Christopher Columbus Was a Very Brave Man

DESCRIPTION: Jump-rope rhyme. "Christopher Columbus was a very brave man, He sailed the ocean in an old tin can/frying pan. But the waves grew higher and higher and over." Counting: Five, ten, fifteen, twenty....
AUTHOR: unknown
EARLIEST DATE: 1959 (Singabout, according to Abrahams-JumpRopeRhymes)
KEYWORDS: jumprope travel | Christopher Columbus sailing waves counting tin can frying pan
HISTORICAL REFERENCES:
1451-1506 - Life of Cristoforo Colombo (who went by the Spanish name Cristóbal Colón), known in English as "Christopher Columbus"
1492 - first of Columbus's four voyages to the New World, which he never figured out was not the coast of Asia, because (although everyone knew the world was spherical) he used a blatantly wrong figure for its diameter and never thought to do an experiment to check the correct figure, which was known to everyone but him, He was indeed brave. He was also an extreme racist, so quarrelsome that his subordinates usually hated him, a credit-stealer, a money-grubber, and a bigot.
FOUND IN: Australia Britain(Scotland)
REFERENCES (1 citation):
Abrahams-JumpRopeRhymes, #78, "Christopher Columbus was a very brave man" (1 text)
Roud #19214
CROSS-REFERENCES:
cf. "Christopher Columbo" (character of Christopher Columbus)
File: AJRR078

Go to the Ballad Search form
Go to the Ballad Index Song List

Go to the Ballad Index Instructions
Go to the Ballad Index Bibliography or Discography