



Produced by Charles Keller and David Widger





THE LIFE OF CHRISTOPHER COLUMBUS

FROM HIS OWN LETTERS AND JOURNALS

AND

OTHER DOCUMENTS OF HIS TIME.



by EDWARD EVERETT HALE,


     [This was originally done on the 400th Anniversary
     of 1492, as was the great Columbian Exposition in Chicago.
     Interesting how our heroes have all been de-canonized in the
     interest of Political Correctitude]
     --Comments by Michael S. Hart




PREFACE.

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
author