with equal heat a troop of followers; they would have built ſhips, or have ſeized them, and have wandered with him at all adventures as far as they could keep hope in their company. But the age being now paſt of vagrant excurſion and fortuitous hoſtility, he was under the neceſſity of travelling from court to court, ſcorned and repulſed as a wild projector, an idle promiſer of kingdoms in the clouds: nor has any part of the world yet had reaſon to rejoice that he found at laſt reception and employment.
In the ſame year, in a year hitherto diſaſtrous to mankind, by the Portugueſe was diſcovered the paſſage of the Indies, and by the Spaniards the coaſt of America. The nations of Europe were fired with boundleſs expectation, and the diſcoverers purſuing their enterpriſe, made conqueſts in both hemiſpheres of wide extent. But the adventurers were contented with plunder;
