quickly determine how many islands there really are, and whether what I
last visited was the mainland; only, pray let me hasten back free from
every responsibility except that of a navigator; so that I, who so
justly deserve the first chance of exploring the new lands, may get
there ahead of these others who are clamoring to go."

Had Columbus been businesslike enough to make this proposition to the
monarchs, he need not have died in ignorance of the prodigious fact that
he had discovered a great continent undreamed-of by Europeans. But,
instead of renouncing his monopoly, he complained that licenses had been
granted to others to sail west in violation of the agreement that he
alone, and his descendants after him, should sail among the new lands.
This attitude annoyed King Ferdinand exceedingly.

For Columbus to hope to keep this monopoly in his own family was
madness; as by this time other countries, having heard of his opening up
the way, had sent out explorers to plant their standards. John and
Sebastian Cabot had gone out from Bristol, England, to Newfoundland, and
had discovered, in June, 1497, the North American continent before
Columbus had touched South America. Early in 1499 one of the pilots who
had accompanied Columbus on his Cuban trip secured a license, and not
only explored the Central American coast for several hundred miles, but
traded his European trifles and gewgaws with the natives for gold and
silver, returning to Spain with real profits.

That same year, 1499, Vicente Pinzon of Palos, who with his brother
Martin had made the first voyage, also secured a license and sailed
southwest over the equator, discovering the Amazon River and taking
possession of Brazil for Spain. Our adventurous acquaintance Ojeda also
had been busy. When the Paria pearls arrived in Sevilla, he asked his