[Note 7: _Opus Epistolarum_. Ep. lvii.]

During these prosperous years in Spain, the promise made to Cardinal
Ascanio Sforza was faithfully kept, though the latter's early fall
from his high estate in Rome diverted Martyr's letters to other
personages. With fervent and unflagging interest he followed the swift
march of disastrous events in his native Italy. The cowardly murder
of Gian Galeazzo by his perfidious and ambitious nephew, Lodovico il
Moro; the death of the magnificent Lorenzo in Florence; the accession
to power of the unscrupulous Borgia family, with Alexander VI. upon
the papal throne; the French invasion of Naples--all these and other
similar calamities bringing in their train the destruction of Italy,
occupied his attention and filled his correspondence with lamentations
and sombre presages for the future.

He was the first to herald the discovery of the new world, and to
publish the glory of his unknown compatriot to their countrymen. To
Count Giovanni Borromeo he wrote concerning the return of Columbus
from his first voyage: ..._rediit ab Antipodibus occiduis
Christophorus quidam Colonus, vir ligur, qui a meis regibus ad hanc
provinciam tria vix impetraverat navigia, quia fabulosa, que dicebat,
arbitrabantur; rediit preciosum multarum rerum sed auri precipue,
qua suapte natura regiones generant tulit_. Significant is the
introduction of the great navigator: _Christophorus quidam Colonus,
vir ligur_. There was nothing more to know or say about the sailor
of lowly origin and obscure beginnings, whose great achievement shed
glory on his unconscious fatherland and changed the face of the world.