THE VOYAGERS 



of the work to be done. We know little of the English 



sailors of the time of King Henry VII. But we know 



them at an earlier time, and we shall meet them again 



later, in the day of their triumph. 



When Columbus arrived at Cordova, in i486, to lay 



his propositions before the allied monarchs of Castile and 



Arragon, he found there a Court and a nation little 



disposed to pay attention to nautical adventure. The 



campaign against the Moors for the conquest of Granada 



was being inaugurated with all the pomp and splendour 



of mediaeval chivalry. Decadent feudalism, trained in Thej:avahers 



^ _ of Spain, 



the stately formalities of Courts and the subtleties of 



Catholic theology, was to have the task of conquering 

 and settling the West Indies. But the hidalgos and 

 cavaliers who thronged with their retinues to the camp 

 at Cordova had no foreboding of their destiny. Many 

 of them were to be lost at sea, or to die miserably in 

 remote islands, at the bidding of the poor man in simple 

 apparel who was unable to gain a hearing from them. 

 In the meantime Spain, with the infidel at her gates, 

 cared little for the sea. The marvel is not that Columbus 

 crossed the Atlantic, but that by his resolute importunity 

 he secured the help of the Court of Spain. His scheme 

 was little understood; but in Spain religion is under- 

 stood, and, by long cherishing, his belief in his mission 

 had acquired the intensity and the elevation of a creed. 

 It was this which won him the friendship of Friar Juan 

 Perez, at the convent of La Rabida, and it was this which, 

 in the end, secured for him the whole-hearted sympathy 

 and support of Isabella of Castile. In October, 1492, 

 he landed at San Salvador in the Bahama Islands. 

 By the conquest and settlement of Cuba and the West 



7 



