1474-1492.
The success attending the voyages of the Portuguese along the coast of
Africa suggested to Cristoforo Colombo[105] (or Christopher Columbus, as
he is more commonly called by those speaking English), the possibility
of sailing by a shorter way to India in another direction. Ferdinand
Columbus, in his history of the life and achievements of his father,[106]
makes no attempt to conceal this fact from publicity. With an apparent
intention to give all the information which might be desired concerning
the great discoverer’s first thoughts respecting the practicability
of reaching Asia by sailing in a westerly direction, he frankly tells
what originated them in the mind of the admiral. “As one thing leads
to another, and one thought to another, in this way, while the admiral
was in Portugal, he began to infer that as the Portuguese sailed so
far southward, it was also feasible to steer westward, and that land
might likely be found in this direction. In order to be more assured
and satisfied in this matter, he began to review the cosmographies
which he had read, and to note what astronomical reasons would support
this theory.[107] That he might be more enlightened concerning his
assumption, he paid attention to what was said by people respecting
it, especially by seamen. His diligent investigations soon led him
to conclude that there were many lands west of the Canaries and the
Cape Verd Islands, and that it was practicable to sail to and discover
them.”[108]
The remarkable aptitude displayed by Columbus in forming his conclusions
that the Atlantic Ocean was navigable, and that ships might pass across
its unexplored expanse to Cathay, was the natural expression of his
peculiar passion for geographical knowledge. In a letter written to their
Spanish majesties, King Ferdinand and Queen Isabella, in 1501, he says:
“I went to sea when quite young, and have continued my sea-faring until
now; and this profession makes those who follow it eager to discover the
secrets of this globe. It is now forty years that I have been sailing
to all those places which are at present visited, and I have dealt and
talked with learned people, ecclesiastics as well as laymen, Latins,
Greeks, Indians, Moors, and many other people of different nations, and
our Lord has favored this inclination, and I have received from him the
spirit of understanding. He has made me very skillful in navigation, and
to know much in astronomy, in geometry, and mathematics. God has given me
the knowledge and the ability to portray the globe, and also to delineate
cities, rivers, islands, and ports in their proper situation. During my
life I have examined and endeavored to see all books of cosmography,
history, and philosophy, and of the other sciences, so that our Lord has
sensibly opened my mind in order that I may sail from here to the Indies,
and has made me extremely anxious to do it.”[109]
Columbus’s irrepressible desire to possess all the information he could
acquire respecting the navigable water-ways of the Atlantic also led him
to sail over the sea-path to Iceland and to the south coast of Africa,
at the equator. In his geographical work, written “to show that all the
five zones are habitable,” he says: “‘In February, 1467, I sailed myself
a hundred leagues beyond Thule, the northern part of which is seventy
degrees distant from the equator, and not sixty-three degrees as some
will have it to be; nor does it lie upon the line where Ptolemy’s West
begins, but much more to the westward, and to this island, which is as
large as England, the English trade, especially those from Bristol.[110]
At the time I was there the sea was not frozen, but the tides were so
great that in some places it swelled twenty-six fathoms and fell as
much.’ The truth is, that the Thule of which Ptolemy speaks lies where
he says, and this is called by the moderns Frizeland.” Again he says: “I
have followed sea-faring for twenty-three years without being on shore
any space of time worth mentioning, and I have seen all the East and all
the West, and have been to the North where England is situated, and even
to Guinea.” He also says that he went to sea when fourteen years old, and
ever after that led a sea-faring life.[111]
Among the motives influencing him to think that he could sail to Cathay
by the way of the Atlantic Ocean were the statements of geographical
writers. By them it was said “that a great part of the globe had already
been travelled over, and there only remained to be discovered and made
known the space lying between the eastern limits of India, known to
Ptolemy and Marinus, and the West, where are the islands Azores[112] and
those of Cape Verd,[113] the most western lands yet discovered.[114] ...
