war should terminate.




CHAPTER VI

A RAY OF HOPE


Until the Moorish war should end!

Imagine the disappointment of this man who had been trying for years to
prove that lands lay far across the Atlantic, yet no one cared enough
about his grand idea to give him a few ships! Who could tell when the
Moorish war would end? And who could tell whether it would end in favor
of the Spanish? Why, he must have asked himself, should he, no longer
young, wait to see?

Accordingly, in the spring of 1488 he wrote, so he says, to the king of
Portugal asking permission to return. King John not only invited him to
come back, but promised that no one should be allowed to bring any
lawsuit against him. This refers, perhaps, to the sums Columbus had
borrowed for trading purposes and had lost. About the same time came a
message from the English king, whom Bartholomew Columbus had visited.
Neither letter contained any definite promise of assistance; but the
mere fact that other countries were interested caused Ferdinand and
Isabella some anxiety. They must have considered how humiliating it
would be for them to turn away this opportunity that was knocking at
their door, and send it to rival kingdoms. They decided, war or no war,