Columbus had brought ten Indians away with him, but one had died on the voyage and he had left three sick at Palos.  Those whom he brought to Barcelona, were baptized in presence of the king and queen.

After the Indians, were brought many curious objects which had come from the islands, such as stuffed birds and beasts and living paroquets, which perhaps spoke in the language of their own country, and rare plants, so different from those of Spain.  Ornaments of gold were displayed, which would give the people some idea of the wealth of the islands.  Last of all came Columbus, elegantly mounted and surrounded by a brilliant cavalcade of young Spaniards.  The crowd of wondering people pressed around them.  Balconies and windows were crowded with women looking on.  Even the roofs were crowded with spectators.

The king and queen awaited Columbus in a large hall, where they were seated on a rich dais covered with gold brocade.  It was in the palace known as the “Casa de la Deputacion” which the kings of Aragon made their residence when they were in Barcelona.  A body of the most distinguished lords and ladies of Spain were in attendance.  As Columbus entered the hall the king and queen arose.  He fell on his knee that he might kiss their hands but they bade him rise and then sit and give an account of his voyage.

Columbus spoke with dignity and simplicity which commanded respect, while all listened with sympathy.  He showed some of the treasures he had brought, and spoke with certainty of the discoveries which had been made, as only precursors of those yet to come.  When his short narrative was ended, all the company knelt and united in chanting the “Te Deum,” “We Praise Thee, O God.”  Las Casas, describing the joy and hope of that occasion says, “it seems as if they had a foretaste of the joys of paradise.”

It would seem as if those whose duty it is to prepare fit celebrations of the periods of the great discovery, could hardly do better than to produce on the twenty-fourth of April, 1893, a reproduction of the solemn pageant in which, in Barcelona, four centuries before, the Spanish court commemorated the great discovery.

From this time, for several weeks, a series of pageants and festivities surrounded him.  At no other period of his life were such honors paid to him.  It was at one of the banquets, at which he was present, that the incident of the egg, so often told in connection with the great discovery, took place.  A flippant courtier—­of that large class of people who stay at home when great deeds are done, and afterwards depreciate the doers of them—­had the impertinence to ask Columbus, if the adventure so much praised was not, after all, a very simple matter.  He probably said “a short voyage of four or five weeks; was it anything more?” Columbus replied by giving him an egg which was on the table, and asking him if he could stand it on one end.  He said he could not, and the other guests said that they could not.  Columbus tapped it on the table so as to break the end of the shell, and the egg stood erect.  “It is easy enough,” he said, “when any one has shown you how.”