DISCOVERY OF AMERICA.

Waka Maori, Volume 11, Issue 2, 26 January 1875, Page 16

DISCOVERY OF AMERICA.

(Continued from Waka, No. 1.) Chapter 11. THE SEEKER AT THE COURT OF SPAIN–HIS PROJECT IS TREATED WITH CONTEMPT —PATIENCE AND PERSEVERENCE SUCCEED AT LAST. Columbus did not arrive at Cordova at a very favourable moment for obtaining the attention to his scheme that he desired. Nothing was then thought of but war; for the sovereigns of Spain were engaged at that time in expelling the Moors from the country, who for years had held possession of the southern provinces. Some great victory had just been gained, and preparations were being made for completing the conquest. The friend to whom the prior's letter had been addressed looked upon the scheme as extravagant and impossible; and the humble garb in which the poverty of Columbus compelled him to appear at court, made the gay soldiers and courtiers who surrounded the king and queen look down upon him with contempt, and they considered him a poor adventurer who was quite unworthy of their notice. There was no one who thought it right to trouble the king and queen with listening to such a strange proposal; and Columbus soon saw that ho must wait patiently for a in ore favourable moment for getting any attention to his plans. He remained at Cordova, and supported himself, as he had done at Lisbon, by making maps and charts, but he lost no opportunity for explaining his views, and endeavouring to get them laid before the king and queen. His earnestness and zeal at last convinced a few persons of good sense that there must be some foundation for his notions, while his good character and intelligence procured him some valuable friends. They could not but admire the determination and inexhaustible perseverance that he displayed; and when they came to talk with him they saw that his belief was founded on reason, and not mere idle fancies. It is related that, on one occasion, he was seated at supper with a party of Spaniards, to whom he was talking of his scheme for crossing the Atlantic, when, after ridiculing it as a thing that was wholly impossible to put in practice, one of the party took up an egg, and said it would be quite as impossible to carry out such strange plans as to make that egg stand upright upon the table. " Give me the egg," cried Columbus, " and I will show you what firmness and determination can do and as he spoke he took up the egg, and striking it down with force upon the table, the end of it was crushed in, and the egg stood upright! The company looked at each other with surprise, and at Columbus with admiration. Here was a man, thought they, who would not be easily discouraged by difficulties and dangers, and who would find a way and a means for doing that which other people might deem impossible. At length Columbus was so fortunate as to make acquaintance with the preceptor of the Queen's children, who introduced him to the Grand Cardinal of Spain, who was a sort of prime minister to Ferdinand and Isabella, and possessed their confidence. Through this means Columbus was at last allowed to have an audience with the king and queen ; when, after giving all his reasons for believing

that there was land to be discovered on the other side of the Atlantic, he petitioned for their assistance in order that he might prove that he was right, and win these lands for the crown of Spain. Columbus spoke with modesty, yet with firmness and courage ; for, as he afterwards said, he felt himself an instrument in the hand of heaven to accomplish its grand designs. The king and queen listened attentively, and were struck with the force of his arguments and the grandeur of his views; but they feared to trust to their own judgment in so important a matter. They commanded the grand cardinal to assemble all the most learned men in the kingdom to look into the matter, and decide whether the project of Columbus could be carried out, and he was to appear there and plead his own cause. This interesting meeting was held at Salamanca, a town of Spain, celebrated for its university, and all the learned professors who belonged to it were summoned to the Council. The learning and wisdom of these men, however, if they had any, was not of the kind to enable them to understand rightly the views of Columbus; and only a few of them would admit that there was any chance of their being found practicable. People, in fact, had not at that time become familiar with the idea of the earth being round or spherical, which was the fact on which the notions of Columbus were founded; and even the learned professors taunted him with asserting so absurd a notion. " Could anything be more foolish," they said, " than to believe that there are antipodes, with their feet opposite to ours—people who walk with their heels upwards, and their heads hanging down ?—that there is a part of the world in which all things are topsyturvy, where the trees grow with their branches downwards, and where it rains, hails, and snows upwards ?" They argued, too, that even supposing the earth were round, it was very certain that only the part they inhabited was covered by the heavens, and that the rest must be a mere gulf or waste of water; and that, even if a ship did contrive to get to India by sailing across the Atlantic, it would never be able to get back again, for the rotundity of the earth would form a kind of mountain, which it would be impossible for it to sail up, even with the most favourable wind! With such ridiculous arguments as these did the learned doctors of Salamanca endeavour to combat the reasonings of Columbus —arguments which now seem to us more like the nonsense of ignorant children than the opinions of grave sages. Still, it was easier for people in general to believe that these learned men were right, than to take the trouble to examine into all the facts upon which Columbus founded his opinion. They thought he must be wrong; and even those he was able to convince had not courage enough to stand up in defence of what others thought so foolish. !S"o one advised the King and Queen to engage in a scheme which would require a great deal of money, when it was so much wanted to carry on the wars against the Moors, and, without paying any more attention to Columbus and his project, Ferdinand and Isabella turned all their thoughts to the preparations for war. Time rolled on, and many years passed over, during which Columbus continued to follow the Court as it

