which he expected from the fuccefs of his fcheme, advising the king to dispatch a veffel, fecretly, in order to attempt the proposed discovery, by following exactly the course which Columbus feemed to point out. John, forgetting on this occafion the fentiments becoming a monarch, meanly adopted this perfidious counfel. But the pilot, chosen to execute Columbus's plan, had neither the genius, nor the fortitude of its author. Contrary winds arofe, no fight of approaching land appeared, his courage failed, and he returned to Lisbon, execrating the project as equally extravagant and dangerous,

Upon difcovering this difhonourable tranfaction, Columbus felt the indignation natural to an ingenuous mind, and in the warmth of his refentment determined to break off all intercourfe with a nation capable of fuch flagrant treachery. He inftantly quitted the kingdom, and landed in Spain towards the close of the year one thousand four hundred and eighty-four. As he was now at liberty to court the protection of any patron, whom he could engage to approve of his plan, and to carry it into execution, he refolved to propose it in person to Ferdinand and Isabella, who at that time governed the united kingdoms of Castile and Arragon. But as he had already experienced the uncertain issue of appli cations to kings and minifters, he took the precaution of fending into England his brother Bartholomew, to whom he had fully communicated his ideas, in order that he might negociate, at the fame time, with Henry VII. who was reputed one of the most fagacious as well as opulent princes in Europe.

It was not without reason that Columbus entertained doubts and fears with respect to the reception of his propofals in the Spanish court. Spain was, at that juncture, engaged in a dangerous war with Granada, the laft of the Moorish kingdoms in that country. The wary and suspicious temper of Ferdinand was not formed to relish bold or uncommon defigns. Ifabella, though more generous and enterprising, was under the influence of her husband in all her actions. The Spaniards had hitherto made no efforts to extend navigation beyond its ancient limits, and had beheld the amazing progrefs of discovery among their neighbours the Portuguese, without one attempt to imitate or to rival them. The war with the Infidels afforded an ample field to the national activity and love of glory. Under circumstances so unfavourable, it was impoffible for Columbus to make rapid progrefs with a nation, naturally flow and dilatory in forming all its refolutions. His character, however, was admirably adapted to that of the people, whofe confidence and protection he folicited. He was grave, though courteous in his deportment; circumfpect in his words and actions; irreproachable in his morals; and

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exemplary

exemplary in his attention to all the duties and functions of religion. By qualities fo refpectable, he not only gained many private friends, but acquired fuch general esteem, that, notwithstanding the plainness of his appearance, fuitable to the mediocrity of his fortune, he was not confidered as a mere adventurer, to whom indigence had fuggefted a vifionary project, but was received as a perfon to whofe propofitions ferious attention was due.

Ferdinand and Ifabella, though fully occupied by their operations against the Moors, paid fo much regard to Columbus, as to remit the confideration of his plan to the queen's confeffor, Ferdinand de Talavera. He confulted fuch of his countrymen as were fuppofed best qualified to decide with respect to a subject of this kind. But true science had, hitherto, made fo little progrefs in Spain, that the pretended philofophers, felected to judge in a matter of such moment, did not comprehend the first principles upon which Columbus founded his conjectures and hopes. Some of them, from miftaken notions concerning the dimenfions of the globe, contended that a voyage to those remote parts of the eaft, which Columbus expected to discover, could not be performed in less than three years. Others concluded, that either he would find the ocean to be of infinite extent, according to the opinion of fome ancient philofophers; or, if he should perfift in fteering towards the weft beyond a certain point, that the convex figure of the globe would prevent his return, and that he must inevitably perish, in the vain attempt to open a communication between the two oppofite hemifpheres, which nature had for ever disjoined. Even without deigning to enter into any particular difcuffion, many rejected the scheme in general, upon the credit of a maxim, under which the ignorant and unenterprifing shelter themselves in every age, "That it is presumptuous in any perfon, to suppose that he alone poffeffes knowledge fuperior to all the reft of mankind united." They maintained, that if there were really any fuch countries as Columbus pretended, they could not have remained fo long concealed, nor would the wisdom and fagacity of former ages have left the glory of this invention to an obfcure Genoefe pilot.

