Page:History of the Reign of Ferdinand and Isabella the Catholic Vol. II.djvu/146

122 122 CHRISTOPHER COLUMBUS. PART of the majority. Some of the most considerable — '- —, persons of the court, indeed, moved by the cogency of Columbus's arguments, and affected by the ele- vation and grandeur of his views, not only cordially embraced his scheme, but extended their personal intimacy and friendship to him. Such, among others, were the grand cardinal Mendoza, a man whose enlarged capacity, and acquaintance with affairs, raised him above many of the narrow pre- judices of his order, and Deza, archbishop of Se- ville, a Dominican friar, whose commanding talents were afterwards unhappily perverted in the service of the Holy Office, over which he presided as suc- cessor to Torquemada. ^^ The authority of these individuals had undoubtedly great weight with the sovereigns, who softened the verdict of the junto, by an assurance to Columbus, that, " although they were too much occupied at present to embark in his undertaking, yet, at the conclusion of the war, they should find both time and inclination to treat with him." Such was the ineffectual result of Columbus's long and painful solicitation ; and far from receiving the qualified assurance of the sove- reigns in mitigation of their refusal, he seems to have considered it as peremptory and final. In 1' This prelate, Diego de Deza, course of episcopal preferment, to was born of poor, but respectable the metropolitan see of Seville, parents, at Tore. He early enter- His situation, as confessor of Fer- ed the Dominican order, where his dinand, gave him great influence learning and exemplary life re- over that monarch, with whom he commended him to the notice of appears to have maintained an in- the sovereigns, who called him to timate correspondence, to the day court to take charge of Prince of his death. Oviedo, Quincuage John's education. He was after- nas, MS., dial, de Deza. wards raised, through the usual