moved from one city to another, for the chance of one day inducing the King and .Queen to listen to his suit. Now and then, he would persuade some great man to give attention to his views, who would promise to persuade the King and Queen to furnish him with ships and money; and at one time, a very wealthy and powerful nobleman was nearly induced to undertake the expedition at his own expense ; but he grew afraid of spending his money, and was assured by others that it would lead to no good results. People then began to get tired of the very constancy w'itii which Columbus persisted in his notions. They laughed at him, and thought him a strange and fanciful dreamer, and scoffed at him for what they thought such useless perseverance. It is said that even the children in the streets would point to their foreheads as he passed, as if to say, " There goes the crazy man, who fancies the earth is round like a ball, and wants to go to the other side of it!" At last, however, Columbus determined to obtain a decided answer from the King and Queen; and as the war against the Moors was now coming to a close, he determined to explain to them once more his project, and petition for the assistance he required. It was then that, for the first time, the Sovereigns inquired what had been the decision of the learned council who had met at Salamanca to discuss the scheme of Columbus ; and, finding that they thought it vain and impossible, they sent word to him that " the great cares and expenses of the war made it quite impossible for them to engage in any new enterprises, and they must defer the consideration of his projects until they had leisure to attend to them." Poor Columbus! It might have been thought that all hope would now forsake him, and that lie would abandon his scheme for ever. But it was not so. He felt, on the contrary, that he must make even stronger exertions than ever to get the assistance he required; for he was now past middle-age, and he feared lest he might die before he carried out the one great thought and hope of his life. "If Spain will not be the country to have the glory of all the discoveries I can make," said he to himself, with undiminished confidence, "I -will go to France, and persuade the King of that country to give me the assistance I want." Before doing this, however, he wished to return to the Convent, where he had left his son, and where he had not been for so many years; and he thought he could seek also the advice of his kind friend the prior, at the same time that he expressed gratitude to him for the care he had taken of his child. "When the good monk beheld Columbus arrive once more at the gate of his convent after his long absence, and saw, by the poverty of his dress and the sorrow of his countenance, that he had met with nothing but disappointment, he was greatly moved; and was even more grieved when he heard that he was about to leave Spain. He went again for his friend, the clever physician, who had before listened to the plans of Columbus; and also sought for the advice of a very distinguished navigator, of the name of Pftizon, who'lived at Palos, and who had himself been on many adventures or expeditions, and had much experience in navigation. This man had more of the right kind of knowledge for understanding the views of Columbus than the

learned men of Salamanca, or the vain courtiers who surrounded the king and queen, and he entered most warmly into them. He gave the plan of Columbus his decided approval, and even offered to assist him with money, in order to make another application at Court; and said he would gladly accompany him across the Atlautic, should he ever be able to embark 011 the expedition. Pinzon, the prior, and Columbus held counsel together to decide what was to be done; and, after thinking over many plans, itwas decided that the prior should write to the queen to beg her to listen once more to Columbus, and prevent him from going to France. The letter was sent by a sailor whom they engaged from Palos, and was carried direct to the queeu, who was then at Santa Ec, a beautiful city of Spain, which had just been recovered from the Moors. Now, Isabella had always been more favourably disposed towards Columbus than the king; and being remarkable for good sense and penetration, she had always felt that his notions might be based on reason and truth. She wrote back to the prior a kind and encouraging letter, requesting to see him immediately at the Court, and sent a message to Columbus, bidding him be of good cheer. No sooner did the warm-hearted prior receive this note than he saddled his mule asd departed privately at midnight to the Court. On his arrival he was admitted immediately into the presence of the queen, and he pleaded the cause of his friend Columbus with so much earnestness and eloquence, that the queen was much struck. Perhaps she had never before seen the matter in the same light as that in which the good prior placed it; for he pointed out to her how much glory would be gained for her reign should Columbus really succeed in discovering new islands and continents beyond the Atlantic; at the same time he suggested the glory that would be given to God, should the inhabitants of those islands be lead through her means to become Christians. Isabella was deeply impresed with this view of the case; and being full of pious zeal, she felt that, with such an object in view, a blessing would surely attend the project. She liked, too, all that the priorhad told her about Columbus, and saw that, if such discoveries were to be made, no one could be more suited to the undertaking than he. She therefore requested that Columbus might again be sent to her, and, with kind consideration, ordered that money might be supplied to him for his travelling expenses and to furnish him with decent raiment. We can imagine the delight with which the prior rode back again to his convent, bearing with him such encouraging news ; and, after all his disappointments, we can imagine the joy of Columbus as he exchanged his threadbare suit for one more suited to make his appearance at Court, and once more' packed up his charts and maps, and memoranda to lay before the queen. His son, Diego, must now have become old enough, too, to understand something of that which had occupied the thoughts of his father for so many years —which had caused him so much disappointment, and now filled him with hope and joy, and he also must have rejoiced at his success. When Columbus arrived at Santa Fe, the most magnificent festivities were going on to celebrate the important victory .that had just been gained over the

