But Columbus came five or ſix hundred years too late for the candidates of ſovereignty. When he formed his project of diſcovery, the fluctuations of military turbulence had ſubſided, and Europe began to regain a ſettled form, by eſtabliſhed government and regular ſubordination. No man could any longer erect himſelf into a chieftain, and lead out his fellow-ſubjects by his own authority to plunder or to war. He that committed any act of hoſtility by land or ſea, without the commiſſion of ſome acknowledged ſovereign, was conſidered by all mankind as a robber or a pirate, names which were now of little credit, and of which therefore no man was ambitious.
Columbus in a remoter time would have found his way to ſome diſcontented Lord, or ſome younger brother of a petty Sovereign, who would have taken fire at his propoſal, and have quickly kindled
