"No," answered Columbus, with dignity, "their Majesties gave Bobadilla
authority to put me in irons; they alone must issue the authority to
take the irons off."

And so in irons the greatest discoverer the world has ever known made
his sixth crossing of the Atlantic. And in irons he landed in Cadiz in
November, 1500.




CHAPTER XVIII

PUBLIC SYMPATHY


We have just seen Columbus land in chains at Cadiz. We next see him
free, traveling in great splendor to that scene of his first successful
interview with Isabella--Granada. What had happened meanwhile to lift
him out of misery and disgrace? Simply what always happens when a really
great man is too harshly punished, a reaction in the public mind.

In all Spain Columbus had hardly a friend; yet when the people of Cadiz
saw him leave Villejo's ship in chains, they were moved with deepest
sympathy. They began telling each other that, no matter what his faults
might be, he had been the first man deliberately to put out across the
dreaded Atlantic and reveal to the world that land, and not monsters,
lay on the other side. Had any one else ever begged, during seven years,
for the privilege thus to risk his life for the benefit of Spain in
particular, and all mankind in general? Even the Portuguese, greatest of