He told her that he wondered that, as she always had a lofty mind for great things, it should be wanting to her on this occasion.

He endeavoured to pique her jealousy as a monarch, by suggesting that the enterprise might fall into the hands of other princes.

Then he said something in behalf of Columbus himself, and the queen was not unlikely to know well the bearing of a great man.

He intimated to her highness that what was an impossibility to the cosmographers, might not be so in nature.
Nor, continued he, should any endeavour in so great a matter be attributed to lightness, even though the endeavour should fail; for it is the part of great and generous princes to ascertain the secrets of the world.

Other princes (he did not mention those of neighbouring Portugal) had gained eternal fame this way.