[Illustration:  Jorge Cabral.

From a coloured drawing in a Spanish MS. in the Sloane Collection in the British Museum.]

Columbus’s proposals, it is true, were received with a certain interest by the Portuguese; but for the jealousy of some officials it is very probable that he would, in the first instance, have seen his cherished plans carried into effect.  As it was, a vessel was secretly fitted out, and was sent in command of a rival navigator to test the theories of Columbus.  After a while the ship returned, battered and worn, having discovered nothing beyond a series of exceptionally violent tempests.

This attempt was in any case destined to prove equally adverse to the fortunes of Columbus.  Had it succeeded, he would have undoubtedly been deprived of the credit which should have been his by right; since it failed, the venture was considered to have proved the fallacy of Columbus’s theories.  When, disgusted with experiences such as these, Columbus left Portugal and took up his residence near the Court of Spain in company with this great idea of his, which followed him everywhere, and was in a sense bigger than himself, he met with an equal lack of success in the first instance.  Queen Isabella was sympathetic, but her cautious husband Ferdinand showed himself cold.  Dreading the utter destruction of his plans, Columbus determined to wash his hands of the Iberian Peninsula and its over-cautious rulers and statesmen.

He was actually on his way to England, whither one of his brothers had already preceded him, when a message from the Court of Spain caused him to hasten back.  It is possible that the Court had been in a haggling mood, and had given the discoverer credit for a similar phase; at all events, it was not until his person was almost out of reach that the now complaisant authorities called him back.

Ferdinand himself had given his consent, although in a grudging fashion.  Isabella, however, proved herself enthusiastic, and it was she who signed the bargain with the famous Genoese, which gave a continent to the Royal Family of Spain.  The signing of the bargain, however, did not necessarily end the friction.  The authorities were now fully prepared to recognize Columbus as their messenger to the unknown world; but they were reluctant in the extreme that the intrepid navigator should be carried in too comfortable or costly a fashion.  In the end Columbus, conceding that half a fleet was better than no ships, gave way and took what was offered him.  He himself as Admiral was given charge of the Santa Maria, the largest vessel, while two diminutive craft, the Pinta and the Nina, made up this very humble fleet.  Nevertheless, Columbus now had his desire; he had obtained in the main all that he had asked, although some of it in a lesser degree.

The concessions granted to Columbus for his first voyage were that he was to be made Admiral of the seas and countries to be discovered, a dignity which was to descend to his heirs; that he was to become Viceroy of all those islands and continents; to have the tenth part of the profits of the total undertaking; to be made sole mercantile judge; to have the right to contribute one-eighth part of the expenses of all the maritime ventures, and in return to be given an eighth part of the profits.