CHAPTER IV

THE SOJOURN IN MADEIRA


Columbus had not been very long in Lisbon when he met, at church, a girl
named Felipa Monez Perestrello. Felipa was of noble birth; Christopher
was not; but he was handsome--tall, fair-haired, dignified,--and full of
earnestness in his views of life. Felipa consented to marry him.

Felipa must have been a most interesting companion for a man who loved
voyaging, for she had been born in the Madeiras. Her father, now dead,
had been appointed governor, by Prince Henry, of a little island called
Porto Santo, and Felipa and her mother (with whom the young couple went
to live) had many a tale to tell about that far outpost of the Atlantic.
This is probably what set Christopher yearning for the sea; and so,
about 1479, he and his wife and her mother, Senora Perestrello, all
sailed off for Porto Santo. The Senora must have liked her new son-in-
law's enthusiasm for the sea, for she gave him the charts and
instruments that had belonged to her husband; but as Governor
Perestrello had never been a navigator, these could not have been either
very numerous or very helpful.

From Porto Santo, Columbus made a voyage to Guinea and back; and after
that he and his family went to live on the larger island of Madeira.
There, according to many men who knew Columbus well, the following event
happened.