Entered, according to Act of Congress, in the year 1832, by Samuel G. Goodrich , in the Clerk's Office of the District Court of Massachusetts. PREFACE. The following Preface to the Life of Columbus will explain the plan of the series, of which this is the third volume:— "There is no kind of reading more attractive than biography, and, if properly treated, there is none more instructive. It appears, therefore, to be peculiarly fitted to the purposes of education; it readily excites the curiosit