by conquest the views of a nation could not always be the same they extended with its and prosperity was at peace with all the princes of europe it bad nothing to fear hi from engaging in an extensive it would be the greatest for to penetrate into the secrets and horrors of the ocean sea so formidable to the other nations of the world thus occupied it would escape the idleness in a long interval of peace that source of vice tliat silent file which little by little wore away tlie strength and of a nation it was an he added to the name to menace it with imaginary perils when it had proved itself so in the most certain and tremendous great souls were born for great he wondered much that a so religious as the bishop of should oppose this undertaking the ultimate object of which was to the catholic faith and spread it from pole to pole reflecting glory on the nation and yielding empire and lasting fame to its princes he concluded by declaring that although a soldier he dared to with a voice and spirit as if from heaven to whatever prince should achieve this more happy success and renown than had ever been obtained by sovereign the most and fortunate such was the warm and generous speech of the count of villa real in favour of the african it would have been fortunate for had his eloquence been exerted in favour of for it is said to have been received with to have overpowered the of the cold spirited and to have inspired the king and council with renewed for the attempt to the extremity of africa which they afterwards completed with such brilliant success l la l t o life and voyages op chapter vm departure of from and ap to other courts john il of is generally represented as a wise and prince and as one little apt to be ruled by his in this memorable with however he appears to have been wanting in his usual and to have listened to council opposite at all times to true policy and in this instance productive of much mortification and regret certain of his seeing that the monarch was dissatisfied with their decision and still retained a lurking inclination for the suggested a by which au its advantages might be secured without committing the dignity of the crown by entering into formal about what might prove a mere it was proposed that should be kept in suspense while a vessel should be secretly despatched in the direction he had pointed out to ascertain whether there were any foundation for his theory this advice is attributed to bishop of and with the narrow policy which would have persuaded king john to abandon the splendid track of his african discoveries the king in evil hour departed from his usual justice and generosity and had the weakness to permit the was required to furnish f � a plan of his voyage with the or other documents according to which he intended to shape his coarse that they might be examined by the council he readily com ed a was then with the pretext of carrying provisions to the cape de islands but with private instructions to pursue the route in the papers of departing from those islands the stood westward for several days the weather grew stormy and the having no seal to them and seeing nothing but an waste of wild tumbling waves still extending before them lost all courage to proceed they put back to the cape de islands and thence to their own want of resolution by the project of as extravagant and this unworthy attempt to him of his aroused the indignation of king john it is said would have renewed the but he resolutely declined his wife had been for some time dead the domestic tie which had bound him to was broken j he determined therefore to abandon a country where be had been treated with so faith and to seek patronage elsewhere towards the end of he departed secretly from taking with him his son the reason assigned for leaving the kingdom thus privately is that he feared being prevented by the king another reason appears to have arisen from his poverty while engrossed by those speculations which were to produce such benefit to mankind his affairs had run to ruin it would seem that he was even in � b t s i l i c b like a d of i er ol being for a lately l wliich was to some years by ihe king of � l inviting hit him any arrest on account of any process civil or be a him an interval now occurs of about a year which the movements of are involved in a modem spanish historian of great investigation and is of opinion that he departed immediately for where he that he was in when he repeated in person a proposition of his enterprise which be had formerly made to government by letter but that he met a contemptuous ul the republic of in f was not in a situation favourable to such an undertaking she was under a long decline and embarrassed by a foreign war her deposit in the had recently fallen into the � r fc w tm r w j jl r c is an old floating in to that effect a magistrate of that city be adds assured bim that he had formerly seen mention in the public of this of and of its being declined in consequence of the critical state of national affairs the long and wars however which had prevailed between and his native state render this application rather improbable different authors agree that about this time he visited his aged father made some arrangements for his comfort and having performed the duties of a pious son departed once more to 