1485. arrives in Spain. such as to have much weight with other men, is fufficiently proved by the difficulty which Columbus had in contending with adverse geographers and men of science in general, of whom he says, he never was able to convince any one. After the new world had been discovered, many fcattered indications were then found to have foreshown it. One thing which cannot be denied to Columbus, is that he worked out his own idea himself. And how he did fo muft now be told. He first applied himself to his countrymen the Genoese, who would have nothing to say to his scheme: then to the Portuguese, who liftened, but with bad faith fought to anticipate him by sending out a caravel with inftructions founded upon his plan. The caravel returned, the failors not having heart to venture far enough weftward. It was not an enterprize to be carried out by men who had only ftolen the idea of it. Columbus, difgufted at the treatment he had Columbus received from the Portuguese court, leaves Lisbon, and after vifiting Genoa, as it appears, goes to Spain to see what fortune he can meet with there, arriving at Palos in the year 1485. He leaves + Las Cafas. Hift. de las Indias. MSS. primera parte, tom. 1, сар. 33. his young fon at La Rabida, a monaftery near Palos, under the care of Juan Perez de Marchena ever after to be the ftouteft friend of our great adventurer, who in January 1486 makes his way to the court of Ferdinand and Ifabella, then at Cordova. There Columbus finds at once a friend in Alonso de Quintanilla, a man like himself, who took delight in great things (que tenia gufto en cofas grandes) and who gets him a hearing from the Spanish monarchs by whom the matter is referred to the queen's confessor, who fummons a junta of cofmographers, not a promifing affemblage, to confult about it. They think that so many perfons wife in nautical affairs never could have overlooked fuch a thing as this; moreover they had their own arguments against the scheme, amongst which was the not unnatural one that Columbus, after he had descended the hemisphere, would not be able to mount again, for it would be like getting up a mountain, as they said. In fine they decided that this scheme of the Genoese mariner was "vain and impoffible, and "that it did not belong to the majesty of such "great princes to determine anything upon fuch "weak grounds of information."* * Herrera, Hiftoria general, Madrid, 1601. dec. 1, lib. 1, cap. 8. Ferdinand and Ifabella feem not to have taken the extremely unfavorable view of the matter entertained by the junta of cosmographers, or at least, to have been willing to put off Columbus gently; for they merely faid, that with the wars at present on their hands, and especially that of Granada, they could not undertake any new expenses, but when that war was ended, they would examine his plan more carefully.* Thus ended a folicitation at the court of Ferdinand and Isabella: which, according to fome authorities, lafted five years; for the facts abovementioned, though fhort in narration, occupied no little time in transaction. Columbus left the court and went to Seville with "much sadness and discomfiture" (con mucha tristeza y defconfuelo.) He is faid then to have applied to the Duke of Medina Sidonia; and afterwards to the Duke of Medina Celi. Certain it is, that when Columbus fucceeded in his enterprize, the duke of Medina Celi wrote to the Cardinal of Spain, showing that he (the duke) had maintained Co * Defpues de mucho tiempo mandaron los Reyes Catolicos, que fe refpõdieffe a don Christoual, que por hallarse ocupados en muchas guerras, y en particular en la conquista de Granada, no podian emprender nueuos gaftos, que acabado aquello mandarian examinar mejor su pretension, y le despidieron.—Herrera, dec. 1, lib. 1, cap. 9. lumbus two years in his house, and was ready to have undertaken the enterprize himself, but that he saw it was one for the queen herself, and even then that he wished to have had a part in it. I do not doubt that any man in whofe house Columbus was for two years, would have caught fome portion of his enthusiasm and have been ready to embark in his enterprize. However, it may be conjectured that none of the nobles of the Spanish court would have been likely to undertake the matter without fome fanétion from the king or queen. Columbus was now minded to go into France, and with this intent went to the monaftery of La Rabida for his fon Diego, intending to leave him at Cordova. At the monaftery there was Columbus's faithful friend Juan Perez, to whom he doubtless detailed all his griefs and ftruggles, and who could not bear to hear of his intention to leave the country and go to France. Juan Perez takes Garcia Hernandez into council upon the affairs of Columbus, and they three talk the matter well over until they come to the conclufion Suplico á vueftra Señoría me quiera ayudar en ello, é ge lo fuplique de mi parte, pues á mi cabía y por yo detenerle en mi cafa dos años, y haberle enderezado à fu fervicio, fe ha hallado tan grande cola como efta.-Navarrete, Coll. dip. num. 14, vol. 2, that Juan Perez who was known to the queen, having on fome occafions acted as her confeffor, fhould write to her highness. He does fo; fhe fends for him, fees him, and in confequence fends money to Columbus to enable him to come to court to renew his fuit. He attends the court again, but the negotiation is broken off on the ground of the largeness of the conditions which he afks for. The opponents faid that these conditions were too large if he fucceeded, and if he should not fucceed, and the conditions fhould come to nothing, they thought that there was an air of trifling in granting fuch conditions at all.* And truth to say, they were very large; that he was to be made an Admiral at once, to be appointed viceroy of the countries he should discover, and have an eighth of the profits of the expedition. The only way, as it appears to me, of accounting for the extent of these demands and his perfeverance in them, even to the risk of total failure, is that the discovering of the Indies was but a step in his mind to the greater undertakings, as they seemed to him, which he had in view of going to Jerufalem with an army, and in fact making another * Les parecia mucho lo que queria fi la empreffa fucedia bien, y fino juzgauan por ligereza el concederlo.-Herrera, dec. 1, lib. 1, cap. 8. |