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to the land. Science had thus prepared guides for discovery across the trackless ocean, and had divested the enterprise of Columbus of that extremely hazardous character which had been so great an obstacle to its accomplishment. It was immediately after this event that he solicited an audience of the King of Portugal, to lay before him his great project of discovery. This is the first proposition of which we have any clear and indisputable record, although it has been strongly asserted, and with probability, that he had made one at an earlier period, to his native country, Genoa.

Columbus obtained a ready audience of King John, who was extremely liberal in encouraging and rewarding nautical enterprise. He explained to the monarch his theory, and proposed, in case the king would furnish him with ships and men, to conduct them by a shorter route to the richest countries of the east, to touch at the opulent island of Cipango, and to establish a communication with the territories of the Grand Khan, the most splendid, powerful, and wealthy of oriental potentates.

King John listened attentively to the proposition of Columbus, and referred it to a learned junto, composed of Masters Roderigo and Joseph, and the king's confessor, Diego Ortiz, Bishop of Ceuta, a man greatly reputed for his learning, a Castilian by birth, and generally called Cazadilla, from the name of his birthplace. This scientific body treated the project as extravagant and visionary. Still the king was not satisfied, but convoked his council, composed of persons of the greatest learning in the kingdom, and asked their advice. In this assembly, Cazadilla, the Bishop of Ceuta, opposed the theory of Colum

bus, as destitute of reason, and indeed evinced a cold and narrow spirit, hostile to all discovery. The decision of the council was equally unfavourable with that of the junto, and the proposition of Columbus was rejected.

Certain of the councillors, and particularly the Bishop Cazadilla, seeing that the king was dissatisfied with their decision, and retained a lurking inclination for the enterprise, suggested a stratagem by which all its advantages might be secured, without committing the dignity of the crown by entering into formal negotiations about a scheme, which might prove a mere chimera. The king, in an evil hour, departed from his usual justice and generosity, and had the weakness to permit their stratagem. These crafty councillors then procured from Columbus, as if to assist them in their deliberations, a detailed plan of his proposed voyage, with the charts by which he intended to shape his course. While

they held him in suspense, awaiting their decision, they privately despatched a caravel to pursue the designated route.

The caravel took its departure from the Cape de Verde Islands, and stood westward for several days. The weather grew stormy, and the pilots having no zeal to stimulate them, and seeing nothing but an immeasurable waste of wild tumbling waves, still extending before them, lost all courage, and put back to the Cape de Verde Islands, and thence to Lisbon, excusing their own want of resolution, by ridiculing the project as extravagant and irrational.

This unworthy attempt to defraud him of his enterprise roused the indignation of Columbus, and, though King John, it is said, showed a disposition

to renew the negotiation, he resolutely declined. His wife had been for some time dead; the domestic tie which had bound him to Portugal, therefore, being broken, he determined to abandon a country where he had been treated with so little faith. Like most projectors, while engaged in schemes which held out promise of incalculable wealth, he had suffered his affairs to run to ruin, and was in danger of being arrested for debt. This has been given as the reason for his leaving Portugal in a secret manner, which he did towards the end of 1484, taking with him his son Diego, as yet a mere child.

An interval now occurs of about a year, during which the movements of Columbus are involved in uncertainty. It has been asserted by a modern Spanish historian of merit, that he departed immediately for Genoa, where he repeated in person the proposition which he had formerly made to the government by letter. The republic of Genoa, however, was languishing under a long decline, and was embarrassed by ruinous wars. Her spirit was broken with her fortunes; for with nations, as with individuals, enterprise is the child of prosperity, and is apt to languish in evil days, when there is most need of its exertion. Thus, Genoa, it would appear, disheartened by reverses, rejected a proposition which would have elevated the republic to tenfold splendour, and might for a long time have perpetuated the golden wand of commerce in the failing grasp of Italy.

From Genoa, it has been said, but equally without positive proof, that Columbus carried his proposal to Venice, but that it was declined in consequence of the critical state of national affairs.

Different authors agree, that about this time he visited his aged father, and made such arrangements for his comfort as his own poor means afforded, and that having thus performed the duties of a pious son, he departed once more to try his fortunes in foreign courts. About this time also he engaged his brother Bartholomew to sail for England, to lay his propositions before Henry VII., whom he had heard extolled for his wisdom and munificence. For himself, he sailed for Spain, where he appears to have arrived in great poverty, for this course of fruitless solicitation had exhausted all his means; nor is it one of the least extraordinary circumstances in his eventful life, that he had, in a manner, to beg his way from court to court, to offer to princes the discovery of a world.

CHAPTER V.

First Arrival of Columbus in Spain. Characters of the Spanish Sovereigns.

THE first trace we have of Columbus in Spain is gathered from the manuscript documents of the celebrated lawsuit, which took place a few years after his death, between his son Don Diego and the crown. It is contained in the deposition of one Garcia Fernandez, a physician, resident in the little sea-port of Palos de Moguer, in Andalusia. About half a league from Palos, on a solitary height overlooking the sea-coast, and surrounded by a forest of pine trees, there stood, and stands at the present day, an ancient convent of Franciscan friars, dedicated to Santa Maria de Rabida. A stranger travelling on foot, accompanied by a young boy, stopped one day at the gate of the convent, and asked of the porter a little bread and water for his child. While receiving this humble refreshment, the guardian of the convent, Friar Juan Perez de Marchena, happening to pass by, was struck with the appearance of the stranger, and, observing from his air and accent that he was a foreigner, entered into conversation with him. That stranger was Columbus, accompanied by his young son Diego. He was on his way to the neighbouring town of Huelva, to seek a brother-in-law, who had married a sister of his deceased wife.

The guardian was an intelligent man, and ac

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