he expected to discover. But Columbus had refided for so many years in foreign parts, that his countrymen were unacquainted with his abilities and character; and, though a maritime people, were fo little accustomed to diftant voyages, that they could form no juft idea of the principles on which he founded his hopes of fuccefs. They inconfiderately rejected his proposal, as the dream of a chimerical projector, and loft for ever the opportunity of reftoring their commonwealth to its ancient fplendour.

Having performed what was due to his country, Columbus was fo little difcouraged by the repulfe which he had received, that, instead of relinquishing his undertaking, he pursued it with fresh ardour. He made his next overture to John II. king of Portugal, in whose dominions he had been long eftablished, and whom he confidered, on that account, as having the fecond claim to his fervice. Here every circumftance feemed to promife him a more favourable reception. He applied to a monarch of an enterprifing genius, no incompetent judge in naval affairs, and proud of patronifing every attempt to difcover new countries. His fubjects were the most experienced navigators in Europe, and the leaft apt to be intimidated either by the novelty or boldness of any maritime expedition. In Portugal, the profeffional fkill of Columbus, as well as his perfonal good qualities, were thoroughly known; and as the former rendered it probable that his fcheme was not altogether vifionary, the latter exempted him from the fufpicion of any finifter intention in propofing it. Accordingly, the king liftened to him in the moft gracious manner, and referred the confideration of his plan to Diego Ortiz, bishop of Ceuta, and two Jewish phyficians, eminent cofmographers, whom he was accuftomed to confult in matters of this kind. As in Genoa, ignorance had oppofed and difappointed Columbus; in Lisbon, he had to combat with prejudice, an enemy no less formidable. The perfons, according to whofe decifion his fcheme was to be adopted or rejected, had been the chief directors of the Portuguese navigations, and had advised to fearch for a paffage to India, by fteering a courfe directly oppofite to that which Columbus recommended as shorter and more certain. They could not, therefore, approve of his propofal, without fubmitting to the double mortification, of condemn→ ning their own theory, and of acknowledging his fuperior fagacity. After teafing him with captious queftions, and starting innumerable ob. jections, with a view of betraying him into fuch a particular explanation of his fyftem, as might draw from him a full difcovery of its na ture, they deferred paffing a final judgement with refpect to it. In the mean time, they confpired to rob him of the honour and advantages

which he expected from the fuccefs of his scheme, advifing the king to difpatch a veffel, fecretly, in order to attempt the proposed discovery, by following exactly the course which Columbus feemed to point out. John, forgetting on this occafion the fentiments becoming a monarch, meanly adopted this perfidious counfel. But the pilot, chofen to execute Columbus's plan, had neither the genius, nor the fortitude of its author. Contrary winds arofe, no fight of approaching land appeared, his courage failed, and he returned to Lisbon, execrating the project as equally extravagant and dangerous.

Upon difcovering this dishonourable tranfaction, Columbus felt the indignation natural to an ingenuous mind, and in the warmth of his refentment determined to break off all intercourfe with a nation capable of fuch flagrant treachery. He inftantly quitted the kingdom, and landed in Spain towards the close of the year one thousand four hundred and eighty-four. As he was now at liberty to court the protection of any patron, whom he could engage to approve of his plan, and to carry it into execution, he refolved to propofe it in perfon to Ferdinand and Ifabella, who at that time governed the united kingdoms of Castile and Arragon. But as he had already experienced the uncertain iffue of applications to kings and minifters, he took the precaution of fending into England his brother Bartholomew, to whom he had fully communicated his ideas, in order that he might negociate, at the fame time, with Henry VII. who was reputed one of the moft fagacious as well as opulent princes in Europe.

