This
lady, it seems, took off the veil that covered her head, and fastened
it to an upright shaft stuck in the middle of the boat, and, much to
her astonishment, it impelled her onwards at a marvellous speed."
"A clever young woman that," said Willis; "but I doubt whether veils
would answer the purpose on board a seventy-four, particularly as
regards the mainsail and mizentops."
"The Phoenicians were the most enterprising of the early navigators.
They appeared to have sailed round Africa without a compass, for they
embarked on the Red Sea and reappeared at the mouth of the Nile, and
the compass was not invented till the fourteenth century."
"And who was the inventor of the compass?" inquired Willis.
"According to some authorities, it was invented by a Neapolitan named
Jean Goya; according to others, the inventor was a certain Hugues de
Bercy."
"Then," said Jack, "you do not admit the claims of the Chinese and
Hindoos, who assert priority in the discovery?"
"I neither deny nor admit their claims, because I do not know the
grounds upon which they are founded; like the invention of gunpowder
and printing, the discovery of the compass has many rival claimants."
"I am of opinion," said Jack, "that Guttenberg is entitled to the
honor of discovering printing, and that Berthold Schwartz invented
gunpowder.
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