The king and queen were residing at Cordova, a rich and beautiful city, which they had taken from the Moors.  Under their rule Cordova had been the most important seat of learning in Europe.  Here Columbus tarried at the house of Alonso de Quintinilla, who became an ardent convert to his theory, and introduced him to important friends.  By their agency, arrangements were made, in which Columbus should present his views to the king.  The time was not such as he could have wished.  All Cordova was alive with the preparation for a great campaign against the enemy.  But King Ferdinand made arrangements to hear Columbus; it does not appear that, at the first hearing, Isabella was present at the interview.  But Ferdinand, although in the midst of his military cares, was interested in the proposals made by Columbus.  He liked the man.  He was pleased by the modesty and dignity with which he brought forward his proposals.  Columbus spoke, as he tells us, as one specially appointed by God Himself to carry out this discovery.  The king did not, however, at once adopt the scheme, but gave out that a council of men of learning should be called together to consider it.

Columbus himself says that he entered the service of the sovereigns January 26, 1486.  The council to which he was referred was held in the university city of Salamanca, in that year.  It gave to him a full opportunity to explain his theory.  It consisted of a fair representation of the learning of the time.  But most of the men who met had formed their opinions on the subjects involved, and were too old to change them.  A part of them were priests of the church, in the habit of looking to sacred Scripture as their only authority, when the pope had given no instruction in detail.  Of these some took literally expressions in the Old Testament, which they supposed to be fatal to the plans of Columbus.  Such was the phrase in the 104th Psalm, that God stretches out the heavens like a curtain.  The expression in the book of Hebrews, that the heavens are extended as a tent, was also quoted, in the same view.

Quotations from the early Fathers of the church were more fatal to the new plan than those from the Scripture.

On the other hand there were men who cordially supported Columbus’s wishes, and there were more when the congress parted than when it met.  Its sessions occupied a considerable part of the summer, but it was not for years that it rendered any decision.

The king, queen and court, meanwhile, were occupied in war with the Moors.  Columbus was once and again summoned to attend the court, and more than once money was advanced to him to enable him to do so.  Once he began new negotiations with King John, and from him he received a letter inviting him to return to Portugal.  He received a similar letter from King Henry VII of England inviting him to his court.  Nothing was determined on in Spain.  To this day, the people of that country are thought to have a habit of postponement to tomorrow of that which perplexes them.  In 1489, according to Ortiz de Zuniga, Columbus fought in battle in the king’s army.