It is a material circumstance in the history of a great man to make known his country and original, as those are best esteemed in the world who are derived from noble cities and born of illustrious parents. Wherefore some would have engaged me to prove that the admiral my father was honourably descended, although his parents, through the fickleness of fortune, had fallen into great poverty. Those persons required me to prove that his ancestors descended from Junius Colomus, who, as Tacitus relates, brought Mithridates a prisoner to Rome, for which service he was raised by the Roman people to the consulate. They would likewise have induced me to give an account at large of the two illustrious Colomi his predecessors, who gained a great victory over the Venetians, as recorded by Sabellius, and which shall be mentioned in this work. But considering that my father seemed to have been peculiarly chosen by the Almighty for the great work which he performed, and may be considered in some measure as an apostle of the Lord by carrying the gospel among the heathen; and that the other apostles were called upon from the sea and the rivers, and not from courts and palaces, by him whose progenitors were of the royal blood of the Jews, yet who was pleased that they should be in a low and unknown estate: And seeing that God had gifted my father with those personal qualities which so well fitted him for so great an undertaking, he was himself inclined that his country and original might remain hidden and obscure.

Some who would throw a cloud upon his fame, have alleged that he was from Nerni, others from Cuguero, and others from Bugiesco, all small towns in the Riviera of Genoa: While others again, who were disposed rather to exalt his origin, say that he was a native of Savona, others of Genoa, and some more vain, make him to have been a native of Placentia, where there are some honourable persons of the name, and several tombs having the arms and inscriptions of the family of Columbus, which was the usual sirname of his predecessors; but he, in compliance with the country where he went to reside, modelled the name in resemblance of the ancients to Colon, thereby distinguishing the direct descent from the collateral lines.

Many names have been given by secret impulse, to denote the effects those persons were to produce; and as most of my fathers affairs were guarded by some special providence, his name and sirname were not without some mysterious significations. Thus, considering the sirname of his ancestors, Columbus or Columba, since he conveyed the grace of the Holy Ghost into that New World which he discovered, shewing the knowledge of the beloved Son of God to those people who knew him not, as was done by the Holy Ghost in the form of a Dove at the baptism of St John; and because, like Noahs dove, he carried the olive branch and the oil of baptism across the waters of the ocean, to denote the peace and union of those people with the church, which had long been shut up in the ark of darkness and ignorance. So likewise of the sirname of Colon which he revived, which was appropriate to him as signifying a member; and, in conjunction with his sirname of Christopher, denoted that he was a member of Christ, by whom salvation was to be conveyed to the heathen people whom he discovered. Thus, as St Christopher received that name because he carried Christ over the deep waters with great danger to himself; so the admiral Christopher Colonus, imploring the protection of Christ, safely carried himself and his people over the unknown ocean, that those Indian nations which he discovered might become citizens and inhabitants of the heavenly Jerusalem. For many souls, whom the Devil expected for his prey, were through his means passed through the water of baptism, and made inhabitants of the eternal glory of heaven.

To return to the quality and persons of his progenitors; however considerable they may once have been, it is certain that they were reduced to poverty and want, through the long wars and factions in Lombardy. I have not been able to discover in what manner they lived; though in one of his letters the admiral asserted that his ancestors and himself had always traded by sea. While passing through Cuguero, I endeavoured to receive some information on this subject from two brothers of the Colombi, who were the richest in those parts, and who were reported to be somewhat related to him; but the youngest of them being above an hundred years old, they could give me no information. Neither do I conceive this any dishonour to us his descendants; as I think it better that all our honour be derived from his own person, without inquiring whether his father were a merchant, or a nobleman who kept hawks and hounds. There have been thousands such in all parts, whose memory was soon lost among their neighbours and kindred, so that no memorials remain of there ever having been such men. I am therefore of opinion, that the nobility of such men would reflect less lustre upon me than the honour I receive from such a father: And, since his honourable exploits made him stand in no need of the wealth of predecessors, who though poor were not destitute of virtue, he ought from his name and worth to have been raised by authors above the rank of mechanics or peasants.

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. Thus Justiniani convicts himself of falsehood, and proves himself inconsiderate, rash, and malicious. When he had occasion to speak of so renowned a person who reflected so great honour on his country, although the admirals parents had even been very mean, it had been more decent in mentioning his origin, as other authors have done, to have said that he was of low parentage or come of very poor people, instead of falsely calling him a mechanic, as he did in his Psalter, and afterwards in his Chronicle. Even supposing he had not contradicted himself, reason might have shewn that a man who had been bred up in a mechanical employment, must grow old in it to become a perfect master, and could not from his youth have travelled into so many countries, or have attained so much knowledge and learning as his actions demonstrate; more especially in those four principal sciences which were so indispensably necessary to fit him for what he performed, astronomy, cosmography, geometry, and navigation. It is not much to be wondered that Justiniani should be guilty of untruth in this circumstance, which is hidden, since he has inserted above a dozen falsehoods in half a sheet of paper in his Psalter, in matters concerning this discovery and navigation, which are well known. These I shall briefly mention, without staying to give him any answer, that I may not interrupt the series of the history; and because from its tenor, and by what has been written by others on that subject, the falsehood of his writing will distinctly appear.