276
LIFE
A N D
VOYAGES
OF
[BOOK
V.
same obscure stranger who but a short time before had been a common scoff and jest in this very court, derided by some as an adventurer, and pointed at by others as a madman.
Those who
had treated him with contumely during his long course of solici tation, now sought to efface the remembrance of it by adulations. Every one who had given him a little cold countenance, or a few courtly smiles, now arrogated to himself the credit of having been a patron and of having promoted the discovery of the New World. Scarce a great man about the court, but has been enrolled by his historian or biographer among the benefactors of Columbus; though, had one-tenth part of this boasted patronage been really exerted, he would never have had to linger seven years soliciting for an armament of three caravels.
Columbus knew well the
weakness of the patronage that had been given him. The only friends mentioned by him with gratitude, in his after letters, as having been really zealous and effective, were those two worthy friars, Diego de Deza, afterwards bishop of Palencia and Seville, and Juan Perez, the prior of the convent of La Rabida. Thus honored by the sovereigns, courted by the great, idolized by the people, Columbus, for a time, drank the honeyed draught of popularity, before enmity and detraction had time to drug it with bitterness.
His discovery burst with such sudden splendor
upon the world, as to dazzle envy itself, and to call forth the gene ral acclamations of mankind.
Well would it be for the honor of
human nature, could history, like romance, close with the consum mation of the hero's wishes; we should then leave Columbus in the full fruition of great and well-merited prosperity.
But his
history is destined to furnish another proof, if proof be wanting, of the inconstancy of public favor, even when won by distinguished services.
No greatness was ever acquired by more incontestable,