|
Of this person we
are told, "He knew well all the
havens, as
they were, from Gothland to the Cape of Finisterre, and every creek in
Brittany
and
Spain.
His barque
yclepéd was the Magdalen.
The strange puzzle in
navigation that he propounded was as follows.
"Here be a chart,"
quoth the Shipman, "of five
islands, with
the
inhabitants of which I do trade. In each year my good ship doth sail
over
every one of the ten courses depicted thereon, but never may she pass
along the same course twice in any year.
Is there any among
the company
who can tell me in how many different ways I may direct the Magdalen's
ten yearly voyages, always setting out from the same island?"
|
