Where Was Columbus Born

Auckland Star, Volume XVII, Issue 202, 28 August 1886, Page 4

Where Was Columbus Born

Wmi,i'. statesmen and patriots aro busy makitg history, tho citizens of tho littlo town of Calvi havo boon industriously upsetting biography. Evory ono knows that Christopher Columbus was born at Genoa. Tho intelligent schoolboy has resd it in the geography books. Tho hardworking tourist ha 3 noted it in his Bnedekor. Tho statue to the great navigator has beon eot up just outaide tho railway station, aliko regardless of expense and (tho critics say) of nature. No one can como in or out of the city without boing impressed by the fact that he has Boen it. The citizens of Calvi havo endured this for years. But tho inhabitants of an island which produced a Bonaparte were not to bo silenced by statuary or guide books. Inst weok thoy revolted and claimed thoir rights. Such festivities were held in honour of Columbus that all Corsica must regard his birthplaco as settled. A marble tablot has beon let into tbo front of tho house where bo was born, and Calvi claims, henceforth, an indefeasible honour. Unfortunately, some Bi'xteen miles out of Gonon the frontage of a little moan tavern in tho village of Cogoleto also exhibits a romarkablo plaque. This ia the inscription engraved upon it: " Stop, traveller. Horo Columbus first paw light. This too stra:ttned house waa the home of a man greater than the world. There bad boon but one world. ' Lot there be^two,' said Columbus, and two thore were." Till Calvi can rival this superb piece of grandiloquence Cogoleto is safe.