to the transaction of any affair in which many persons have to cooperate,
compares the suit of Columbus to a battle, "a terrible, continuous,
painful, prolix battle." The tide of this long war (for war it was, rather
than a battle) having turned against him, Columbus left the court, and
went to Seville "with much sadness and discomfiture." During this dreary
period of a suitor's life--which, however, has been endured by some of the
greatest men the world has seen, which was well known by close
observation, or bitter experience, to Spenser, Camoens, Cervantes,
Shakespeare, Bacon--one joy at least was not untasted by Columbus,
namely, that of love. His beloved Beatrice, whom he first met at Cordova,
must have believed in him, even if no one else had done so; but love was
not sufficient to retain at her side a man goaded by a great idea, or
perhaps that love did but impel him to still greater efforts for her sake,
as is the way with lovers of the nobler sort.


ENCOURAGEMENT OF FRIENDS; GARCIA HERNANDEZ.

Other friends, too, shared his enthusiasm, and urged him onward. Juan
Perez de la Marchena, guardian of the monastery of La Rabida, in
Andalusia, had been the confessor of Queen Isabella, but had exchanged the
bustle of the court for the learned leisure of the cloister. The little
town of Palos, with its seafaring population and maritime interests, was
near the monastery, and the principal men of the place were glad to pass
the long winter evenings in the society of Juan Perez, discussing
questions of cosmography and astronomy. Among these visitors were Martin
Alonzo Pinzon, the chief shipowner of Palos, and Garcia Hernandez, the
village doctor; and one can fancy how the schemes of Columbus must have
appeared to the little conclave as a ray of sunlight in the dulness of
their simple life. Hernandez, especially, who seems to have been somewhat