COLUMBUS LEAVES LISBON, AND VISITS GENOA--VISITS GREAT SPANISH
DUKES--FOR SIX YEARS IS AT THE COURT OF FERDINAND AND ISABELLA--THE
COUNCIL OF SALAMANCA--HIS PETITION IS AT LAST GRANTED--SQUADRON MADE
READY.
It has been supposed that when Columbus left Lisbon he was oppressed by
debts. At a subsequent period, when King John wanted to recall him, he
offered to protect him against any creditors. But on the other hand, it
is thought that at this time he visited Genoa, and made some provision
for the comfort of his father, who was now an old man. Christopher
Columbus, himself, according to the usual opinion regarding his birth,
was now almost fifty years old.
It is probable that at this time he urged on his countrymen, the
Genoese, the importance of his great plan; and tried to interest them
to make the great endeavor, for the purpose of reaching the Indies by a
western route. As it proved, the discovery of the route by the Cape
of Good Hope was, commercially, a great injury to Genoa and the other
maritime cities of Italy. Before this time, the eastern trade of Europe
came by the ports of the eastern Mediterranean, and the Italian cities.
Columbus’s offer to Genoa was therefore one which, if her statesmen
could have foreseen the future, they would have considered eagerly.
But Genoa was greatly depressed at this period. In her wars with the
Turks she had been, on the whole, not successful. She had lost Caffa,
her station in the Crimea, and her possessions in the Archipelago were
threatened. The government did not accept Columbus’s proposals, and he
was obliged to return with them to Spain. He went first to distinguished
noblemen, in the South of Spain, who were of liberal and adventurous
disposition. One was the Duke of Medina Celi, and one the Duke of Medina
Sidonia. Each of these grandees entertained him at their courts, and
heard his proposals.
The Duke of Medina Celi was so much interested in them, that at one time
he proposed to give Columbus the direction of four vessels which he
had in the harbor of Cadiz. But, of a sudden, he changed his mind. The
enterprise was so vast, he said, that it should be under the direction
of the crown. And, without losing confidence in it, he gave to Columbus
an introduction to the king and queen, in which he cordially recommended
him to their patronage.
This king and queen were King Ferdinand of Aragon, and Queen Isabella of
Castile. The marriage of these two had united Spain. Their affection for
each other made the union real, and the energy, courage and wisdom of
both made their reign successful and glorious. Of all its glories the
greatest, as it has proved, was connected with the life and discoveries
of the sailor who was now to approach them. He had been disloyally
treated by Portugal, he had been dismissed by Genoa. He had not
succeeded with the great dukes. Now he was to press his adventure upon
a king and queen who were engaged in a difficult war with the Moors, who
still held a considerable part of the peninsula of Spain.
The king and queen were residing at Cordova, a rich and beautiful city,
which they had taken from the Moors. Under their rule Cordova had been
the most important seat of learning in Europe. Here Columbus tarried at
the house of Alonso de Quintinilla, who became an ardent convert to
his theory, and introduced him to important friends. By their agency,
arrangements were made, in which Columbus should present his views to
the king. The time was not such as he could have wished. All Cordova was
alive with the preparation for a great campaign against the enemy. But
King Ferdinand made arrangements to hear Columbus; it does not appear
that, at the first hearing, Isabella was present at the interview. But
Ferdinand, although in the midst of his military cares, was interested
in the proposals made by Columbus. He liked the man. He was pleased by
the modesty and dignity with which he brought forward his proposals.
Columbus spoke, as he tells us, as one specially appointed by God
Himself to carry out this discovery. The king did not, however, at once
adopt the scheme, but gave out that a council of men of learning should
be called together to consider it.
Columbus himself says that he entered the service of the sovereigns
January 26, 1486. The council to which he was referred was held in
the university city of Salamanca, in that year. It gave to him a full
opportunity to explain his theory. It consisted of a fair representation
of the learning of the time. But most of the men who met had formed
their opinions on the subjects involved, and were too old to change
them. A part of them were priests of the church, in the habit of looking
to sacred Scripture as their only authority, when the pope had given no
instruction in detail. Of these some took literally expressions in the
Old Testament, which they supposed to be fatal to the plans of Columbus.
Such was the phrase in the 104th Psalm, that God stretches out the
heavens like a curtain. The expression in the book of Hebrews, that the
heavens are extended as a tent, was also quoted, in the same view.
Quotations from the early Fathers of the church were more fatal to the
new plan than those from the Scripture.
On the other hand there were men who cordially supported Columbus’s
wishes, and there were more when the congress parted than when it met.
Its sessions occupied a considerable part of the summer, but it was not
for years that it rendered any decision.