He considered that this space, lying between the eastern limits [of
India] known to Marinus and the islands of the Cape Verd group, could
not be more than a third part of the great circumference of the globe,
since Marinus had gone toward the East fifteen hours of the twenty-four
into which the circumference of the earth is divided, and therefore to
go [still farther eastwardly] to reach the Cape Verd Islands there were
nine hours, [of the circumference to be passed over], as it is said
that Marinus began his investigations in the West.... He conceived that
since Marinus had given in his cosmography an account of fifteen hours
or parts of the globe eastwardly, and had not reached the limits of the
East, it followed that its bounds must be much beyond, and consequently
the farther the land of the East extended eastwardly, the nearer this
land was to the Cape Verd Islands in the West, and that if the space were
chiefly water it might easily be sailed in a few days, and if it were
mainly land it would sooner be discovered by sailing westward, because
it would be nearer to the Cape Verd Islands.[115] ... The fifth reason,
which induced him to believe that the distance this way was short, was
the opinion of Alfragranus and his followers, who make the circumference
of the globe much less than all other writers and cosmographers,
allowing fifty-six miles and two-thirds to a degree.[116] Whence he
inferred that as the entire circumference of the globe was of such an
extent, the third part was small, which Marinus left unknown.... And
Seneca, in his first book of nature, who considers the knowledge of this
world as nothing when compared with that which is acquired in the next
life, says a ship may sail in a few days with a fair wind from the coast
of Spain to that of India. And if it be true, as some believe, that
Seneca wrote tragedies, we may infer that he speaks of the same thing in
the chorus of his Medea:
‘Venient annis
Saecula seris, quibus Oceanus
Vincula rerum laxet, et ingens
Pateat tellus, Typhysque novos
Detegat orbes, nec sit terris
Ultima Thule.’
“‘In the last years there will come an age in which Ocean shall loosen
the bonds of things; and a great land will be accessible; and another
Tiphys shall discover new worlds, and Thule shall no longer be the
extremity of the earth.’[117] This prediction may be considered really
fulfilled in the person of the admiral.... Marco Polo, the Venetian,
and John Mandeville, in their travels say that they went much farther
eastward than Ptolemy and Marinus mention, who, although they do not
speak of the Eastern Sea, yet by the account they give of the East it
may be assumed that India is not far distant from Africa and Spain.”[118]
Ferdinand Columbus further says that his father expected to find, “before
he came to India, a very convenient island or continent, from which he
might pursue with more advantage his main design. This hope was grounded
upon the statements of many wise men and philosophers, who believed that
the greatest part of this terraqueous globe was land, or that there was
more land than water, which, if true, he assumed that between the coast
of Spain and the limits of India then known, there were many islands and
a considerable extent of main-land.... A pilot of the king of Portugal,
named Martin Vicente, told him that, being at one time four hundred and
fifty leagues westward of Cape St. Vincent, he found and picked up in the
sea a piece of wood ingeniously carved, but not with iron, which led him
to believe, as the wind had been blowing from the west for several days,
that the piece of wood had drifted from some island lying toward the
west. Then one Pedro Correa, who had married the sister of the admiral’s
wife, told him that at the island of Porto Santo[119] he had seen another
piece of wood, brought by the same winds, as nicely carved as the piece
already mentioned, and that canes had been found there so thick that each
joint would hold more than four quarts of wine, which reports he said he
communicated to the king of Portugal while talking to him about these
matters. The pieces of cane were shown to him. There being no place in
our parts where such cane grew, he inferred it to be true that the wind
had brought the cane from some neighboring islands or else from India.
For Ptolemy, in the first book of his geography, in the seventeenth
chapter, says there is such cane in the eastern parts of India. And some
of the people living on the islands, particularly on the Azores, told him
that when the west wind blew for a long time the sea drifted some pieces
of pine-wood upon those islands, particularly on the islands Gratiosa
and Fayal, there being no pine-wood in all those parts, and that the
sea cast upon the island of Flores, another of the Azores, the bodies
of two dead men, who were very broad-faced and different in appearance
from Christians. At Cape Verd and thereabouts they said that they once
saw some covered canoes or boats which the people believed were driven
there by stress of weather while the persons in them were going from one
island to another. Nor were these the only grounds he then had which
seemed reasonable, for there were those who told him that they had seen
some islands in the western ocean.... These persons he did not believe,
because he discovered from their own words and statements that they had
not sailed one hundred leagues to the westward, and that they had been
deceived by some rocks, thinking them to be islands; or else, perhaps,
they were some of those floating islands which are drifted about by the
waves, and which the sailors call _aguados_....
