Author: Edward Hale

Publisher:

Published: 2017-07-09

Total Pages: 204

ISBN-13: 9781548739010

"This book contains a life of Columbus, written with the hope of interesting all classes of readers. "His life has often been written, and it has sometimes been well written. The great book of our countryman, Washington Irving, is a noble model of diligent work given to a very difficult subject. And I think every person who has dealt with the life of Columbus since Irving's time, has expressed his gratitude and respect for the author. "According to the custom of biographers, in that time and since, he includes in those volumes the whole history of the West India islands, for the period after Columbus discovered them till his death. He also thinks it his duty to include much of the history of Spain and of the Spanish court. I do not myself believe that it is wise to attempt, in a book of biography, so considerable a study of the history of the time. Whether it be wise or not, I have not attempted it in this book. I have rather attempted to follow closely the personal fortunes of Christopher Columbus, and, to the history around him, I have given only such space as seemed absolutely necessary for the illustration of those fortunes. "I have followed on the lines of his own personal narrative wherever we have it. And where this is lost I have used the absolutely contemporary authorities. I have also consulted the later writers, those of the next generation and the generation which followed it. But the more one studies the life of Columbus the more one feels sure that, after the greatness of his discovery was really known, the accounts of the time were overlaid by what modern criticism calls myths, which had grown up in the enthusiasm of those who honored him, and which form no part of real history. If then the reader fails to find some stories with which he is quite familiar in the history, he must not suppose that they are omitted by accident, but must give to the author of the book the credit of having used some discretion in the choice of his authorities." -Edward Everett Hale Contents PREFACE. DETAILED TABLE OF CONTENTS. THE LIFE OF CHRISTOPHER COLUMBUS. CHAPTER I. EARLY LIFE OF COLUMBUS. CHAPTER II. HIS PLANS FOR DISCOVERY. CHAPTER III. THE GREAT VOYAGE. CHAPTER IV. THE LANDING ON THE TWELFTH OF OCTOBER CHAPTER V. LANDING ON CUBA CHAPTER VI. DISCOVERY OF HAYTI OR HISPANIOLA CHAPTER VII. COLUMBUS IS CALLED TO MEET THE KING AND QUEEN CHAPTER VIII. THE SECOND EXPEDITION SAILS CHAPTER IX. THE NEW COLONY CHAPTER X. THE THIRD VOYAGE. CHAPTER XI. SPAIN, 1500, 1501. CHAPTER XII. FOURTH VOYAGE. CHAPTER XIII. TWO SAD YEARS SUMMARY. APPENDIX A. APPENDIX B. APPENDIX C.