The king, queen and court, meanwhile, were occupied in war with the
Moors. Columbus was once and again summoned to attend the court, and
more than once money was advanced to him to enable him to do so. Once he
began new negotiations with King John, and from him he received a letter
inviting him to return to Portugal. He received a similar letter
from King Henry VII of England inviting him to his court. Nothing was
determined on in Spain. To this day, the people of that country are
thought to have a habit of postponement to tomorrow of that which
perplexes them. In 1489, according to Ortiz de Zuniga, Columbus fought
in battle in the king’s army.
When, however, in the winter of 1490, it was announced that the army
was to take the field again, never to leave its camp till Grenada had
fallen, Columbus felt that he must make one last endeavor. He insisted
that he must have an answer regarding his plans of discovery. The
confessor of the queen, Fernando da Talavera, was commanded to obtain
the definite answer of the men of learning. Alas! it was fatal to
Columbus’s hopes. They said that it was not right that great princes
should undertake such enterprises on grounds as weak as those which he
relied upon.
The sovereigns themselves, however, were more favorable; so was a
minority of the council of Salamanca. And the confessor was instructed
to tell him that their expenses in the war forbade them from sending him
out as a discoverer, but that, when that was well over, they had hopes
that they might commission him. This was the end of five years of
solicitation, in which he had put his trust in princes. Columbus
regarded the answer, as well he might, as only a courtly measure of
refusal. And he retired in disgust from the court at Seville.
He determined to lay his plans before the King of France. He was
traveling with this purpose, with his son, Diego, now a boy of ten or
twelve years of age, when he arrived at night at the hospitable
convent of Saint Mary of Rabida, which has been made celebrated by that
incident. It is about three miles south of what was then the seaport of
Palos, one of the active ports of commercial Spain. The convent stands
on level ground high above the sea; but a steep road runs down to the
shore of the ocean. Some of its windows and corridors look out upon
the ocean on the west and south, and the inmates still show the room in
which Columbus used to write, and the inkstand which served his purposes
while he lived there. It is maintained as a monument of history by the
Spanish government.
At the door of this convent he asked for bread and water for his boy.
The prior of the convent was named Juan Perez de Marchena. He was
attracted by the appearance of Columbus, still more by his conversation,
and invited him to remain as their guest.
When he learned that his new friend was about to offer to France the
advantages of a discovery so great as that proposed, he begged him to
make one effort more at home. He sent for some friends, Fernandos, a
physician at Palos, and for the brothers Pinzon, who now appear for the
first time in a story where their part is distinguished. Together they
all persuaded Columbus to send one messenger more to wait upon their
sovereigns. The man sent was Rodriguez, a pilot of Lepe, who found
access to the queen because Juan Perez, the prior, had formerly been her
confessor. She had confidence in him, as she had, indeed, in Columbus.
And in fourteen days the friendly pilot came back from Santa Fe with a
kind letter from the queen to her friend, bidding him return at once to
court. Perez de Marchena saddled his mule at once and before midnight
was on his way to see his royal mistress.
Santa Fe was half camp, half city. It had been built in what is called
the Vega, the great fruitful plain which extends for many miles to the
westward of Grenada. The court and army were here as they pressed
their attack on that city. Perez de Marchena had ready access to Queen
Isabella, and pressed his suit well. He was supported by one of her
favorites, the Marquesa de Moya. In reply to their solicitations,
she asked that Columbus should return to her, and ordered that twenty
thousand maravedis should be sent to him for his traveling expenses.
This sum was immediately sent by Perez to his friend. Columbus bought a
mule, exchanged his worn clothes for better ones, and started, as he was
bidden, for the camp.
He arrived there just after the great victory, by which the king and
queen had obtained their wish--had taken the noble city of Grenada and
ended Moorish rule in Spain. King, queen, court and army were preparing
to enter the Alhambra in triumph. Whoever tries to imagine the scene, in
which the great procession entered through the gates, so long sealed, or
of the moment when the royal banner of Spain was first flying out upon
the Tower of the Vela, must remember that Columbus, elate, at last, with
hopes for his own great discovery, saw the triumph and joined in the
display.
But his success was not immediate, even now. Fernando de Talavera,
who had had the direction of the wise council of Salamanca, was now
Archbishop of Grenada, whose see had been conferred on him after the
victory. He was not the friend of Columbus. And when, at what seemed the
final interview with king and queen, he heard Columbus claim the right
to one-tenth of all the profits of the enterprise, he protested against
such lavish recompense of an adventurer. He was now the confessor of
Isabella, as Juan Perez, the friendly prior, had been before. Columbus,
however, was proud and firm. He would not yield to the terms prepared
by the archbishop. He preferred to break off the negotiation, and again
retired from court. He determined, as he had before, to lay his plans
before the King of France.
Spain would have lost the honor and the reward of the great discovery,
as Portugal and Genoa had lost them, but for Luis de St. Angel, and
the queen herself. St. Angel had been the friend of Columbus. He was an
important officer, the treasurer of the church revenues of Aragon.
