Columbus himself never lost confidence in his own star.  He was sure that he was divinely sent, and that his mission was to open the way to the Indies, for the religious advancement of mankind.  If Vasco de Gama had discovered a shorter way than men knew before, Christopher Columbus should discover one shorter still, and this discovery should tend to the glory of God.  It seemed to him that the simplest way in which he could make men understand this, was to show that the Holy Sepulchre might, now and thus, be recovered from the infidel.

Far from urging geographical curiosity as an object, he proposed rather the recovery of the Holy Sepulchre.  That is, there was to be a new and last crusade, and the money for this enterprise was to be furnished from the gold of the farthest East.  He was close at the door of this farthest East; and as has been said, he believed that Cuba was the Ophir of Solomon, and he supposed, that a very little farther voyaging would open all the treasures which Marco Polo had described, and would bring the territory, which had made the Great Khan so rich, into the possession of the king of Spain.

He showed to Ferdinand and Isabella that, if they would once more let him go forward, on the adventure which had been checked untimely by the cruelty of Bobadilla, this time they would have wealth which would place them at the head of the Christian sovereigns of the world.

While he was inactive at Seville, and the great squadron was being prepared which Ovando was to command, he wrote what is known as the “Book of Prophecies,” in which he attempted to convince the Catholic kings of the necessity of carrying forward the enterprise which he proposed.  He urged haste, because he believed the world was only to last a hundred and fifty-five years longer; and, with so much before them to be done, it was necessary that they should begin.

He remembered an old vow that he had undertaken, that, within seven years of the time of his discovery, he would furnish fifty thousand foot soldiers and five thousand horsemen for the recovery of the Holy Sepulchre.  He now arranged in order prophecies from the Holy Scripture, passages from the writings of the Fathers, and whatever else suggested itself, mystical and hopeful, as to the success of an enterprise by which the new world could be used for the conversion of the Gentiles and for the improvement of the Christianity of the old world.

He had the assistance of a Carthusian monk, who seems to have been skilled in literary work, and the two arranged these passages in order, illustrated them with poetry, and collected them into a manuscript volume which was sent to the sovereigns.

Columbus accompanied the Book of Prophecies with one of his own long letters, written with the utmost fervor.  In this letter he begins, as Peter the Hermit might do, by urging the sovereigns to set on foot a crusade.  If they are tempted to consider his advice extravagant, he asks them how his first scheme of discovery was treated.  He shows that, as heaven had chosen him to discover the new world, heaven has also chosen him to discover the Holy Sepulchre.  God himself had opened his eyes that he might make the great discovery, which has reflected such honor upon them and theirs.