“He says, moreover, that in the year 1484, a man came to Portugal from
the island of Madera[120] to beg a caraval of the king to discover
a country which he affirmed he saw every year, and always after the
same manner, he agreeing with others who said they had seen the island
from the Azores. On this account the Portuguese placed some islands
thereabouts on the charts and maps made at that time; and also because
Aristotle, in his book of wonderful things, affirms that it was reported
that some Carthaginian merchants had sailed over the Atlantic Ocean to
a most fruitful island.... This island the Portuguese inserted in their
maps, calling it Antilla, and though they did not give it the same
situation designated by Aristotle, yet none placed it more than two
hundred leagues due west from the Canaries and the Azores. Some believe
it to be the island of the Seven Cities peopled by the Portuguese at
the time that Spain was conquered by the Moors, in 714, at which time,
they say, seven bishops with their people embarked and sailed to this
island, where each of them built a city; and in order that none of their
people might think of returning to Spain, they burnt the ships, tackle,
and all things necessary for sailing.[121] ... It was also said that in
the time of Prince Henry of Portugal, a Portuguese ship was driven by
stress of weather to this island of Antilla, where the men went on shore,
and were conducted by the islanders to their church to learn whether
or not they were Christians and acquainted with the Roman ceremonies.
After perceiving that they were, the people of the island importuned
them to remain till their king came, who was then absent, and who would
be delighted to see them and would give them many presents.... But the
master and the seamen were afraid of being detained, suspecting these
people did not wish to be discovered and might for this reason burn their
ship.
“On this account they returned to Portugal, hoping to be rewarded by the
prince for what they had done. He reproved them severely and bid them
return at once to the island, but the master through fear ran away from
Portugal with the ship and men. It is reported that while the seamen were
at church on the island the ship-boys gathered sand for the cook-room,
the third part of which they found to be pure gold.... Seneca, in his
fourth book, tells us that Thucydides[122] speaks of an island called
Atlantica, which in the time of the Peloponnesian war was entirely, or
the greater part of it, submerged; whereof Plato also makes mention in
his Timæus.”[123]
While Columbus resided at Lisbon obtaining information from geographers
and seamen respecting the feasibility of sailing westward to Cathay, he
entered into correspondence with Paolo Toscanelli, a Florentine physician
and astronomer.[124] The latter sent him a copy of a letter which he
had written in Latin to Ferdinand Martinez, a prebendary of Lisbon. The
communication addressed to Columbus, is dated Florence, June 25, 1474. As
translated the letter is as follows:
“To Christopher Colon, Paul, the physician, wishes health.
“I apprehend your noble and earnest desire to sail to those parts where
spices grow, and therefore, in answer to your letter, I send another,
which some time ago I wrote to a friend of mine, in the service of
the king of Portugal, before the wars of Castile, in answer to one he
wrote me by his highness’s command, upon the same subject. I also send
you a sea-chart similar to the one I sent him, which may satisfy your
inquiries. The copy of that letter is the following:
“To Ferdinand Martinez, canon of Lisbon, Paul, the physician, wishes
health.
“I am gratified to hear of your intimacy with the most serene and
magnificent king. Although I have often spoken of the short distance
by water from here to the Indies where spices grow, which way, in my
opinion, is shorter than that taken along the coast of Guinea, yet
you inform me that his highness would have me explain and demonstrate
it in order that it may be comprehended and tested. Although I could
better elucidate the configuration of the earth with a globe in my
hand, nevertheless, I will make the matter more easy and intelligible
by exhibiting the route on such a chart as is used in navigation. I
therefore send one to his majesty, made and drawn with my own hand,
on which are delineated the extreme limits of the West, from Iceland,
in the north, to the farthest part of Guinea, in the south, with all
the intermediate islands. Opposite, in the West, the beginning of the
Indies is delineated, with the islands and places to which you may
go, representing how far you may steer from the north pole toward the
equator, and for how long a time, that is, how many leagues you may sail
before you come to those places where are to be found all kinds of spices
and precious stones. Do not think it strange if I call the country where
spices grow West, since they are generally known to be produced in the
East, because those who shall sail westward will always find those places
in the west, and they who travel by land eastward, will always find
those places in the east. The straight lines which are drawn lengthwise
on the chart show the distance from west to east, and those which cross
the former show the distance from north to south. I have also marked down
on the chart several places in the Indies where ships might put in during
a storm or contrary winds, or any other unlooked-for accident. Moreover,
to give you ample information concerning all the places of which you
desire to know something, you must understand that only traders live or