It required all Columbus's patience and address to negociate with men capable of advancing such strange propofitions. He had to contend not only with the obftinacy of ignorance, but with what is ftill more intractable, the pride of falfe knowledge. After innumerable conferences, and wafting five years in fruitless endeavours to inform and to fatisfy judges fo little capable of deciding with propriety, Talavera, at last, made fuch an unfavourable report to Ferdinand and Ifabella, as induced them to acquaint Columbus, that until the war with the Moors should be

brought to a period, it would be imprudent to engage in any new and expenfive enterprise.

Whatever care was taken to foften the harshness of this declaration, Columbus confidered it as a final rejection of his propofals. But happily for mankind, the fuperiority of genius, which is capable of forming great and uncommon defigns, is ufually accompanied with an ardent enthufiafm, which can neither be cooled by delays, nor damped by difappointment. Columbus was of this fanguine temper. Though he felt deeply the cruel blow given to his hopes, and retired immediately from a court, where he had been amufed fo long with vain expectations, his confidence in the juftnefs of his own fyftem did not diminish, and his impatience to demonftrate the truth of it by an actual experiment became greater than ever. Having courted the protection of fovereign ftates without fuccefs, he applied, next, to perfons of inferior rank, and addreffed fucceffively the dukes of Medina Sidonia, and Medina Celi, who, though fubjects, were poffeffed of power and opulence more than equal to the enterprife which he projected. His negociations with them proved as fruitlefs, as thofe in which he had been hitherto engaged; for thefe noblemen were either as little convinced by Columbus's arguments as their fuperiors, or they were afraid of alarming the jealousy, and offending the pride of Ferdinand, by countenancing a scheme which he had rejected.

Amid the painful fenfations occafioned by such a fucceffion of difappointments, Columbus had to sustain the additional diftrefs, of having received no accounts from his brother, whom he had fent to the court of England. In his voyage to that country, Bartholomew had been fo unfortunate as to fall into the hands of pirates, who having ftripped him of every thing, detained him a prifoner for several years. At length, he made his efcape, and arrived in London, but in fuch extreme indigence, that he was obliged to employ himself, during a confiderable time, in drawing and felling maps, in order to pick up as much money as would purchase a decent drefs, in which he might venture to appear at court. He then laid before the king the propofals, with which he had been entruted by his brother, and, notwithstanding Henry's exceffive caution and parfimony, which rendered him averfe to new or expenfive undertakings, he received Columbus's overtures, with more approbation, than any monarch to whom they had hitherto been prefented.

Meanwhile, Columbus being unacquainted with his brother's fate, and having now no profpect of encouragement in Spain, refolved to vifit the court of England in perfon, in kopes of meeting with a more favourable reception there. He had already made preparations for this

purpose,

purpofe, and taken measures for the difpofal of his children during his abfence, when Juan Perez, the guardian of the monaftery of Rabida, near Palos, in which they had been educated, earnestly folicited him to defer his journey for a fhort time. Perez was a man of confiderable learning, and of fome credit with Queen Ifabella, to whom he was known perfonally. He was warmly attached to Columbus, with whofe abilities as well as integrity he had many opportunities of being acquainted. Prompted by curiofity or by friendship, he entered upon an accurate examination of his fyftem, in conjunction with a phyfician fettled in the neighbourhood, who was a confiderable proficient in mathematical knowledge. This inveftigation fatisfied them fo thoroughly, with respect to the folidity of the principles on which Columbus founded his opinion, and the probability of fuccefs in executing the plan which he propofed, that Perez, in order to prevent his country from being deprived of the glory and benefit, which must accrue to the patrons of fuch a grand enterprise, ventured to write to Ifabella, conjuring her to confider the matter anew, with the attention which it merited.

