yielded and sent out a ship, which presently came back again with the
report that there was no Cathay there, and they hadn't found any
Cipango; it was all nonsense! And what they had met with was a big
storm that scared them terribly. So Columbus retired, and left the
king of Portugal to his brave sailors and wise councilors.

21. Next will come Spain, and meantime he will send his brother
Bartholomew to present the plan at the English court.

22. The Spanish sovereigns, Ferdinand and Isabella, were down in
Andalusia, that beautiful southern province of Spain, in the midst of
a war with the Moors, who occupied certain portions of the land, and
whom the Spaniards were trying to drive out. So, his wife being now
dead, Columbus took his little boy Diego, and to Andalusia they went.
They stopped at Palos by the sea, and from there set out on foot. The
way was long, and Diego could not go far without getting very thirsty;
and his father stopping at a great, dark, stone convent, called Maria
de la Rabida, to get him a drink, the prior asked them in to rest a
bit. As they talked, Columbus soon told of his great project, to sail
to the Indies by way of the western sea.

23. The prior, in his long dark robe and shaved head, opened his eyes
at this and wanted to hear more. "Novel project this," thought he;
"very novel-most astonishing I must have my friend, Dr. Fernandez,
hear it." So a messenger was sent to Palos to fetch the doctor, and
Columbus went over again the wonderful plan--just to sail west, not so
very far, over the round earth, and reach the stately cities of
Cathay, and convert the Grand Khan to the faith, and gather of the
plentiful gold and jewels of that land. Little Diego stood by and
listened with wide-open eyes, and the doctor pondered, while the prior