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enced, however, by the advice of Calzadilla,* a favourite courtier, he privately gave orders to a ship, bound, to the islands of Cape de Verd, to attempt a discovery in the west; but, through ignorance and want of enterprise, the navigators, after wandering for some time in the ocean and making no discovery, reached their destined port and turned the project of Columbus into ridicule.

Disgusted with this base artifice, he quitted Portugal, and went to Ferdinand, king of

* [Diego Ortiz, called Calzadilla, from the name of his native place, a man of learning, then bishop of Ceuta, and confessor to the king. He was one of a number of scientific men to whom the proposals of Columbus were referred by the king for their judgment.-H.]

† [He left Portugal near the close of the year 1484. In the fall of 1485 he entered Spain. He had left Portugal deeply in debt and to avoid an arrest. He entered Spain with his fortunes in no way improved, and with feeble hopes. The circumstances of his entrance are too singular and romantic to be omit ted. One day a stranger, on foot, in humble guise, but of a distinguished air, accompanied by a small boy, stopped at the gate of a convent of Franciscan friars, half a league from the little seaport of Palos, in Andalusia, and asked of the porter a little bread and water for his child. While receiving this humble re freshment, the prior of the convent, Juan de Perez Marchena, happening to pass by, was struck with the appearance of the stranger, and entered into conversation with him. That stranger was Columbus, attended by his little son Diego. The prior was a man of learning, especially in geography and nautical He was struck with the lofty views of Columbus, and detained him as his guest. It was now late in August, and VOL. I-P

science.

Spain, having previously sent his brother to England to solicit the patronage of Henry

The prior

Columbus passed the winter in this lonely retreat. was charmed by his conversation and persuaded by his arguments, and continued ever after his zealous and steadfast friend. When the spring opened and his guest would be gone, the worthy prior gave him a letter to Fernando de Talavera, confessor to the queen, a man of great influence in public affairs, urging the scheme of Columbus upon his attention. Refreshed with this hope, the wanderer set forth again, to seek an audience of the confessor, and, through him, of the queen.

Talavera received him with coolness, and believed him visionary. Ferdinand and Isabella were in the midst of their wars with the Moors. The whole court was busied in military preparations and action. None had leisure to listen to the speculations of an obscure adventurer; and he who could open a new world to him who would befriend him, was fain to take his place among lackeys and the humblest servitors, that he might, perchance, in some happy hour, gain a hearing for his vast suit. Slowly did he gain here and there a friend who might at some time be of service to him. After many delays and much uncertainty, the archbishop of Toledo assented to his views, and brought him to the presence of the king. The king hesitated and was doubtful, and referred the subject to a select council of learned men, to hear, examine, and report.

The council met in 1486, in the Dominican convent of St. Stephen at Salamanca; the dignitaries of the Church, studious monks, and learned professors, to decide on the project of an obscure and solitary theorizer. They gave more heed to the fathers than to the deductions of reason, and answered an argument of science with a quotation from Lactantius. They were not ignorant, but they had not learned the different provinces of faith and reason. Some of them were convinced, but a majority could not be persuaded. The simple navigator proved himself no mean theologian, and quoted prophecy as an offset to the

VII. But, being taken by pirates and detained several years in captivity, Bartholomew had it not in his power to reveal his project to fathers; but he was a stranger, with little academic lore, and could not prevail.

The court, meanwhile, was occupied with campaigns, and Columbus, still sanguine, and yet waiting for a formal decision, accompanied its movements. Day after day, and year after year, he waited in vain. Conferences of the learned were proposed and postponed; his sovereigns were detained from him as well by victory as by war; and four years had passed before the opinion of the council was given, that the scheme was visionary and impossible. Thus far, led on by hopes, Columbus had gained a scanty livelihood by drawing maps and charts, or had been maintained by the bounty of the queen. Leaving the court, he applied to two powerful nobles, the Dukes of Medina Sidonia and Medina Celi, with some favour, but with no success, and retired once more to the convent at Palos.

On the return of peace he was again recalled from his seclusion; and, now that his visions of many years had ripened in his own mind to certainty, and he claimed the honours due to his discovery as if it had been already made, he endured the mortification of being again rejected, for the very pride and assurance of his conviction. Indignant and chagrined, he resolved to abandon Spain forever; and, "having mounted his mule, sallied forth from Santa Fé early in February, 1492." He "had pursued his lonely way across the Vega, and had reached the bridge of Pinos, about two leagues from Granada, when he was overtaken by a courier from the queen, spurring in all speed, who summoned him to return to Santa Fè." He trusted once more, and this time to the promise of the queen, and was not disappointed. She had become convinced by some earnest friends of Columbus; the expenses of the voyage had been pledged; and he returned to reap the reward of so many years of solicitation and repulse, of suspense and despondency.—H.]

Henry till Christopher Columbus had succeeded in Spain. Before this could be accomplished he had various obstacles to surmount; and it was not till after seven years of painful solicitation that he obtained his request.

The objections made to the proposal of Columbus by the most learned men in Spain, to whom the consideration of it was referred, will give us some idea of the state of geographical science at that time. One objection was, How should he know more than all the wise men and skilful sailors who had existed since the creation? Another was the authority of Seneca, who had doubted whether it were possible to navigate the ocean at any great distance from the shore; but, admitting that it were navigable, they imagined that three years would be required to perform the voyage which Columbus proposed. A third was, that if a ship should sail westward on a round globe, she would necessarily go down on the opposite side, and then it would be impossible to return, because it would be like climbing up a hill, which no ship could do with the strongest wind. A fourth objection was grounded on a book of St. Augustine, in which he had expressed his doubt of the ex

istence of antipodes and the possibility of going from one hemisphere to the other. As the writings of this holy father had received the sanction of the Church, to contradict him was deemed heresy.

For such reasons and by such reasoners, the proposal of Columbus was at first rejected; but, by the influence of John Perez,* à Spanish priest, and Lewis Santangel,† an officer of the king's household, Queen Isabella was persuaded to listen to his solicitation, and, after he had been twice repulsed, to recall him to court, when she offered to pawn her jewels to defray the expense of the equipment, amounting to no more than 2500 crowns; which sum was advanced by Santangel, and the queen's jewels were saved. Thus, to the generous decision of a female mind we owe the discovery of America.

The conditions stipulated between Ferdinand and Isabella‡ on the one part, and Co

* [Juan Perez de Marchena, already mentioned as the early and warm friend of Columbus, the worthy and learned prior of the convent at Palos.-H.]

† [Louis de St. Angel, receiver of the ecclesiastical revenues in Aragon. The queen relied much on his prudence, and was moved by his earnestness. The low sum at which he put the cost of the enterprise, two vessels and three thousand crowns, may have had some weight.-H.]

[The lives and characters of these joint monarchs of Spain

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