Moved by the reprefentations of a person whom she refpected, Ifabella defired Perez to repair immediately to the village of Santa Fé, in which, on account of the fiege of Granada, the court refided at that time, that The might confer with him upon this important fubject. The first effect of their interview was a gracious invitation of Columbus back to court, accompanied with the prefent of a small fum to equip him for the journey. As there was now a certain profpe&t, that the war with the Moors would fpeedily be brought to an happy iffue by the reduction of Granada, which would leave the nation at liberty to engage in new undertakings; this, as well as the mark of royal favour, with which Columbus had been lately honoured, encouraged his friends to appear greater confidence than formerly in fupport of his fcheme. The chief of thefe, Alonfo de Quintanilla, comptroller of the finances in Caftile, and Luis de Santangel, receiver of the ecclefiaftical revenues in Arragon, whofe meritorious zeal in promoting this great design entitles their names to an honourable place in history, introduced Columbus to many perfons of high rank, and interested them warmly in his behalf.

with

But it was not an easy matter to infpire Ferdinand with favourable fentiments. He ftill regarded Columbas's project as extravagant and chimerical; and in order to render the efforts of his partizans ineffectual, he had the addrefs to employ in this new negociation with him, fome of the perfons who had formerly pronounced his scheme to be im practicable. To their aftonifhment, Columbus appeared before them with the fame confident hopes of fuccefs as formerly, and infifted upon

the

the fame high recompence. He propofed that a fmall fleet fhould be. fitted out, under his command, to attempt the discovery, and demanded to be appointed hereditary admiral and viceroy of all the seas and lands which he fhould difcover, and to have the tenth of the profits arifing from them, fettled irrevocably upon himself and his defcendants. At the fame time, he offered to advance the eighth part of the fum necessary for accomplishing his defign, on condition that he should be entitled to a proportional share of benefit from the adventure. If the enterprise fhould totally miscarry, he made no ftipulation for any reward or emolument whatever. Instead of viewing this conduct as the clearest evidence of his full perfuafion with refpect to the truth of his own fyftem, or being ftruck with that magnanimity which, after fo many delays and repulfes, would ftoop to nothing inferior to its original claims, the perfons with whom Columbus treated, began meanly to calculate the expence of the expedition, and the value of the reward which he demanded. The expence, moderate as it was, they represented to be too great for Spain, in the present exhausted state of its finances. They contended, that the honours and emoluments claimed by Columbus, were exorbitant, even if he should perform the utmost of what he had promifed; and if all his fanguine hopes fhould prove illufive, fuch vaft conceffions to an adventurer would be deemed not only inconfiderate, but ridiculous. In this impofing garb of caution and prudence, their opinion appeared so plaufible, and was fo warmly supported by Ferdinand, that Ifabella declined giving any countenance to Columbus, and abruptly broke off the negociation with him which she had begun.

This was more mortifying to Columbus than all the disappointments which he had hitherto met with. The invitation to court from Ifabella, like an unexpected ray of light, had opened fuch profpects of fuccefs, as encouraged him to hope that his labours were at an end; but now darkness and uncertainty returned, and his mind, firm as it was, could hardly fupport the shock of such an unforeseen reverse. He withdrew in deep anguish from court, with an intention of profecuting his voyage to England, as his laft refource.

About that time Granada furrendered, and Ferdinand and Isabella, in triumphal pomp, took poffeffion of a city, the reduction of which extirpated a foreign power from the heart of their dominions, and rendered them masters of all the provinces, extending from the bottom of the Pyrenees to the frontiers of Portugal. As the flow of fpirits which accompanies fuccefs elevates the mind, and readers it enterprifing, Quintanilla and Santangel, the vigilant and difcerning patrons of Columbus, took advantage of this favourable fituation, in order to make one effort

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