46 



TRINIDAD : THEN AND NOW. 



literary cultivation which he preserved during his 

 life. We find him at an early age in Lisbon, with 

 his brother Bartholomew, constructing sailing charts 

 for navigators ; and it is probably this fact which led 

 him, in after years, to conceive the idea that he would 

 be able to find a shorter way to India than the one 

 then being searched for, and afterwards discovered, 

 round the Cape of Good Hope. 



Portugal was at that time engaged in geographi- 

 cal discovery ; and Columbus soon embarked in an 

 arduous voyage to the north in which he reached the 

 73rd deg. of north latitude while others were similarly 

 employed towards the south, both endeavouring to 

 discover a way to India. Columbus made several 

 voyages to England, and to the islands possessed by 

 Spain and Portugal in the Western ocean including 

 Porto Santo. By taking notes of everything he saw, 

 comparing them with the existing systems, and by 

 drawing maps and constructing globes he kept his 

 mined fixed on the studies in which he was destined 

 to effect so great a revolution. 



While in Lisbon, he married Donna Felipa 

 de Perestrello, daughter of one of the most experi- 

 enced navigators of his time. By this marriage 

 Columbus procured access to the charts and papers 

 of many experienced navigators connected with his 

 wife 's family. By repeated conversations with many 

 able geographers and sailors whom he found in Lis- 

 bon, and consulting them on the possibility of disco- 

 vering a western passage to the countries Cathay 

 (China of mediaeval times) and Zipangu (Japan) 



