"Though this be madness, there is method in it;" but still, the whole
character of Columbus forbids us to assume that this alleged vision was
merely an ingenious device for remonstrating with the Sovereigns. It must
not be forgotten that in those times the popular belief as to such matters
was very different from that which obtains now; and that Columbus was as
credulous as his contemporaries on the subject of the supernatural. It was
easy for an imagination like his to be wrought upon so as to give to "airy
nothings," to the "thousand phantasies that crowd into the memory," the
character of special revelations from heaven. In this very despatch his
religious fervour is displayed again and again. Jerusalem, according to
the prophecy, was to be rebuilt by the hand of a Christian. He would be
that Christian. Prester John, so said tradition, had asked for
missionaries to instruct him in the true faith. He would conduct them to
the kingdom of this unknown potentate. Then he goes on to deplore his own
hard case; "surrounded by cruel and hostile savages; isolated, infirm,
expecting each day will be my last; severed from the holy sacraments of
the Church, so that my soul, if parted here from my body, must be for ever
forgotten....If it should please God to deliver me hence, I humbly
supplicate your majesties to permit me to repair to Rome, and perform
other pilgrimages." Columbus, then, being really convinced of the fatal
consequences of not being within reach of formal communion with the
Church, must have felt that he was risking more than his mere bodily life
when he wandered into those unknown countries; that he staked both body
and soul on his success.


CAPTURE OF MENDEZ; ESCAPE AND SAFE ARRIVAL.

Laden with these despatches, Mendez and a Spanish comrade set out along