Whoever gives himself up to this art wants to know the secrets of Nature here below.

It is more than forty years that I have been thus engaged.

Wherever any one has sailed, there I have sailed." Whoever goes into the detail of the history of that century will come upon the names of two relatives of his--Colon el Mozo (the Boy, or the Younger) and his uncle, Francesco Colon, both celebrated sailors.

The latter of the two was a captain in the fleets of Louis XI of France, and imaginative students may represent him as meeting Quentin Durward at court.

Christopher Columbus seems to have made several voyages under the command of the younger of these relatives.