Should Any One Be Disposed To Affirm That The Predecessors Of My Father
Were Handicrafts, Founding Upon The Assertion Of
Justiniani, I shall not
engage to prove the contrary; for, as the writing of Justiniani is not to
be considered
As an article of faith, so I have received the contrary from
a thousand persons. Neither shall I endeavour to prove the falsehood of
his history from those other authors who have written concerning my father;
but shall convict him of falsehood out of his own writings and by his own
testimony; thus verifying proverb which says "that liars ought to have
good memories," because otherwise they contradict themselves, as
Justiniani has done in this case, of which I propose to exhibit sufficient
proofs.
In his comparison of the four languages, when commenting upon that passage
in the psalms, "In omnem terrarum exivit sonus eorum," he says, "This
Christopher Columbus having acquired some rudiments of learning in his
tender years, applied himself to navigation when he came to manhood, and
went to Lisbon, where he learned cosmography from a brother who there made
sea charts; in consequence of which improvement, and by discoursing with
those who had sailed to St George del Mina in Africa, and through his own
reading in cosmography, he entertained thoughts of sailing towards those
countries which he afterwards discovered." Hence, contrary to the
assertion of Justiniani, it appears from his own words that my father
followed no handicraft or mechanic employment, but devoted his childhood
to learning, his youth to navigation and cosmography, and his riper years
to discoveries.
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