reside on these islands, and that you will find there as large a number
of ships and sea-faring people engaged in merchandizing as in any other
part of the world, particularly in the famous port of the city called
Zacton, where, every year, a hundred large ships carrying pepper, are
loaded and unloaded, besides many other vessels freighted with different
kinds of spices.[125] This country is an exceedingly populous one, and
there are many provinces, kingdoms, and innumerable cities in it under
the rule of a sovereign called the Grand Khan, signifying king of kings,
who generally resides in the province of Cathay. His predecessors greatly
desired to have the commerce and the friendship of Christians, and two
hundred years ago they sent embassadors to the pope, to ask him to send
them many learned men and doctors to teach them our religion, but on
account of some obstacles the embassadors met with, they returned without
coming to Rome. Besides, there came an embassador to Pope Eugene IV.,
who informed him of the great affection which their princes and people
bore toward the Christians. I talked with him a long time concerning
the magnificence of the royal palaces, the greatness of the country,
the length and breadth of the rivers. He told me many wonderful things
respecting a great number of towns and cities built on the banks of the
rivers, and that there were two hundred cities on a single river, with
marble bridges over it of great length and breadth, and sustained by many
pillars. This country deserves to be made known as well as any other, and
there may not only be great profits realized and many things of value
obtained, but also gold, silver, all kinds of precious stones, and spices
in abundance, which are not brought into our parts. And it is certain
that many wise men, philosophers, astronomers, and other persons skilled
in the arts, and very ingenious men govern this vast country and command
its armies. On the chart, from Lisbon directly westward to the great and
famous city of Quisay, are twenty-six spaces, each measuring two hundred
and fifty miles. The city is one hundred miles, or thirty-five leagues
in circuit, and within its limits are ten marble bridges. The name
Quisay signifies city of heaven.[126] Wonderful things are reported of
the ingenuity of its inhabitants, its buildings and revenues. The space
previously mentioned is almost a third part of the circumference of the
globe.[127] The city is in the province of Mango, bordering on that of
Cathay, where the king usually resides. From the island Antilla (which
you call the Seven Cities, and of which you have some knowledge), to the
great island of Cipango,[128] are ten spaces, which include two thousand
five hundred miles, or two hundred and twenty-five leagues.[129] The
island abounds with gold, pearls, and precious stones; and you should
know that they cover their temples and palaces with plates of pure gold.
All these things are hidden and concealed, because the way to them is
unknown, and yet it may be sailed with safety.
“Much more might be said, but having told you that which is most
important, and as you are learned and have good judgment, I am satisfied
that you will understand what I have written without my adding any thing
further to these statements. This may satisfy your curiosity, it being
as much as my time and business permit me now to write. However, I remain
ever ready to satisfy and serve his highness to the utmost in all the
commands that he shall lay upon me.”[130]
“The admiral, now believing that his opinion was excellently well
grounded,” says Ferdinand Columbus, “resolved to be governed by it, and
to sail across the western ocean in quest of those countries. But being
aware that such an undertaking was only becoming a monarch to espouse
and to accomplish, he determined to propose it to the king of Portugal,
because he was the latter’s subject. And though King John, then reigning,
gave ear to the admiral’s proposals, yet he hesitated to accept them on
account of the great burden and expense attending the exploration and
conquest of the western coast of Africa, called Guinea. Little success
had thus far rewarded this undertaking, nor had he been able to double
the Cape of Good Hope, which name, some say, was given it instead of
Agesingue, its proper designation, because that was the farthest they
hoped to extend their explorations and conquests, or, as others will
have it, because this cape gave them the expectation of better countries
and navigation. However, the king had but little inclination to invest
any more money in discoveries; and if he gave any attention to the
admiral, it was in consequence of the excellent reasons he advanced to
support his opinion, which arguments so far convinced the king that he
had nothing else to do but to accept or to reject the terms which the
admiral proposed. For the admiral, being a noble and magnanimous man,
wished to make an agreement that would be of some personal benefit and
honor to himself, so that he would leave behind him a notable reputation
and a respected family, such as became his achievements and memory. For
this reason the king, by the advice of one Doctor Cazadilla,[131] whom
he greatly esteemed, determined to send a caravel secretly to attempt
that which the admiral had proposed to him; for if those countries were
in this way discovered, he thought that he would not be obliged to
bestow any great reward which might be demanded. Having quickly equipped
a caravel, he sent it the way the admiral had proposed to go, for the
vessel was carrying supplies to the islands of the Cape Verd group.
