And now, finally, Columbus determined to go to France, and indeed had
actually set off one day in January of the year 1492, when Luis de
Santangel, receiver of the ecclesiastical revenues of the crown of Aragon,
a person much devoted to the plans of Columbus, addressed the queen with
all the energy that a man throws into his words when he is aware that it
is his last time for speaking in favour of a thing which he has much at
heart. He told her that he wondered that, as she always had a lofty mind
for great things, it should be wanting to her on this occasion. He
endeavoured to pique her jealousy as a monarch, by suggesting that the
enterprise might fall into the hands of other princes. Then he said
something in behalf of Columbus himself, and the queen was not unlikely to
know well the bearing of a great man. He intimated to her highness that
what was an impossibility to the cosmographers, might not be so in nature.
Nor, continued he, should any endeavour in so great a matter be attributed
to lightness, even though the endeavour should fail; for it is the part of
great and generous princes to ascertain the secrets of the world. Other
princes (he did not mention those of neighbouring Portugal) had gained
eternal fame this way. He concluded by saying that all the aid Columbus
wanted to set the expedition afloat, was but a million of maravedis
(equivalent to about 308 Pounds, English money of the period); and that so
great an enterprise ought not to be abandoned for the sake of such a
trifling sum.


SUCCESS OF THE ADDRESS.

These well addressed arguments, falling in, as they did, with those of
Quintanilla, the treasurer, who had great influence with the queen,
prevailed. She thanked these lords for their counsel, and said she would
adopt it, but they must wait until the finances had recovered a little