Fortunately, navigation by steam has now equalized all that." Toni was silently admiring his captain.

What he must have learned in those books that filled the stateroom!...
It was in the Mediterranean that men had first entrusted themselves to the waves.

Civilization emanated from India, but the Asiatic peoples were not able to master the art of navigation in their few seas whose coasts were very far apart and where the monsoons of the Indian Ocean blew six months together in one direction and six months in another.
Not until he reached the Mediterranean by overland emigration did the white man wish to become a sailor.

This sea that, compared with others, is a simple lake sown with archipelagoes, offered a good school.

To whatever wind he might set his sails, he would be sure to reach some hospitable shore.