Moors by Ferdinand and Isabella. The Moorish king had been taken prisoner, and obliged to surrender up his crown, and the beautiful province of Granada over which he ruled. All Spain was now to be united under the dominion of Ferdinand and Isabella, and to become Christian, instead of remaining in the bands of Infidels or Mohammedans. Columbus was in time to see the vanquished king depart from his splendid palace called the Alhambra, and deliver up the keys of liis capital. The air resounded with shouts of joy, with songs of triumph, and hymns of thanksgiving; while the king and queen were looked upon as almost more than mortal, and as if sent down from Heaven for the salvation of Spain. The wars being thus ended, Ferdinand and Isabella felt pledged to attend to the proposals of Columbus, and they kept their word. New difficulties arose, however, from the jealousies of the nobles and courtiers who surrounded them. They did not like to see one whom they had formerly so despised and neglected now treated with so much distinction and favour; and when Columbus made certain conditions for recompence and reward, in case he should succeed in his enterprise, they tried to persuade the king and queen that he was only seeking his own aggrandizement and interest. The lofty and confident tone which he assumed in speaking of his plans they ascribed to presumption and arrogance; and they tried to persuade the queen that to confer honor and ail important employment on such a nameless stranger would be beneath her dignity. The conditions of Columbus were, that he should be made admiral and governor over all the countries he should discover, and that a tenth part of the gains, either by trade or conquest, should be his. So little real confidence was felt in his project, that even his best friends at Court thought that he asked too much, and were surprised at his boldness. But Columbus was firm, and when at last the queen positively refused to enter into such an engagement, he once more determined to leave Spain and carry his proposals to France or some other Court. Taking leave of his friends, he therefore mounted his mule, and departed for Cordova, from which place he determined to proceed to France. "When the few friends that Columbus possessed about the Court saw his determination, they were greatly distressed, and felt that his departure would be a great loss to the nation. They hurried to the queen, and employed all their eloquence to induce her to send after Columbus. They reminded her of what an opportunity might now be lost of extending her power and dominion, and what a source of sorrow and shame it would be to her should this enterprise be undertaken by some other sovereign. A lady in the service of the queen, who had always befriended Columbus, knelt at her feet, and urged her, with all the eloquence she possessed, to grant the conditions required by Columbus. The spirit of Isabella was roused, and she declared her resolution to undertake the expedition herself; and even when the king looked coldly on the affair, and reminded her of the expense which had been incurred by the late war, so that the royal treasury was nearly empty, she was not to be shaken from her purpose. Full of generous ardour, she exclaimed, " I will undertake the enterprise myself, and I will pledge my jewels to obtain the necessary funds," That was,

after all, the proudest moment in the life of this great queen, and her decision brought her more glory than even the conquest of the Moorish king. At the command of the queen, a messenger was despatched 011 horseback, "with all speed, to bring back Columbus. He was overtaken as he rode through a narrow mountain pass, thinking as he went along of his last great disappointment, and turning over in his mind fresh plans for the future. The messenger had great difficulty in persuading him to return; and it was only when he described the anxiety of the queen, and repeated her positive promises that all should be as he wished, that Columbus consented at last to retrace his steps to the Court. [To be continued.] [ln chapter I. of the above article, for " Christofon," read " Christoforo."]