[1] This Must Be Understood As Referring To Voyages In The Mediterranean, In Respect Of The Port Of Genoa.

- E.

[2] Supposing Columbus to have been 14 years of age on first going to sea, it may be concluded that he was born in 1447. He must therefore have been 45 years old when he set out in 1492 for the discovery of America; and 59 years old at his death, in 1506. - E.

[3] Or rather Cape Carthago, on the coast of Barbary near Tunis. - E.

[4] It is highly probable that the original translator may have here mistaken the braccio of 1.913 English feet, for the fathom of 6 feet. In fathoms, this tide rises to the incredible height of 156 feet; whereas in braccios, it amounts only to 49 feet: And besides there are braccios considerably shorter than the one here assumed. - E.

[5] There is some inexplicable ambiguity in this passage, which the original translator must have misunderstood, and which cannot now be explained. - E.

[Illustration: Chart of North Western Africa]

SECTION II.

Of his first coming to Portugal, and the cause or motives of his proposing to discover the West Indies.

The occasion of his first coming into Portugal, arose from his attachment to a famous man of his name and family, named Columbus, long renowned on the sea as commander of a fleet against the infidels; insomuch that even in his own country his name was used to frighten young children. This man, known by the name of Columbus the young, to distinguish him from another great sea captain of the same name, was a person of great prowess, and must have commanded a goodly fleet, as he captured at one time four Venetian galleys, of such size and strength as I could not have believed unless I had seen them fitted out. Of this Columbus junior, Marc Anthony Sabellicus, the Livy of our age, says, in the eighth book of his tenth decade, that he lived at the time when Maximilian the son of the Emperor Frederick III. was chosen king of the Romans; and that Jerom Donato was sent ambassador from Venice to return thanks to John II. king of Portugal, for having relieved and clothed the crews of their great galleys so as to enable them to return to Venice. These galleys were returning from Flanders, when they were encountered and taken by the famous corsair Columbus junior, who stripped their whole crews and turned them ashore on the coast of Portugal.

The authority of so grave an author as Sabellicus, sufficiently proves the malice of Justiniani who makes no mention whatever of this incident, evidently lest the family of Columbus might appear less obscure than he was disposed to hold it out to the world. If in this he erred through ignorance, he is not the less worthy of blame for having undertaken to write the history of his country without making himself acquainted with so signal a victory, of which even the enemies of Genoa make mention.

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