Bader - Who Was Christopher Columbus?

Who Was Christopher Columbus?

Who Was
Christopher Columbus?

By Bonnie Bader
Illustrated by Nancy Harrison

To Lauren and Allie, who have the world ahead of them to exploreBB

GROSSET & DUNLAP

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Text copyright 2013 by Bonnie Bader. Illustrations copyright 2013 by Nancy Harrison.
Cover illustration copyright 2013 by Nancy Harrison. All rights reserved. Published by Grosset & Dunlap, a division of Penguin Young Readers Group, 345 Hudson Street,
New York, New York 10014. GROSSET & DUNLAP is a trademark
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Library of Congress Cataloging-in-Publication Data is available.

ISBN: 978-0-698-15950-1

A tall man paced the deck of his ship. He and his men had been at sea for seventy days, since August 3, 1492. They had sailed over 2,650 miles from Spain. Now, land had been spotted. Had Christopher Columbuss dream to reach the Indies finally come true?

For years he had begged the rulers of Portugal and Spain to give him money for this journey. He wanted to find a route from Europe to the Indies by sailing west. The Indies included China, Japan, and India. No one had done this before.

As the sun rose on October 12, 1492, Columbus and his crew made their way to shore.

Falling to his knees, he kissed the ground and cried. Oh, what riches awaited him! He would return to Spain a hero.

Columbus didnt know that this was not the Indies. So where was he? Columbus and his crew were on land that no one in Europe knew about. Christopher Columbus had discovered a new world.

In 1451, a boy named Cristoforo Colombo was born in the city of Genoa, Italy. In the English-speaking world, he is known as Christopher Columbus.

Christophers father was a wool weaver. His mother was the daughter of a weaver, and she helped with the work. It was expected that one day Christopher would take over the family business.

But young Christopher did not want to follow in his fathers footsteps. He loved the sea, the smell of the salty air. He loved the way the wind blew through his hair. Genoa was a busy port on the Mediterranean Sea. Christopher and his younger brother, Bartolomeo, loved going down to the docks. They watched ships come into port, bringing in goods such as silk, tea, and spices from the East. And they watched the ships leave, loaded with wool, copper, tin, and weapons. Christopher hoped to work on one of those ships one day.

At that time, boys as young as ten went off to sea as cabin boys. A cabin boy did all sorts of jobscooking, cleaning, fetching tools and supplies. Christopher got his first job aboard a ship when he was about fourteen.

Christopher split his time between helping his father and sailing the seas. He sailed to such places as Ireland and Iceland. He learned a lot about how to steer a ship in the open sea. This skill would be very important later in his life.

At nineteen, Christopher had grown into a strong young man. No one knows exactly what he looked like. Some say he was tall with wide shoulders. His skin was said to be pale, and he is believed to have had red hair and light blue eyes. Not only was his body strong, but his mind was sharp. Some said he was too stubborn and had a bad temper. He was also very, very sure of himself. Once he set his mind on something, he never let it go. And Christopher Columbus was very sure about one thinghe wanted to become a famous sea captain. Famous and rich.

In 1476, when Christopher was twenty-five years old, he was on a ship attacked by French warships. The ship went up in flames. But Christopher managed to reach the shore.