Status Updates From Spice and the Devil's Cave

'Brave, beautiful things, those shabby, leaking ships! 'Themselves outworn, the thing they had done would never die. And from that doing still greater would come, just as their accomplishment had had its roots in those first venturings of the Great Navigator's frail barks.' - Abel Zakuto's thoughts of the two ships that Vasco de Gama & Nicolau Coelho took to the sea

'To seek the unknown, for its sake only, seems so clean and sweet!' - Ferdinand

‘as sensitive to the moods of those about her as a flower petal to sun and wind'

Just checking in. A bit interesting to see the page number happens to be a palindrome of the total pages in this book!

'You see, Venice has had the monopoly of Oriental commerce so long that she can't believe anyone can take it away from her. So, most of them at home laugh at the reports of the Diaz expedition, and a few take it seriously. I'm one of those few. Then, why live my life out in a city that shuts its eyes to what I'm convinced is bound to be?' - Nicolo Conti

Chapter 13