Later Plato, and next Aristotle, two very learned
Greeks, did the same; and still later, the Romans taught it. But Greece
and Rome fell; and during the Dark Ages, when the Greek and Roman ideas
were lost sight of, most people took it for granted that the world was
flat. After many centuries the "sphere" idea was resurrected and talked
about by a few landsmen, and believed in by many practical seamen; and
it is quite possible that the young Cristoforo had learned of the theory
of a sphere-world from Genoese navigators even before he went to sea.
Wherever the idea originated is insignificant compared with the fact
that, of all the men who held the same belief, Columbus alone had the
superb courage to sail forth and prove it true.
Columbus, writing bits of autobiography later, says that he took to the
sea at fourteen. If true, he did not remain a seafarer constantly, for
in 1472-73 he was again helping his father in the weaving or wool-
combing business in Genoa. Until he started on his famous voyage,
Columbus never kept a journal, and in his journal we find very little
about those early days in Genoa. While mentioning in this journal a trip
made when he was fourteen, Columbus neglects to state that he did not
definitely give up his father's trade to become a sailor until 1475.
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