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HISTORY OF THE SEA. 



the vast importance of the plans he proposed. Moved by their 

 persuasions, she declared that she accepted the enterprise, not 

 jointly, as the wife of the King of Spain, but independently, as 

 Queen of Castile. As the treasury was depleted by the drains 

 of war, she offered to defray the expenses with her own jewels. 

 A messenger was despatched for Columbus, who was overtaken 

 a few miles from Grenada. He at first hesitated to return ; but, 

 after reflecting upon the heroic determination of Isabella, who 

 thus took the initiative in a perilous undertaking, against the re- 

 port of the junto, the advice of her councillors, and in spite of 

 the indifference of the king, he obeyed with alacrity, and re- 

 turned to Santa Fe. 



He was received with distinction by the court and with affec- 

 tionate consideration by the queen. Ferdinand remained a 

 stranger to the expedition. He applied his signature to the 

 stipulations, but caused it to be distinctly set down that the 

 whole affair was undertaken by the Queen of Castile, at her own 

 risk and peril, — thus excluding himself forever from lot or parcel 

 in this transcendent enterprise. 



