CHARACTER OF COLUMBUS. 



upon the island of Flores ; and a mariner of Port St Mary 

 told him, that in the course of a voyage to Ireland, he 

 had seen land on ' the outer side,' which the ship's crew 

 took for the extreme part of Tartary. Nor is it to be 

 doubted that useful suggestions might accrue to a mind 

 like that of Columbus, even from the prevalent rumors 

 concerning the fancied islands of St Branden, the Seven 

 Cities, and various other fables of a similar nature. All 

 these things, at all events, were carefully noted among 

 his memoranda ; and trifling as they may appear at the 

 present day, they were probably important as they were 

 novel and rare then; and they certainly indicate, at least, 

 the inquisitiveness and the energy of the indefatigable 

 theorist. And thus, again, was the humble and pooi 

 day-laborer acquiring the confidence, and drawing to- 

 gether the knowledge, from all the ends of the earth, 

 which were to be his guide and support through life, and 

 to be the foundation of an imperishable fame. 



Nor was it mere knowledge or mere discipline of the 

 mind, or mere moral habits of value, which he had thus 

 far acquired. As much as he had studied and learned, 

 he was the very reverse of a simply sedentary or specu- 

 lative man. On the other hand, he was eminently a prac- 

 tical and an active man. In the naval science of the 

 Mediterranean, he had inured himself to bodily hardships, 

 privations and exertions for many years ; nor was he now 

 situated to be free from them. But, however such a 

 man might be situated, he could not be without resources 

 for any undertaking. Whatever were his manual em- 

 ployments, no time was lost. Without leisure and without 

 books conversation in society, and reflection in soli- 

 tude were made constantly subservient to the one great 

 object. And thus it is well worth observing was 

 he not only gaining that science and that power of mind 

 which are or should be the ordinary results of the labors 

 of a mere scholar ; but he was gaining them by a study 

 of human nature and human life, in himself and in all 

 around him. Here he acquired the facility of reading the 

 character and of managing the passions of men, which 

 was so indispensable to his success in afterlife; and 

 without which no man, however learned or ingenious, is 



