132 



COLUMBUS, CHRISTOPHER. 



ful, and not injure the dignity of the Crown if it 

 failed. In accordance with it, Columbus was 

 required to give a detailed plan of his intended 

 voyage with all his charts and maps, ostensibly 

 to be examined by the council, whose decision 

 he was to await. Having thus quieted him, the 

 King fitted out a caravel, said to be laden with 

 provisions for the Cape de Verde islands, but with 

 secret instructions to sail westward in search of 

 land, following the course laid down by Colum- 

 bus. After a stormy voyage of several days the 

 vessel returned to Lisbon, and the ridicule heaped 

 on Columbus by the travelers was his first inti- 

 mation of the deceit practiced upon him. He 

 was deeply incensed, and immediately left a land 

 that had proved so treacherous. This was in 

 the latter part of 1484. His wife having died, 

 he took with him his little son Diego, and set 

 out secretly. Three years later King John 

 wrote to him. addressing "Christopher Colon, 

 our especial friend," invited him to return, and 

 promised him immunity from any civil or crimi- 

 nal suit that might be pending against him. It 

 is needless to say that the offer met with no re- 

 sponse. There is pretty good authority for be- 

 lieving that, before the negotiations with King 

 John, Columbus had, by letter, offered his serv- 

 ices to his native and beloved Genoa. The 

 government had declined them, but on leaving 

 Portugal he seems to have renewed the offer in 

 person, with a like result, and to have lived some 

 time with his father, making maps and charts 

 for a livelihood. It is believed that at this time 

 also he laid his plan before the little kingdom 

 of Venice. That he did so at some time, is 

 shown by a letter written by Columbus two days 

 before he sailed from Saltes, addressed to Agos- 

 tino Barbarigo, Doge of Venice. It runs : 



MAGNIFICENT SIR: Since your republic has not 

 deemed it convenient to accept ray offers, and all the 

 spite of my many enemies has been brought in force 

 to oppose my petition, I have thrown myself into the 

 arms of God, my Maker, and he, by the intercession 

 of the saints, has caused the most clement King of 

 Castile not to refuse generously to assist my project 

 toward the discovery of a new world. And praising 

 thereby the good God, I obtained the placing under 

 my command of men and ships, and am about to set 

 out on a voyage to that famous land, grace to which 

 intent God has been pleased to bestow upon me. 



In 1485 Columbus set out to lay his plans be- 

 fore the Spanish sovereigns, Ferdinand and Isa- 

 bella. On his way he stopped at the Convent of 

 La Rabida, which was about a mile from the 

 Andalusian seaport of Palos. He was traveling 

 on foot, in poor clothing, accompanied by his lit- 

 tle son Diego. As he paused to ask a morsel of 

 bread and a drink of water for the child, the 

 prior of the convent, Juan Perez de Marchina, 

 happened to pass the entrance. Struck by the 

 appearance of Columbus, and noticing his foreign 

 accent, he questioned him, and as a result of 

 the interview sent for, a friend of his, Garcia 

 Fernandez, the physician of Palos, who was 

 equally impressed. Several conferences were 

 held in the cloisters, in which some of the an- 

 cient mariners of Palos felt a deep interest, and 

 added to the excitement if not to the informa- 

 tion that was filling the fervid mind of Colum- 

 bus. One old tar, Pedro de Velasco, said that 

 thirty years before he was carried by stress of 

 weather so far to the northwest that Cape Clear, 



in Ireland, lay eastward of him. There, in a 

 strong west wind, the sea was perfectly smooth, 

 which he fancied must be caused by land that 

 lay in that direction. 



In that shelter Columbus and his boy remained 

 all winter. In the spring of 1486 the King and 

 Queen established their court in Cordova, in 

 order to raise an army for the coming campaign 

 against the Moors. Furnished with a letter from 

 Juan Perez to his intimate friend Fernando de 

 Talavera, confessor to the Queen, Columbus left 

 his boy in the prior's hands and went to court. 



So far from taking the view of the prior of 

 La Rabida, Talavera pronounced the scheme ab- 

 surd and impossible, and would not even secure 

 a hearing for the applicant. Oviedo says : " Be- 

 cause he was a stranger and went but in simple 

 apparel, not otherwise credited than by the let- 

 ter of a gray friar, they believed him not, neither 

 gave ear to his words, whereby he was greatly 

 tormented in his imagination." 



The war against the Moors in their last strong- 

 hold of Granada was in full tide. Not only was 

 Ferdinand busy with the unrelaxing energy that 

 characterized him, but the Queen took up her 

 residence in camp. The court moved with the 

 shifting fortunes of the war. City after city 

 fell, triumph after triumph followed with ab- 

 sorbing excitement. During the summer and 

 autumn Columbus remained in Cordova, sup- 

 porting himself in the familiar way, with map 

 and chart making, meantime trying to make 

 friends of influential persons. Among these was 

 Alonzo de Quintanilla, controller of the finances 

 of Castile, who took him into his house and be- 

 came a warm supporter of his theories. Anto- 

 nio Geraldinus, nuncio from the Pope, and his 

 brother, Alexander Geraldinus, preceptor of the 

 King's younger children, warmly espoused his 

 cause. They introduced him to Pedro Gonzales 

 de Mendoza, Archbishop of Toledo and Grand 

 Cardinal of Spain, who was called by Peter Mar- 

 tyr " the third King of Spain." He opposed the 

 suggestions at first as heterodox, and it is infi- 

 nitely to the credit both of Columbus and of this 

 prelate, who knew more dogma than science, 

 that he gave first an incredulous but respectful 

 hearing, then earnest study, and finally the in- 

 terest born of conviction. He obtained Colum- 

 bus an interview with the sovereigns, and the 

 result was that Talavera was ordered to convene 

 a council of learned men to listen and report. 



In the Dominican Convent of St. Stephen, 

 Sfilamanca, where Columbus was maintained 

 meanwhile, was held the conference of world- 

 wide renown. Few in it but came with deep- 

 seated prejudice against the man they were to 

 hear. In fact, at first a few scientific friars were 

 all who paid any attention to him. When they 

 finally listened it was to pour forth on him a 

 torrent of contradiction. The Old Testament 

 and the New Testament, the ancient fathers and 

 the modern Popes, were cited to prove the im- 

 possibility and absurdity of his conclusions. 

 From Lactantius was the following : " Is there 

 any one so foolish as to believe that there are 

 antipodes with their feet opposite to ours people 

 who walk with their heels upward and their 

 heads hanging down? that there is a part of 

 the world in which all things, are topsy-turvy, 

 and where it rains, hails, and snows upward? 



