CHAPTER VII

ISABELLA DECIDES


We have now come to that famous Granada interview described in the first
chapter,--a moment so important that Columbus, when he decided to keep a
journal, opened it with this paragraph:--

"In the present year, 1492, after Your Highnesses had concluded that
warfare in the great city of Granada where I saw the royal banners of
Your Highnesses placed by force of arms on the towers of the Alhambra,
and where I beheld the Moorish King go forth from the gates of his
city...."

How Columbus arrived during the surrender we have already seen; how
everybody of importance at the Spanish court--priests, military leaders,
and government officials--gathered to hear him speak; and how, for the
first time, the majority of his listeners were won over to his unpopular
ideas. We know, too, how their admiration turned to distrust when he
demanded large rewards should his voyage of discovery be successful; and
we know how he was obstinate, and rode away, only to be overtaken by the
queen's messenger at Pinos bridge below the high Elvira Mountains and
brought back. And this is how Queen Isabella happened to recall him.

Those friends who had been encouraging him for the last few years were
deeply distressed over his departure and over the bad impression he had
left at court. They felt that their beloved country was losing a
wonderful opportunity of becoming the foremost power in Europe. England,