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LIT fi OF COLON, BY HIS SON.

He was fo drict in religious matters, that for fading and faying all the divine officehe might be thought profed in foine religious order. So great was his averfion tofwearing and curbing, that I proted I never heard him fwear any other oath but byS. Ferdinand; and when in the greated paffion with any body, he would vent hisfpleen by faying, “ God take you for doing or faying fo.” When he was to write,his way of trying his pen was by writing thefe words, Jefus cum Maria fit nobis in via>and that in fuch a charafter, as might very well ferve to get his bread. But pafiing byother particulars of his actions and manners, which may be mentioned at their propertime in the courfe of this hidory, let us proceed to give an account to what fcience hemod addicted himfelf. In his tender years he applied himfelf fo much to dudy atPavia, as was fufficient to underdand cofmography; to which fort of reading he wasmuch addifted, for which reafon he alfo applied himfelf to adrology and geometry,becaufe thefe fciences are fo linked together that the one cannot fubfid without theother' and becaufe Ptolemy , in the beginning of his cofmography, fays that no mancan be a good cofmographer unlefs he be a painter too, therefore he learned to draw,in order to defcribe lands, and fet down cofmographical bodies, planes or rounds.

CHAP. IV. — How the Admiral employed himfelf before he came into Spain .

THE admiral having gained fome infight in fciences, began to apply himfelf to thefea, and made fome voyages to the ead and wed; of which, and many other thingsof thofe his fird days, I have no perfect knowledge, becaufe he died at fuch time asI, being confined by filial duty, had not the boldnefs to alk him to give an account ofthings •, or, to fpeak the truth, being but young, I was at that time far from beingtroubled with fuch thoughts. But in a letter writ by him, in the year 1501, to theircatholic majedies, to whom he durd not have writ any thing but the truth, he hasthefe following words :—“ Mod ferene princes ; I went to fea very young, and havecontinued it to this day ; and this art inclines thofe that follow it to be defirous todifcover the fecrets of this world. It is now forty years that I have been failing to allthofe parts, at prefent frequented ; and I have dealt and converfed with wife people,as well clergy as laity, Latins, Greeks, Indians, and Moors, and many others of otherfefts ; and our Lord has been favourable to this my inclination, and I have received ofhim the fpirit of underdanding : he has made me very Ikilful in navigation, knowingenough in adrology, and fo in geometry and arithmetic. God hath given me a geniusand hands apt to draw this globe, and on it the cities, rivers, iflands and ports," all intheir proper places. During this time I have feen, and endeavoured to fee all booksof cofmography, hidory, and philofophy, and of other fciences ; fo that our Lord hasfenfibly opened my underdanding, to the end I may fail from hence to the Indies, andmade me mod willing to put this in execution. Filled wi h this defire, I came to yourhighneffes. All that heard of my undertaking, rejected it with contempt and fcorn.In your highneffes alone, faith and condancy had their feat.” In another letter,written from Hifpaniola, in January 1495, to their catholic majedies, telling them theerrors and midakes commonly made in voyages and pilotting, he fays thus, « It hap-pened to me that King Renee whom God has taken to himfelf, fent to me to Tunis totake the galeaffe called Femandina ; and being near to the ifland of St. Peter by Sar-dinia , I was told there were two fhips and a barack with the faid galeaffe, which dif-compofed my men, and they refolved to go no farther, but to return to Marfeilles foranother fhip and more men; and I perceiving there was no going againd their wills,without fome contrivance, yielded to their defires, and changing the point of the needle,