But those he sent had not the knowledge, perseverance, and energy of
the admiral. After wandering many days on the sea, they turned back to
the islands of Cape Verd, laughing at the undertaking, and saying that
it was unreasonable to think there should be any land in those waters.
This being told to the admiral, ... he determined to go to Castile
[Spain].... But fearing that, if the king of Castile should not favor
his undertaking, he would be forced to propose it to some other monarch,
thereby consuming much time, he sent his brother Bartolomé Columbus, who
was with him, to England.... On his way to England, Bartolomé happened to
fall into the hands of pirates, who stripped him and his companions. For
this reason, and being sick and poor in that country, it was a long time
before he could deliver his message. It was not until he had obtained
some money by making sea-charts that he began to make certain proposals
to King Henry VII., then reigning, to whom he presented a map of the
world.... The king of England, having seen the map and heard what the
admiral offered to do for him, readily accepted the overture and ordered
him to be sent for....
“I will not now relate how Bartolomé Columbus conducted himself in
England, but will return to the admiral, who, about the end of the year
1484, stole secretly out of Portugal with his son Diego for fear of being
detained by the king; for the king having seen how unsuited they were
whom he had sent with the caravel, was inclined to restore the admiral to
his favor, and desired that he should renew his proposals; but the king
was not as eager to undertake their consideration as the admiral was to
get away; therefore the king lost that good opportunity and the admiral
entered Castile to try his fortune which was there to favor him. Leaving
his son in a monastery, called La Rabida, near Palos, he went at once to
the court of the catholic king, which was then at Cordova, where, being
affable and an entertaining talker, he made friends of such persons as
were most favorably inclined to his undertaking and fitted to persuade
the king to espouse it. Among these was Luis de Santángel, an Aragonian
gentleman, clerk of the allowances in the king’s household, a man of
great prudence and reputation. As the undertaking demanded an examination
by enlightened men, and not meaningless words and favor, their highnesses
intrusted the matter to the prior of Prado, afterward archbishop of
Granada, and ordered him, together with some cosmographers, to make
a thorough investigation of the project and to report their opinions
respecting it.[132] But there was only a small number of cosmographers at
that time, and those who were called together were not as enlightened as
they should have been, nor would the admiral wholly explain his plans,
for fear he might be served as he had been in Portugal and be deprived of
his reward. For this reason the answers they gave their highnesses were
as different as their judgments and opinions. Some said that inasmuch
as no information concerning those countries had been obtained by the
great number of experienced sailors living since the creation, which
was many thousand years ago, it was not likely that the admiral should
know more than all the seamen that were living or that had lived before
that time. Others, who were more influenced by cosmographical reasons,
said the world was so prodigiously great that it was incredible that a
voyage of three years would carry him to the end of the East, where he
proposed to go, and to substantiate this opinion they brought forward
the statement of Seneca, who, in one of his works, by way of argument,
asserts that many wise men disagreed about this question, whether or not
the ocean were boundless, and doubted if it could be traversed; and if it
were navigable, whether habitable lands would be found on the other side
of the globe, and whether they could be reached. They added that only a
small part of this terraqueous globe was inhabited, and that this was in
our hemisphere, and that all the remainder was sea, and only navigable
near the coasts and rivers.