He now insisted upon an audience from the queen. It would seem that
Ferdinand, though King of Aragon, was not present. St. Angel spoke
eloquently. The friendly Marchioness of Moya spoke eagerly and
persuasively. Isabella was at last fired with zeal. Columbus should go,
and the enterprise should be hers.
It is here that the incident belongs, represented in the statue by Mr.
Mead, and that of Miss Hosmer. The sum required for the discovery of a
world was only three thousand crowns. Two vessels were all that Columbus
asked for, with the pay of their crews. But where were three thousand
crowns? The treasury was empty, and the king was now averse to any
action. It was at this moment that Isabella said, “The enterprise is
mine, for the Crown of Castile. I pledge my jewels for the funds.”
The funds were in fact advanced by St. Angel, from the ecclesiastical
revenues under his control. They were repaid from the gold brought in
the first voyage. But, always afterward, Isabella regarded the Indies
as a Castilian possession. The most important officers in its
administration, indeed most of the emigrants, were always from Castile.
Columbus, meanwhile, was on his way back to Palos, on his mule, alone.
But at a bridge, still pointed out, a royal courier overtook him,
bidding him return. The spot has been made the scene of more than one
picture, which represents the crisis, in which the despair of one moment
changed to the glad hope which was to lead to certainty.
He returned to Isabella for the last time, before that great return in
which he came as a conqueror, to display to her the riches of the New
World. The king yielded a slow and doubtful assent. Isabella took
the enterprise in her own hands. She and Columbus agreed at once, and
articles were drawn up which gave him the place of admiral for life on
all lands he might discover; gave him one-tenth of all pearls, precious
stones, gold, silver, spices and other merchandise to be obtained in his
admiralty, and gave him the right to nominate three candidates from whom
the governor of each province should be selected by the crown. He was to
be the judge of all disputes arising from such traffic as was proposed;
and he was to have one-eighth part of the profit, and bear one-eighth
part of the cost of it.
With this glad news he returned at once to Palos. The Pinzons, who had
been such loyal friends, were to take part in the enterprise. He carried
with him a royal order, commanding the people of Palos to fit out two
caravels within ten days, and to place them and their crews at the
disposal of Columbus. The third vessel proposed was to be fitted out
by him and his friends. The crews were to be paid four months’ wages in
advance, and Columbus was to have full command, to do what he chose, if
he did not interfere with the Portuguese discoveries.
On the 23rd of May, Columbus went to the church of San Giorgio in Palos,
with his friend, the prior of St. Mary’s convent, and other important
people, and the royal order was read with great solemnity:
But it excited at first only indignation or dismay. The expedition was
most unpopular. Sailors refused to enlist, and the authorities, who had
already offended the crown, so that they had to furnish these vessels,
as it were, as a fine, refused to do what they were bidden. Other orders
from Court were necessary. But it seems to have been the courage and
determination of the Pinzons which carried the preparations through.
After weeks had been lost, Martin Alonso Pinzon and his brothers
said they would go in person on the expedition. They were well-known
merchants and seamen, and were much respected. Sailors were impressed,
by the royal authority, and the needful stores were taken in the same
way. It seems now strange that so much difficulty should have surrounded
an expedition in itself so small. But the plan met then all the
superstition, terror and other prejudice of the time.
All that Columbus asked or needed was three small vessels and their
stores and crews. The largest ships engaged were little larger than the
large yachts, whose races every summer delight the people of America.
The Gallega and the Pinta were the two largest. They were called
caravels, a name then given to the smallest three-masted vessels.
Columbus once uses it for a vessel of forty tons; but it generally
applied in Portuguese or Spanish use to a vessel, ranging one hundred
and twenty to one hundred and forty Spanish “toneles.” This word
represents a capacity about one-tenth larger than that expressed by our
English “ton.”
The reader should remember that most of the commerce of the time was the
coasting commerce of the Mediterranean, and that it was not well that
the ships should draw much water. The fleet of Columbus, as it sailed,
consisted of the Gallega (the Galician), of which he changed the name to
the Santa Maria, and of the Pinta and the Nina. Of these the first two
were of a tonnage which we should rate as about one hundred and thirty
tons. The Nina was much smaller, not more than fifty tons. One writer
says that they were all without full decks, that is, that such decks as
they had did not extend from stem to stern. But the other authorities
speak as if the Nina only was an open vessel, and the two larger were
decked. Columbus himself took command of the Santa Maria, Martin Alonso
Pinzon of the Pinta, and his brothers, Francis Martin and Vicente Yanez,
of the Nina. The whole company in all three ships numbered one hundred
and twenty men.
Mr. Harrisse shows that the expense to the crown amounted to 1,140,000
maravedis. This, as he counts it, is about sixty-four thousand dollars
of our money. To this Columbus was to add one-eighth of the cost. His
friends, the Pinzons, seem to have advanced this, and to have been
afterwards repaid. Las Casas and Herrera both say that the sum thus
added was much more than one-eighth of the cost and amounted to half a
million maravedis.