welding poor Spain, long harassed by misrule and war, into a prosperous
nation, that they had neither time nor money for outside ventures.
Certain it is that when Granada was really conquered and they had their
first respite from worry, the man who was known at court as the "mad
Genoese" was summoned to expound his plan of sailing far out into the
west where he was certain of finding new lands.

Where this meeting took place is not known positively, but probably it
was in the palace called the Alhambra, a marvelous monument of Arabian
art which may be visited to-day. Columbus stood long in the exquisite
audience chamber, pleading and arguing fervently; then he came out
dejected, mounted his mule, and rode wearily away from Spain's new city;
for Spain, after listening attentively to his proposals, had most
emphatically refused to aid him. It was surely a sorry reward, you will
say, for his six years' waiting. And yet the man's courage was not
crushed; he started off for France, to try his luck with the French
king.

This is what had happened at the Spanish court. The great navigator
talked clearly and convincingly about the earth being round instead of
flat as most people still supposed; and how, since Europe, Asia, and
Africa covered about six sevenths of the globe's surface, and the
Atlantic Ocean the remaining seventh (here he quoted the prophet
Esdras), [Footnote: "Upon the third day thou didst command that the
waters should be gathered in the seventh part of the earth. Six parts
hast thou dried up and kept them to the intent that of these some being
planted of God and tilled might serve thee.... Upon the fifth day thou
saidst unto the seventh part where the waters were gathered that it
should bring forth living creatures, fowls and fishes, and so it came to
pass." Apocrypha, 2 Esdras vi. 42, 47.] any one by sailing due west must