"Pope Martin V.," he reminded his visitor, "conceded to the Crown of
Portugal all lands that might be discovered between Cape Bojador and the
Indies, and your new discovery therefore belongs to me rather than to
Spain."

"Quite right," murmured his courtiers. Then, when Columbus declared he
had sailed west and not south, that Spain herself had warned him to keep
clear of Portugal's possessions, and that the lands he had discovered
were merely Atlantic islands, they all insisted that "the Indies were
the Indies, and belonged by papal authority to Portugal!"

Oh, those shifting, indiscriminate, fifteenth-century Indies which
Europe invented to explain the unknown world! What misunderstandings
resulted from the vague term! Columbus, again tactful, stopped boasting
now, and merely observed that he had never heard of this papal treaty,
and that the monarchs would have to settle it between themselves. Then
he took his departure, with every show of kindliness from the king,
including a royal escort. The minute he was gone those courtly, crafty
heads all got together and told the king that most likely the man was
merely a boaster, but, lest he might have discovered territory for
Spain, why not hurriedly send out a Portuguese fleet to seize the new
islands ere Spain could make good her claim? Some even whispered
something about assassination.

Let us hope that King John turned a deaf ear to them. At any rate,
Columbus was not assassinated, perhaps because he thought it safer to
trust to his battered little _Nina_ than to cross Portugal by land.
Hurrying aboard, he hoisted anchor and started for Palos.

It was on a Friday that Columbus had left Palos; it was likewise on