It was not without reason that Columbus entertained doubts and fears. with refpect to the reception of his propofals in the Spanish court. Spain was, at that juncture, engaged in a dangerous war with Granada, the last of the Moorish kingdoms in that country. The wary and suspicious temper of Ferdinand was not formed to relish bold or uncommon defigns. Ifabella, though more generous and enterprising, was under the influence of her husband in all her actions. The Spaniards had hitherto made no efforts to extend navigation beyond its ancient limits, and had beheld the amazing progrefs of discovery among their neigh bours the Portuguese, without one attempt to imitate or to rival them. The war with the Infidels afforded an ample field to the national activity and love of glory. Under circumftances fo unfavourable, it was impoffible for Columbus to make rapid progress with a nation, naturally flow and dilatory in forming all its refolutions. His character, however, was admirably adapted to that of the people, whofe confidence and protection he folicited. He was grave, though courteous in his deportment; circumfpect in his words and actions; irreproachable in his morals; and exemplary

3

exemplary in his attention to all the duties and functions of religion. By qualities fo refpectable, he not only gained many private friends, but acquired fuch general esteem, that, notwithstanding the plainnefs of his appearance, fuitable to the mediocrity of his fortune, he was not confidered as a mere adventurer, to whom indigence had fuggefted a vifionary project, but was received as a perfon to whose propofitions ferious attention was due.

Ferdinand and Ifabella, though fully occupied by their operations against the Moors, paid fo much regard to Columbus, as to remit the confideration of his plan to the queen's confeffor, Ferdinand de Talavera. He confulted fuch of his countrymen as were supposed best qualified to decide with respect to a subject of this kind. But true fcience had, hitherto, made fo little progress in Spain, that the pretended philofophers, felected to judge in a matter of fuch moment, did not com prehend the first principles upon which Columbus founded his conjectures and hopes. Some of them, from mistaken notions concerning the dimenfions of the globe, contended that a voyage to those remote parts of the eaft, which Columbus expected to difcover, could not be performed in less than three years. Others concluded, that either he would find the ocean to be of infinite extent, according to the opinion of fome ancient philofophers; or, if he should perfift in fteering towards the weft beyond a certain point, that the convex figure of the globe would prevent his return, and that he muft inevitably perish, in the vain attempt to open a communication between the two oppofite hemifpheres, which nature had for ever disjoined. Even without deigning to enter into any particular difcuffion, many rejected the scheme in general, upon the credit of a maxim, under which the ignorant and unenterprifing shelter themselves in every age, "That it is prefumptuous in any perfon, to fuppofe that he alone poffeffes knowledge fuperior to all the rest of mankind united.". They maintained, that if there were really any fuch countries as Columbus pretended, they could not have remained fo long concealed, nor would the wisdom and fagacity of former ages have left the glory of this invention to an obfcure Genoefe pilot.

It required all Columbus's patience and addrefs to negociate with men capable of advancing fuch ftrange propofitions. He had to contend not only with the obftinacy of ignorance, but with what is ftill more intrac table, the pride of falfe knowledge. After innumerable conferences, and wafting five years in fruitlefs endeavours to inform and to fatisfy judges fo little capable of deciding with propriety, Talavera, at laft, made fuch an unfavourable report to Ferdinand and Isabella, as induced them to acquaint Columbus, that until the war with the Moors should be brought

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brought to a period, it would be imprudent to engage in any new and expenfive enterprise.

Whatever care was taken to foften the harshness of this declaration, Columbus confidered it as a final rejection of his propofals. But happily for mankind, the fuperiority of genius, which is capable of forming great and uncommon defigns, is ufually accompanied with an ardent enthufiafm, which can neither be cooled by delays, nor damped by difappointment. Columbus was of this fanguine temper. Though he felt deeply the cruel blow given to his hopes, and retired immediately from a court, where he had been amused so long with vain expectations, his confidence in the juftness of his own fyftem did not diminish, and his impatience to demonftrate the truth of it by an actual experiment became greater than ever. Having courted the protection of fovereign ftates without fuccefs, he applied, next, to perfons of inferior rank, and addreffed fucceffively the dukes of Medina Sidonia, and Medina Celi, who, though fubjects, were poffeffed of power and opulence more than equal to the enterprise which he projected. His negociations with them proved as fruitless, as thofe in which he had been hitherto engaged; for these noblemen were either as little convinced by Columbus's arguments as their fuperiors, or they were afraid of alarming the jealoufy, and offending the pride of Ferdinand, by countenancing a fcheme which he had rejected.

