Page:History of the Reign of Ferdinand and Isabella the Catholic Vol. II.djvu/139

Rh This extraordinary man was a native of Genoa, of humble parentage, though perhaps honorable descent. He was instructed in his early youth at Pavia, where he acquired a strong relish for the mathematical sciences, in which he subsequently excelled. At the age of fourteen, he engaged in a seafaring life, which he followed with little intermission till 1470; when, probably little more than thirty years of age, he landed in Portugal, the country to which adventurous spirits from all parts