For It Appears Clearly, From Many Little
Circumstances, That He Was A Person Of Universal Genius, And, Until
Bad Usage Obliged Him To Take Many Precautions, Very Communicative.
It was from this plan, as it had been communicated to the Portuguese
court, that the famous Magellan came
To have so just notions of the
possibility of sailing by the West to the East Indies; and there was
a great deal of theory in the proposal made by that great man to the
Emperor Charles V. Sir Francis Drake was a person of the same
genius, and of a like general knowledge; and it is very remarkable
that these three great seamen met also with the same fate; by which
I mean, that they were constantly pursued by envy while they lived,
which hindered so much notice being taken of their discourses and
discoveries as they deserved. But when the experience of succeeding
times had verified many of their sayings, which had been considered
as vain and empty boastings in their lifetimes, then prosperity
began to pay a superstitious regard to whatever could be collected
concerning them, and to admire all they delivered as oraculous. Our
other discoverer, Candish, was likewise a man of great parts and
great penetration, as well as of great spirit; he had, undoubtedly,
a mighty genius for discoveries; but the prevailing notion of those
times, that the only way to serve the nation was plundering the
Spaniards, seems to have got the better of his desire to find out
unknown countries; and made him choose to be known to posterity
rather as a gallant privateer than as an able seaman, though in
truth he was both.
Enter page number
PreviousNext
Page 84 of 180
Words from 23654 to 23933
of 50938