Amid the painful fenfations occafioned by fuch a fucceffion of difappointments, Columbus had to fuftain the additional distress, of having received no accounts from his brother, whom he had fent to the court of England. In his voyage to that country, Bartholomew had been fo un. fortunate as to fall into the hands of pirates, who having stripped him of every thing, detained him a prifoner for feveral years. At length, he made his escape, and arrived in London, but in fuch extreme indigence, that he was obliged to employ himself, during a confiderable time, in drawing and felling maps, in order to pick up as much money as would purchase a decent drefs, in which he might venture to appear at court. He then laid before the king the propofals, with which he had been entrusted by his brother, and, notwithstanding Henry's exceffive caution and parfimony, which rendered him averfe to new or expenfive undertakings, he received Columbus's overtures, with more approbation, than any monarch to whom they had hitherto been prefented.

Meanwhile, Columbus being unacquainted with his brother's fate, and having now no profpect of encouragement in Spain, refolved to vifit the court of England in perfon, in lopes of meeting with a more faTourable reception there. He had already made preparations for this

purpose,

purpose, and taken meafures for the difpofal of his children during his abfence, when Juan Perez, the guardian of the monaftery of Rabida, near Palos, in which they had been educated, earnestly folicited him to defer his journey for a fhort time. Perez was a man of confiderable learning, and of fome credit with Queen Ifabella, to whom he was known perfonally. He was warmly attached to Columbus, with whose abilities as well as integrity he had many opportunities of being acquainted. Prompted by curiofity or by friendship, he entered upon an accurate examination of his fyftem, in conjunction with a phyfician fettled in the neighbourhood, who was a confiderable proficient in mathematical knowledge. This investigation fatisfied them fo thoroughly, with refpect to the folidity of the principles on which Columbus founded his opinion, and the probability of fuccefs in executing the plan which he propofed, that Perez, in order to prevent his country from being deprived of the glory and benefit, which muft accrue to the patrons of fuch a grand enterprife, ventured to write to Ifabella, conjuring her to confider the matter anew, with the attention which it merited.

Moved by the reprefentations of a perfon whom the refpected, Ifabella defired Perez to repair immediately to the village of Santa Fé, in which, on account of the fiege of Granada, the court refided at that time, that The might confer with him upon this important fubject. The first effect of their interview was a gracious invitation of Columbus back to court, accompanied with the prefent of a small fum to equip him for the journey. As there was now a certain profpect, that the war with the Moors would fpeedily be brought to an happy iffue by the reduction of Granada, which would leave the nation at liberty to engage in new undertakings; this, as well as the mark of royal favour, with which Columbus had been lately honoured, encouraged his friends to appear with greater confidence than formerly in fupport of his fcheme. The chief of thefe, Alonso de Quintanilla, comptroller of the finances in Caftile, and Luis de Santangel, receiver of the ecclefiaftical revenues in Arragon, whofe meritorious zeal in promoting this great defign entitles their names to an honourable place in hiftory, introduced Columbus to many perfons of high rank, and interested them warmly in his behalf.

But it was not an eafy matter to inspire Ferdinand with favourable fentiments. He ftill regarded Columbus's project as extravagant and chimerical; and in order to render the efforts of his partizans ineffectual, he had the addrefs to employ in this new negociation with him, fome of the perfons who had formerly pronounced his scheme to be impracticable. To their aftonifhment, Columbus appeared before them with the fame confident hopes of fuccefs as formerly, and infifted upon

the