“Some admitted that learned men said it was possible to sail from the
coast of Spain to the farthest part of the West. Others argued, as the
Portuguese had done, about sailing to Guinea, saying that if any man
should sail directly westward, as the admiral proposed, that he would
not be able to return to Spain on account of the roundness of the globe,
confidently believing that whosoever should go out of the hemisphere
known to Ptolemy would go downward, and that then it would be impossible
to return, affirming that it would be like climbing a hill, which ships
could not accomplish in the stiffest gale. Although the admiral properly
answered all these objections, yet the more cogent his explanations were
the less they comprehended him on account of their ignorance, for when
a man grows familiar with false principles in mathematics for a long
time he cannot perceive the true, because of the erroneous impressions
which were first imprinted on his mind. In short, all of these men
were governed by the Spanish saying, St. Augustine doubts it; for this
holy man, in his twenty-first book, chapter ninth, on the city of God,
asserts and considers that it is unreasonable to believe that there are
antipodes, or any passage from one hemisphere to another.[133]
“They further opposed the arguments of the admiral by quoting those
current fables respecting the five zones, and other fictions, which they
believed were true. They therefore determined to condemn the enterprise
as foolish and impracticable, and to declare that it did not become the
state and dignity of such great sovereigns to be misled by such weak
information. Therefore, after much time had been spent in considering
the project, their highnesses answered the admiral that they were then
engaged in too many wars and conquests, and especially in the conquest
of Granada, which was then occupying their attention, and therefore it
was not convenient for them to espouse this new enterprise at that time;
nevertheless, another opportunity might be given them when they could
more satisfactorily examine and accomplish that which he proposed.”[134]
Chagrined as he may have been by this second disappointment, Columbus,
with that noble enthusiasm which the personal consciousness of being in
the right begets, “determined to apply to the king of France, to whom he
had already written concerning the project, intending, if he were not
admitted to an audience there, to go to England afterward to search for
his brother, from whom he had not yet received any intelligence. With
this resolution he set out for the monastery of La Rabida, to send his
son Diego, whom he had left there, to Cordova, and then proceed on his
journey. But in order that the thing which God had decreed should come
to pass, it was put in the heart of Friar Juan Perez, guardian of that
house, to befriend the admiral, and to be so captivated with his project
that he became deeply concerned respecting his resolution and the loss
Spain would sustain by his departure. Therefore he entreated the admiral
not to proceed any farther, for he would himself go to the queen, hoping
that, as he was her father-confessor, she would be governed by what he
should say to her. Although the admiral was disappointed and disgusted
with the discreditable action and judgment of the counsellors of their
highnesses, yet, being on the other hand very desirous that Spain should
reap the benefits of his undertaking, he complied with the friar’s
desire and request, for he considered himself a Spaniard, as he had long
resided in Spain prosecuting his undertaking and had begotten children
there, which was the reason for his rejection of the offers made him by
other sovereigns, as he declares in a letter written to their highnesses
[of Spain] in these words: “That I might serve your highnesses, I have
refused to undertake with France, England, and Portugal; the letters from
the sovereigns of which your highnesses may see in the hands of Doctor
Villalan.”
“The admiral departed with Friar Juan Perez from the monastery of La
Rabida, near Palos, and went to the camp of Santa Fé, where their
catholic majesties were carrying on the siege of Granada. The friar then
had an interview with the queen and so entreated her, that she consented
that the conferences respecting the discovery should be renewed. But
the opinions of the prior of Prado and those of his followers were
discouraging, besides Columbus desired to be made admiral and viceroy,
and to have other compensations deemed too considerable to be granted,
because if he succeeded in doing what he proposed, they thought his
demands were too exorbitant, and in case he did not accomplish any
thing, they considered it foolish to bestow such titles; consequently
the matter received no favorable decision.... These things being of such
importance, and their highnesses refusing to grant them, the admiral took
leave of his friends, and proceeded toward Cordova to make preparations
for his journey to France, for he had determined not to return to
Portugal, although the king had written to him....
“It was in the month of January, in the year 1492, when the admiral
departed from the camp of Santa Fé. On that same day also Luis de
Santángel, previously mentioned, who did not approve of his going away,
but was very desirous to prevent it, went to the queen, and using such
words as his thoughts suggested to persuade and enlighten her, said, he
was surprised that her highness, who had always a great fondness for
all matters of moment and consequence should now be timid in favoring
this undertaking, where so little was hazarded that might contribute in
many ways to the glory of God and the propagation of religion.... The
queen, knowing the sincerity of Santángel’s words, answered, thanking him
for his good advice and saying she was willing to accept the proposals
upon the condition that the undertaking should be delayed until she had
more leisure after the war, and yet, if he thought differently, she was
satisfied that as much money as was required to fit out a fleet, should
be borrowed on her jewels. But Santángel, perceiving that the queen
had condescended upon his advice to do what she had refused all other
persons, replied that there was no need of pawning her jewels, for he
would do her highness that small service by lending his money. Thereupon
the queen at once sent an officer post-haste to bring the admiral
back, who found him upon the bridge of Pinos, two leagues from Granada.
Although the admiral was much disheartened by the disappointments and
delays he had met with in this undertaking, nevertheless, being informed
of the queen’s wish and intention, he returned to the camp of Santa Fé,
where he was graciously entertained by their catholic majesties, and his
commission and stipulations were intrusted to their secretary, Juan de
Coloma, who, by the command of their highnesses, under their hand and
seal, granted him all the conditions and provisions which, as already
mentioned, he had demanded, without altering or subtracting any thing in
them.”[135]