Note c — CANTO VII.

The scorn of Folly, and of Fraud the prey; Nudo nocchier, promettitor di regni! By the Genoese and the Spaniards he was regarded as a man resolved on ‘a wild dedication of himself to unpath’d waters, undream’d shores;’ and the court of Portugal endeavoured to rob him of the glory of his enterprise, by secretly dispatching a vessel in the course which he had pointed out. ‘Lorsqu’il avail promis un nouvel hémisphère,’ says Voltaire, ‘on lui avait soutenu que cet hémisphère ne pouvait exister; et quand il l’eut découvert, on prétendit qu’il avait été connu depuis long-temps.’