YOUNG CHRISTOPHER Christopher was fourteen years old when he first went to sea.

That is his own statement, and it is one of the few of his autobiographical utterances that we need not doubt.

From it, and from a knowledge of certain other dates, we are able to construct some vague picture of his doings before he left Italy and settled in Portugal.

Already in his young heart he was feeling the influence that was to direct and shape his destiny; already, towards his home in Genoa, long ripples from the commotion of maritime adventure in the West were beginning to spread.
At the age of ten he was apprenticed to his father, who undertook, according to the indentures, to provide him with board and lodging, a blue gabardine and a pair of good shoes, and various other matters in return for his service.

But there is no reason to suppose that he ever occupied himself very much with wool-weaving.