raphers of his time, considered those countries as portions of northeastern Asia, as "promontories of Tartary;"1 and that, for this very reason, he never spent any deep or serious thought upon them, since it is universally known that Columbus never conceived the idea of discovering a new world, but simply intended to find a new route to the rich islands of pearls and spices in the East Indies, which he well knew to be situated in warm latitudes and not in the frozen seas of the North. If he did discover the continent, part of which the Northmen had visited and settled long before, this happened far beyond all his intentions, his expectations, and consciousness. His sole project was,-and in this he was, after Toscanelli, who advised the king of Portugal to make the undertaking, probably the first of all men, namely, to reach the "Levante por el Poniente," the East by way of the West. Heedless, therefore, of what he had learned in Iceland, he steered his prow southward, not northward, when setting out on his immortal voyage. Such is also the opinion of Washington Irving and von Humboldt.2

Columbus, as we have just noticed, had gathered elsewhere experimental knowledge, more useful to the grand undertaking than was his own. His audacious schemes were based, moreover, on his intelligent conclusions from natural sciences, such as astronomy and geography, and on the statements of ancient learned

writers, not to speak of his bold arguments drawn from the Bible and the Holy Fathers. The canonical Chapter of Seville preserves still a copy of the "Imago Mundi," the World's Image, of the Cardinal of Cambray, Peter d'Ailly, enriched with marginal annotations from the hand of Columbus. Here he had read: "The earth is round and the western ocean is relatively small, Aristoteles affirms the sea to be narrow betwixt the western coast of Spain and the borders of India and the East, . . . Seneca assures us that with favorable winds we might cross the sea in a few days, . . . Pliny says that ships could in a short time sail from the Arabian Gulf to Cadiz in Spain." Here he had learned the nautical route around the world.

The Ligurian scientist did not suppose or presume the possibility of sailing in a straight line from Europe to Malaysia, whose spices he was enjoying every day. He knew it. His only mistake, the occasion of all his glory, was, that he never dreamt of the existence of our troublesome isthmus of Panama with the two continents attached to it.

He was convinced, but it took him many years to persuade any of the European kings and princes whose material assistance he needed to carry out his gigantic designs.

Ramusio, Columbus's contemporary, and, shortly after, Benzoni and the royal historian Herrera,' testify that the great discoverer first offered to his native country, to Genoa, the anticipated riches of the West Indies. But Genoa was no longer the rich republic of former days; it was mortgaged to France and Milan at that time. It had, moreover, two centuries before, learned a costly lesson by defraying the expenses of the ex

Lib. i. cap. vii. p. 14.

plorers Theodosio Doria and Ugolino dei Vivaldi, who were never heard of afterwards; neither had it ever reaped any profit from the discoveries of its other sons, Nicolò di Recco, who, in the year 1341, discovered the Canary Islands, and Antonio di Noli, who first saw the African capes Blanco and Verd and the islands adjoining to the latter headland. Columbus was, therefore, bonorably dismissed by his countrymen.1

According to a document written in A.D. 1520, Columbus must have been accidentally met in Genoa by the priest Pedro de Arenas, of the noble Spanish family of Villatobas, who, understanding his scientific conceptions and religious aims, invited him to his own territories and country, and remained his useful friend ever since.2

It is often said that Columbus, rebuked in Genoa, made offers to the more powerful republic of Venice; but no documents sustain this opinion.

From the general history of the time, and from that of Columbus in particular, it appears more likely that the great man first applied for assistance to John II., king of Portugal. He was received well at his court, the most learned of all Europe; but the conditions which he stipulated appeared exorbitant to the counsellors of the interested monarch. After the future discoverer had exposed to them his arguments, his plans and designs, they decided to test his truthfulness for themselves, and secretly sent out an exploring expedition. The captain, as might well be expected, was no Columbus. After many days' sailing according to general directions and suffering from adverse winds on his return, he ridiculed very pleasantly the

1 Van Speybrouck, bl. 51.

'It is pretended by some authors that this Pedro de Arenas was the

first priest, after Columbus's discovery, to say Holy Mass in the New World.

schemes of the Genoese foreigner; and the enthusiastic originator was politely neglected.1

When the deluded victim became aware of the felony, he left Portugal in disgust. He went to Spain in the year 1484, and sent his brother Bartholomew to Henry VII. of England to plead his cause and offer his services. England would not buy anything but what was in sight, and Bartholomew could accomplish nothing.

Christopher himself was not any more fortunate in his efforts at the castles of the Dukes of Medina Sidonia and of Medina Celi.

Then he wrote to the king of France and intended to rejoin his brother in England. Charles VIII. did It had become evident that nothing could

not answer.

be expected from kings and princes.

3

Help, if any could be looked for, was to come through the poor and the lowly. Tales, more romantic than historical, are told of Columbus and his little son Diego begging bread and water at the door of the Franciscan monastery of La Rabida; yet it is certain that, in his disappointment in Portugal, he went to the home of the most experienced mariners of Spain, to the county of Niebla, and there made the acquaintance of his most trusty friend, Fray Juan Perez de Marchena, who had formerly been Queen Isabella's confessor and was now the prior of La Rabida.

It is not sufficiently proved that Perez was a learned astronomer and cosmographer, but he was intelligent enough to understand the arguments of Columbus, and he shared, as a matter of course, in his pious intentions. To promote the lofty project, the prior gave his worthy

1 Herrera, dec. i. lib. i. cap. vii. p. 14; Amer. Cath. Quar. Rev., vol. xvii. p. 312.

'Herrera, dec. i. lib. i. cap. vii.

p. 16; alii; cf. Prescott, Ferdinand and Isabella, p. 310.

3

Boletín, t. xx. p. 30.

friend a letter to the successor in his former ministry, the prior of the Hieronymite monastery of Our Lady del Prado, Fernando de Talavera, whom he requested to introduce the bearer to the kings of Spain.1

This step was, however, unsuccessfully taken. Talavera well knew that his royal penitent was just then busily engaged in war with the Mohammedans; from principle he objected to interference with temporal affairs, and, moreover, he was more of an old-school theologian than of a scientist. Columbus was coldly dismissed. This happened in the year 1486 at Cordova, where the royal court was then held.

The trial was severe, but Columbus stood it manfully. He succeeded in making more useful acquaintances in Cordova. An Italian, he sought the protection of Italians, and succeeded in getting to be favorably known to a Roman ecclesiastic, Alessandro Geraldini, who was at the time the papal nuncio at the court of Ferdinand the Catholic, afterwards the tutor of the first wife of Henry VIII., and in 1516 was appointed bishop of San Domingo in Hispaniola.2 Geraldini procured him an interview with the famous chancellor of Castile, the Cardinal Pedro Gonçalez de Mendoza, who was a man, by nature and education, able to value great undertakings. This "third king of Spain" had no difficulty in obtaining an audience for Columbus from Ferdinand and Isabella. The queen, the fittest of all women that ever governed men, was struck by the arguments of the eloquent Genoese and deeply touched by his religious motives; but the sly and calculating Ferdinand was of the opinion that no certain expenses

1 Aa. passim.

2 Amat, p. 86; Boletín, t. xx. p. 610; cf. Amer. Cath. Quar. Rev., vol. xvii. p. 315; Mizzi, p. 30; Van Speybrouck, bl. 67; Verkinderen,

bl. 36. We do not decide the question whether a brother of Alessandro Geraldini, Antonio, was also a protector of Columbus.