CHAPTER XIV.

Visit of Columbus to the Court of Portugal-Arrival at Palos. [1493.]

IMMEDIATELY on his arrival in the Tagus, Columbus despatched a courier to the King and Queen of Spain, with tidings of his discovery. He wrote also to the King of Portugal, entreating permission to go to Lisbon with his vessel, as a report had got abroad that she was laden with gold, and he felt himself insecure in the neighbourhood of a place like Rastello, inhabited by needy and adventurous people. At the same time he stated the route and events of his voyage, lest the king should suspect him of having been in the route of the Portuguese discoveries.

The tidings of this wonderful bark, freighted with the people and productions of a newly discovered world, filled all Lisbon with astonishment. For several days the Tagus was covered with barges and boats going to and from it. Among the visiters were various officers of the crown and cavaliers of high distinction. All hung with rapt attention upon the accounts of the voyage, and gazed with insatiable curiosity upon the plants, and animals, and above all upon the inhabitants of the new world. The enthusiasm of some, and the avarice of others, was excited; while many repined at the

incredulity of the king and his counsellors, by which so grand a discovery had been for ever lost to Portugal.

On the 8th of March, Columbus received a message from King John, congratulating him upon his arrival, and inviting him to the court at Valparaiso, about nine leagues from Lisbon. The king at the same time ordered, that any thing which the admiral required for himself or his vessel should be furnished free of cost.

Columbus distrusted the good faith of the king, and set out reluctantly for the court; but his reception was what might have been expected from an enlightened and liberal prince. On approaching the royal residence, he was met by the principal personages of the king's household, and conducted with great ceremony to the palace. The king welcomed him to Portugal, and congratulated him on the glorious result of his enterprise. He ordered him to seat himself in his presence, an honour only granted to persons of royal dignity, and assured him that every thing in his kingdom was at the service of his sovereigns and himself. They had repeated conversations about the events of the voyage, and the king made minute inquiries as to the soil, productions, and people of the newly discovered countries, and the routes by which Columbus had sailed. The king listened with seeming pleasure to his replies, but was secretly grieved at the thoughts that this splendid enterprise had been offered to him and refused. He was uneasy, also, lest this undefined discovery should in some way interfere with his own territories, comprehended in the papal bull, which granted to the crown of Portugal all the

lands it should discover from Cape Non to the Indies.

On suggesting these doubts to his counsellors, they eagerly encouraged them, for some of them were the very persons who had scoffed at Columbus as a dreamer, and his success covered them with confusion. They declared that the colour, hair, and manners of the natives, brought in the caraval, agreed exactly with the descriptions given of the people of that part of India granted to Portugal by the papal bull. Others observed that there was but little distance between the Tercera islands and those which Columbus had discovered; the latter therefore clearly belonged to Portugal. Others endeavoured to awaken the anger of the king, by declaring that Columbus had talked in an arrogant and vainglorious tone of his discovery, merely to revenge himself upon the monarch for having rejected his propositions.

Seeing the king deeply perturbed in spirit, some even went so far as to propose, as an effectual means of impeding the prosecution of these enterprises, that Columbus should be assassinated. It would be an easy matter to take advantage of his lofty deportment, to pique his pride, provoke him to an altercation, and suddenly despatch him as if in casual and honourable encounter.

Happily, the king had too much magnanimity to adopt such wicked and dastardly counsel. Though secretly grieved and mortified that the rival power of Spain should have won this triumph which he had rejected, yet he did justice to the great merit of Columbus, and honoured him as a distinguished benefactor to mankind. He felt it his duty, also,

as a generous prince, to protect all strangers driven by adverse fortune to his ports. Others of his council advised that he should secretly fit out a powerful armament, and despatch it, under guidance of two Portuguese mariners who had sailed with Columbus, to take possession of the newly discovered country; he might then settle the question of right with Spain by an appeal to arms. This counsel, in which there was a mixture of courage and craft, was more relished by the king, and he resolved to put it promptly in execution.

In the mean time, Columbus, after being treated with the most honourable attentions, was escorted back to his ship by a numerous train of cavaliers of the court, and on the way paid a visit to the queen at a monastery of San Antonio at Villa Franca, where he was listened to with wonder, as he related the events of his voyage to her majesty and the ladies of her court. The king had offered him a free passage by land to Spain, at the royal expense; but as the weather had moderated, he preferred to return in his caraval. Putting to sea on the 13th of March, therefore, he arrived safely at Palos on the 15th; having taken not quite seven months and a half to accomplish this most momentous of all maritime enterprises.

The triumphant return of Columbus was a prodigious event in the little community of Palos, every member of which was more or less interested in the fate of the expedition. Many had lamented their friends as lost, while imagination had lent mysterious horrors to their fate. When, therefore, they beheld one of the adventurous vessels furling her sails in their harbour, from the discovery of a world,

the whole community broke forth into a transport of joy, the bells were rung, the shops shut, and all business suspended. Columbus landed, and walked in procession to the church of St. George, to return thanks to God for his safe arrival. Wherever he passed, the air rang with acclamations, and he received such honours as are paid to sovereigns. What a contrast was this to his departure a few months before, followed by murmurs and execrations! or rather, what a contrast to his first arrival at Palos, a poor pedestrian, craving bread and water for his child at the gate of a convent!

Understanding that the court was at Barcelona, he at first felt disposed to proceed there in the caraval; but, reflecting on the dangers and disasters of his recent voyage, he gave up the idea, and despatched a letter to the sovereigns, informing them of his arrival. He then departed for Seville, to await their reply. It arrived within a few days, and was as gratifying as his heart could have desired. The sovereigns were dazzled and astonished by this sudden and easy acquisition of a new empire of indefinite extent, and apparently boundless wealth. They addressed Columbus by his titles of admiral and viceroy, promising him still greater rewards, and urging him to repair immediately to court to concert plans for a second and more extensive expedition.

It is fitting here to speak a word of the fate of Martin Alonzo Pinzon. By a singular coincidence, which appears to be well authenticated, he anchored at Palos on the evening of the same day that Columbus had arrived. He had been driven by the storm into the bay of Biscay, and had made the