to fit out a ship privately and intrust its command to another seaman,
bidding him sail west in search of the Indies, while he pretended that
he was on a voyage to the Cape de Verde Islands. He was, in fact,
to follow the route indicated by Columbus. The vessel sailed. But,
fortunately for the fame of Columbus, she met a terrible storm, and
her officers, in terror, turned from the unknown ocean and returned to
Lisbon. Columbus himself tells this story. It was in disgust with the
bad faith the king showed in this transaction that he left Lisbon to
offer his great project to the King and Queen of Spain.

In a similar way, a generation afterward, Magellan, who was in the
service of the King of Portugal, was disgusted by insults which he
received at his court, and exiled himself to Spain. He offered to the
Spanish king his plan for sailing round the world and it was accepted.
He sailed in a Spanish fleet, and to his discoveries Spain owes the
possession of the Philippine Islands. Twice, therefore, did kings of
Portugal lose for themselves, their children and their kingdom, the fame
and the recompense which belong to such great discoveries.

The wife of Columbus had died and he was without a home. He left Lisbon
with his only son, Diego, in or near the end of the year 1484.



CHAPTER II. -- HIS PLANS FOR DISCOVERY.

COLUMBUS LEAVES LISBON, AND VISITS GENOA--VISITS GREAT SPANISH
DUKES--FOR SIX YEARS IS AT THE COURT OF FERDINAND AND ISABELLA--THE
COUNCIL OF SALAMANCA--HIS PETITION IS AT LAST GRANTED--SQUADRON MADE
READY.