Something in his blood, moreover, craved for dignity and the splendour of high-sounding titles; craved for power also, and the fulfilment of an arrogant pride.

All these things were in his Ligurian blood, and he breathed them in with the very air of Genoa.

His mind was of the receptive rather than of the constructive kind, and it was probably through those long years spent between sea voyages and brief sojourns with his family in Genoa or Savona that he conceived that vague Idea which, as I have tried to show, formed the impulse of his life during its brief initiative period.

Having once received this Idea of discovery and like all other great ideas, it was in the air at the time and was bound to take shape in some human brain--he had all his native and personal qualities to bring to its support.

The patience to await its course he had learned from his humble and subordinate life.