Note 414 — Chapter VI · THE FINDING OF STRANGE COASTS.
Reading edition
Footnote 414: "Muy altos Reyes, de muy pequeña edad entré en la mar navegando, é lo he continuado fasta hoy.... Yá pasan de cuarenta años que yo voy en este uso: todo lo que hoy se navega, todo lo he andado." Navarrete, Coleccion, tom. ii. p. 262. Observe the lame phrase "pasan de cuarenta;" what business has that "de" in such a place without "mas" before it? "Pasan mas de cuarenta," i. e. "more than forty;" writing in haste and excitement, Columbus left out a little word; or shall we blame the proof-reader? Avezac himself translates it "il y a plus de quarante ans," and so does Eugène Müller, in his French version of Ferdinand's book, Histoire de la vie de Christophe Colomb, Paris, 1879, p. 15.[Back to Main Text]