Peter Parleys Tales About America and Australia | Page 2

of the sea a
piece of wood curiously carved, and that very thick canes, like those
which travellers had found in India, had been seen floating on the
waves; also that great trees, torn up by the roots, had often been cast on
shore, and once two dead bodies of men, with strange features, neither
like Europeans nor Africans, were driven on the coast of the Azores.
All these stories set Columbus thinking and considering that these
strange things had come drifting over the sea from the west, he looked
upon them as tokens sent from some unknown countries lying far
distant in that quarter: he was therefore eager to sail away and explore,
but as he had not money enough himself to fit out ships and hire sailors,
he determined to go and try to persuade some king or some state to be
at the expense of the trial.
First he went to his own countrymen the Genoese, but they would have
nothing to say to him: he then submitted his plan to the Portuguese, but
the King of Portugal, pretending to listen to him, got from him his plan,
and perfidiously attempted to rob him of the honour of accomplishing it,
by sending another person to pursue the same track which he had
proposed.
The person they so basely employed did not succeed, but returned to
Lisbon, execrating a plan he had not abilities to execute.

On discovering this treachery, Columbus quitted the kingdom in
disgust and set out for Spain, to King Ferdinand and Queen Isabella. He
was now so poor that he was frequently obliged to beg as he went
along.
About half a league from Palos, a sea-port of Andalusia in Spain, on a
solitary height, overlooking the sea-coast, and surrounded by a forest of
pines, there stood, and now stands at the present day, an ancient
convent of Franciscan friars.
[Illustration]
A stranger, travelling on foot, accompanied by a young boy, stopped
one day at the gate of the convent, and asked of the porter a little bread
and water for his child.--That stranger was Columbus, accompanied by
his son Diego.
While receiving this humble refreshment, the guardian of the convent,
Friar Juan Perez, happening to pass, was taken with the appearance of
the stranger, and being an intelligent man and acquainted with
geographical science, he became interested with the conversation of
Columbus, and was so struck with the grandeur of his project that he
detained him as his guest and invited a friend of his, Martin Alonzo
Pinzon, a resident of the town of Palos, to come and hear Columbus
explain his plan.
Pinzon was one of the most intelligent sea captains of the day, and a
distinguished navigator. He not only approved of his project, but
offered to engage in it, and to assist him.
Juan Perez now advised Columbus to repair to court. Pinzon
generously furnished him with the money for the journey, and the friar
kindly took charge of his youthful son Diego, to maintain and educate
him in the convent, which I am sure you will think was the greatest
kindness he could have done him at that time.
Ferdinand and Isabella gave him hopes and promises, then they made
difficulties and objections, and would do nothing. At last, after waiting

five years, he was just setting off for England, where he had previously
sent his brother Bartholomew, when he was induced to wait a little
longer in Spain.
This little longer was two years, but then at last he had his reward, for
queen Isabella stood his friend, and even offered to part with her own
jewels in order to raise money to enable him to make preparations for
the voyage, so that he contrived to fit out three very small vessels
which altogether carried but one hundred and twenty men.
Two of the vessels were light barques, or barges built high at the prow
and stern, with forecastles and cabins for the crew, but were without
deck in the centre; only one of the three, the Santa Maria, was
completely decked; on board of this, Columbus hoisted his flag. Martin
Alonzo Pinzon commanded the Pinta, and his brother, Vincente Yanez
Pinzon, the Nina. He set sail in the sight of a vast crowd, all praying for
the success, but never expecting and scarcely hoping to see either him
or any of his crews again.
Columbus first made sail for the Canaries, where he repaired his
vessels: then taking leave of these islands, he steered his course due
west, across the great Atlantic ocean, where never ship had ploughed
the waves before.
No sooner had they lost sight of land than the sailors' hearts began to
fail them, and they bewailed themselves like men condemned to die:
but Columbus cheered