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Thus aided and encouraged and elated with fresh hopes, Columbus took leave of the little junto at La Rabida, and set out, in the spring of 1486, for the Castilian court, which had just assembled at Cordova, where the sovereigns were fully occupied with their chivalrous enterprise for the conquest of Granada.
Sunrise on Friday saw him off the bar of Saltes, with the white walls of La Rabida shining on the promontory among the dark fir-trees.
Columbus returns to Palos Assisted by the Prior of La Rabida The Pinzons agree to join him Difficulty of obtaining ships and men At length three vessels fitted out Sails in the Santa Maria, with the Pinta and Nina, on 3rd August, 1492 Terrors and mutinous disposition of the crews Reaches the Canary Islands Narrowly escapes from a Portuguese squadron seat to capture him Alarm of the crews increases The squadron sails smoothly on Columbus keeps two logs to deceive the seamen Signs of land Seaweed Flights of birds Birds pitch on the ship Frequent changes in the tempers of the crews Westerly course long held Course altered to south-west Pinzon fancies he sees land Disappointment Columbus sees lights at night Morning dawns San Salvador discovered Natives seen Columbus lands Wonder of the natives Proceeds in search of Cipango Other islands visited, and gold looked for in vain Friendly reception by the natives Supplies brought off Search for Saometo Cuba discovered 20th October, 1492 Calls it Juana Believes it to be the mainland of India Sends envoys into the interior Their favourable report of the fertility of the country A storm Deserted by Martin Pinzon in the Pinta First view of Hispaniola A native girl captured Set free Returns with large numbers of her countrymen Arcadian simplicity of the natives.
At last he decided to make one more attempt before giving it up in Spain. His money was gone; his friends were few; but he remembered his acquaintances at Palos and so he journeyed back to see once more his good friend Friar Juan Perez at the Convent of Rabida on the hill that looked out upon the Atlantic he was so anxious to cross.
But he had soul and mind, and while these count age it is not in the short, earthly way. He asked me about the Indians, and again and again we came back to that, pacing up and down in the moonlight before the Spanish inn. The next morning parting. They were going to Cordova, I to the sea. The doves flew over the cloister of La Rabida.
As soon as the legal documents had been signed Columbus returned there and, taking up his quarters at La Rabida, set about fitting out his expedition. The reason Palos was chosen was an economical one.
We did not catch that whispered sentence quite clearly, but we believe it to have been, "If I tell her the story of the shipwrecked pilot." So now Juan Perez appears to have persuaded Christopher to use it as a last argument. This we may reasonably conclude, since the Rabida monk's intercession with the queen succeeded where all previous efforts had failed.
It is questionable, also, whether the visit of Martin Alonzo to Rome, was not after his mind had been heated by conversations with Columbus in the convent of La Rabida. The testimony of Arias Perez is so worded as to leave it in doubt whether the visit was not in the very year prior to the discovery: "fue el dicho su padre a Roma aquel dicho ano antes que fuese a descubrir."
I answered that I knew a little of the surface of it. "I have a sense," he said, "that our stars are akin, yours and mine. I felt it the day Granada fell, and I felt it on Cordova road, and again that day below La Rabida when we turned the corner and the bells rang and you stood beside the vineyard wall. Should I not have learned in more than fifty years to know a man?
In all, forty-two men were to remain behind, with Diego de Arana in the responsible position of chief lieutenant, assisted by Pedro Gutierrez and Rodrigo de Escovedo, the nephew of Friar Juan Perez of La Rabida. To these three he delegated all his powers and authority as Admiral and Viceroy; and then, having collected the colonists, gave them a solemn address.
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