshed and fed by the hospitable monks. The prior, Juan Pères de Marchinna, formerly confessor to Queen Isabella, was a noble-hearted and learned man who had exchanged the intrigues and vanities of court life for the tranquillity and study of the monastery. He saluted the stranger and caressed his child. At his invitation Columbus gave him the history of his life, narrated the circumstances that had led him there, spoke of his grand idea, his fears and anxieties as to its accomplishment.

The prior listened in silent admiration, revolving in his mind his power to aid the man who spoke as none other he had ever heard, though he himself was well versed in the sciences involved in navigation.

He promised nothing, but bade Columbus make the monastery his and his child's temporary home. He not merely

lodged, but fed and clothed them. He invited Fernandez, a physician, and Pierre de Velasco, a famous navigator, his two intellectual friends in Palos, to meet Columbus. The four met evening after evening-Columbus, at last, had believers. The prior resolved to act. The then confessor of the queen was Fernando de Talavera, his immediate successor in that office, and his old friend. The prior, in fact, had recommended him to the queen. The prior knew the nature of the queen, and felt certain that, with her, to understand was to espouse the cause of Columbus. He trusted Fernando.

The prior wrote a long letter to Fernando, detailing his knowledge and opinions, and begging him to secure for Columbus an audience with Ferdinand and Isabella; he furnished Columbus with suitable apparel, a mule, a guide, and money, and handed to him the letter to deliver to Fernando, promising to take charge of Diego till his return.

Columbus reached Cordova, where the court then was. The letter was delivered to Fernando and read by him with the incredulity of prejudice. No mention of it, or of Columbus, was made by him to either king or queen. Columbus waited, his purse was emptied, he returned to his chart-making and selling to gain his daily bread.

Globes and charts in hand, he obtained interviews with some of the illustrious, and among others Mendoza, Archbishop of Toledo. The archbishop was at first terrified; the theory of Columbus was in conflict with the Bible. The simple yet lofty piety of Columbus, which revealed the works of God in their grandeur, dispelled his first notion of blasphemy. He obtained for Columbus-two years after his arrival at Cordova-an interview with Ferdinand and Isabella. Referring to that interview, Columbus wrote "Brooding on what I was, I was overwhelmed with humility, but reflecting on what I bore, I felt myself the equal of crowned heads. I was no longer myself—I was the instrument of God, chosen and pointed out to accomplish a grand design."