Historic Boyhoods

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HISTORIC BOYHOODS

by

RUPERT S. HOLLAND

Author of "The Count at Harvard," "Builders of United Italy," etc.

[Illustration: THE FLEET OF COLUMBUS NEARING AMERICA]

Philadelphia George W. Jacobs & Company Publishers

Copyright, 1909, by George W. Jacobs and Company Published October, 1909 All rights reserved Printed in U.S.A.

To the dear memory of L.B.R.

The thanks of the author are due the Century Company for permission to reprint certain of these stories which appeared in Saint Nicholas in shorter form.

CONTENTS

I. CHRISTOPHER COLUMBUS The Boy of Genoa

II. MICHAEL ANGELO The Boy of the Medici Gardens

III. WALTER RALEIGH The Boy of Devon

IV. PETER THE GREAT The Boy of the Kremlin

V. FREDERICK THE GREAT The Boy of Potsdam

VI. GEORGE WASHINGTON The Boy of the Old Dominion

VII. DANIEL BOONE The Boy of the Frontier

VIII. JOHN PAUL JONES The Boy of the Atlantic

IX. MOZART The Boy of Salzburg

X. LAFAYETTE The Boy of Versailles

XI. HORATIO NELSON The Boy of the Channel Fleet

XII. ROBERT FULTON The Boy of the Conestoga

XIII. ANDREW JACKSON The Boy of the Carolinas

XIV. NAPOLEON BONAPARTE The Boy of Brienne

XV. WALTER SCOTT The Boy of the Canongate

XVI. JAMES FENIMORE COOPER The Boy of Otsego Hall

XVII. JOHN ERICSSON The Boy of the Goeta Canal

XVIII. GARIBALDI The Boy of the Mediterranean

XIX. ABRAHAM LINCOLN The Boy of the American Wilderness

XX. CHARLES DICKENS The Boy of the London Streets

XXI. OTTO VON BISMARCK The Boy of Goettingen

ILLUSTRATIONS

The Fleet of Columbus Nearing America

Walter Raleigh and the Fisherman of Devon

Peter the Great

Mrs. Washington Urges George Not to Enter the Navy

Daniel Boone's First View of Kentucky

Paul Jones Capturing the "Serapis"

Mozart and His Sister Before Maria Theresa

Lafayette Tells of His Wish to Aid America

Nelson Boarding the "San Josef"

Robert Fulton's First Experiment with Paddle Wheels

Andrew Jackson at the Battle of New Orleans

The Snow Fort at Brienne

Napoleon as a Cadet in Paris

Street in Edinburgh Where Scott Played as a Boy

Birthplace of Abraham Lincoln

Charles Dickens at Eighteen

I

Christopher Columbus The Boy of Genoa: 1446(?)-1506

A privateer was leaving Genoa on a certain June morning in 1461, and crowds of people had gathered on the quays to see the ship sail. Dark-hued men from the distant shores of Africa, clad in brilliant red and yellow and blue blouses or tunics and hose, with dozens of glittering gilded chains about their necks, and rings in their ears, jostled sun-browned sailors and merchants from the east, and the fairer-skinned men and women of the north.

Genoa was a great seaport in those days, one of the greatest ports of the known world, and her fleets sailed forth to trade with Spain and Portugal, France and England, and even with the countries to the north of Europe. The sea had made Genoa rich, had given fortunes to the nobles who lived in the great white marble palaces that shone in the sun, had placed her on an equal footing with that other great Italian sea city, Venice, with whom she was continually at war.