before whom Columbus laid his plans; but it is possible that even in the
fifteenth century Boards had come to regard projectors as their natural
enemies, and the report of the Committee was entirely adverse to the
scheme for Atlantic discovery. But it seems that the king, was not
satisfied yet, whereupon the Bishop of Ceuta (who had headed the
opposition to Columbus in the Council) suggested that a caravel should be
secretly equipped and sent out, with instructions founded on the plan laid
before the committee. And this piece of episcopal bad faith was actually
perpetrated. The caravel, however, returned without having accomplished
anything, the sailors not having had heart to adventure far enough
westward. It was not an enterprise to be carried out successfully by men
who had only stolen the idea of it.



CHAPTER III. Columbus in Spain.


Columbus, disgusted at the treatment he had received from the Portuguese
Court, quitted Lisbon for Spain, probably in the year 1485, with his son
Diego, the only issue of his marriage with Donna Felipa, now no longer
living. Here he addressed himself to the Duke of Medina Sidonia, and to
the Duke of Medina Celi, whose extensive possessions along the coasts of
Spain were likely to incline them in favour of a maritime expedition.
There is some uncertainty as to the degree of encouragement which he
received from them; but long afterwards, when Columbus had succeeded, the
Duke of Medina Celi wrote to the Cardinal of Spain showing that he (the
duke) had maintained Columbus two years in his house, and was ready to
have undertaken the enterprise, but that he saw it was one for the queen
herself, and even then he wished to have had a part in it. Probably, any