In the Appendix to Señor Navarette’s “History of the Four Voyages of Columbus,” are copies of certain documents which the historian vouches to be authentic extracts from the series of Spanish Records preserved at Simancas. These documents narrate “that in the month of May or June, 1543, Blasco de Garay, a naval captain in the service of the Emperor Charles V., conducted at Barcelona, a series of experiments upon the applicability to ships of a certain propulsive force, which he alleges he had himself discovered.” De Garay describes the mechanism he employed as consisting of two wheels, one attached to either extremity of a movable axis which traversed the vessel’s waist, and was connected with a large caldron of boiling water. The experiments, it is alleged, were conducted in the presence of several persons of high birth, deputed by the Emperor to witness them, and amongst whom were many naval commanders. It is further alleged that De Garay succeeded in taking to sea a vessel of two hundred tons burthen, without the aid of sail or oar, and that her speed was about one league per hour.[3] Rear-Admiral Geo. Preble, U.S.N., author of a “History of Steam Navigation,” gives the names of several persons who have searched the documents referred to, none of whom have been able to trace any mention of steam; he, therefore, concludes that the account of De Garay’s invention is a Spanish legend. [4] Papin, who was driven from France by the revocation of the Edict of Nantes, and was elected F.R.S. in 1681, describes, in 1690, a steam cylinder in which a piston descends by atmospheric pressure, and, as one of its uses, he mentions the propulsion of ships by paddle wheels. Towards the close of the 17th century, or the beginning of the 18th, Papin made the acquaintance of Thomas Savory, one of the most ingenious men of his times, and of Thomas Newcomen, a working blacksmith, of Devon. Savory designed a marine engine, which was greatly improved by Newcomen in 1705, and was used by Papin to propel a steamboat on the Fulda. Thirty years later (1736), Jonathan Hulls, of Berwick-on-Tweed, received a patent for the first steamboat of which there is any authentic record from George II., which recited as follows:— [5]“Whereas our trusty and well-beloved Jonathan Hulls hath by his petition humbly represented unto our most dearly beloved Consort, the Queen, that he hath, with much labour and with great expense, invented and formed a machine for towing ships and vessels out of, or into any harbour or river, against wind or tide, or in a calm, which the petitioner apprehends may be of great service to our Royal Party and merchant ships, and to boats and other vessels, of which the petitioner hath made oath that he is the sole inventor, as by affidavit to his said petition annexed.