But as league after league of that coast was discovered, it was thought that the route to India by way of Africa was too long for the purposes of commerce.[1] Then came the question, Is there not a shorter route?
and this Columbus tried to answer.
[Footnote 1: Read the account of Portuguese exploration in search of a way to India, in Fiske's _Discovery of America_, Vol.

I., pp.

274-334.] %4.

Columbus seeks the East and finds America.%[2]--Columbus was a native of Genoa, in Italy.

He began a seafaring life at fourteen, and in the intervals between his voyages made maps and globes.