HIS APPLICATION AT THE COURT. 127 nesses to grant to a needy foreign adventurer." chapter Columbus, however, steadily resisted every attempt ' to induce him to modify his propositions. On this ground, the conferences were abruptly broken ofij and he once more turned his back upon the Spanish court, resolved rather to forego his splendid antici- pations of discovery, at the very moment when the career so long sought was thrown open to him, than surrender one of the honorable distinctions due to his services. This last act is perhaps the most remarkable exhibition in his whole life, of that proud, unyielding spirit, which sustained him through so many years of trial, and enabled him at length to achieve his great enterprise, in the face of every obstacle which man and nature had op- posed to it.^^ The misunderstanding was not suffered to be of ^IJprXI^"' long duration. Columbus's friends, and especially '^'=p°*"'°"' Louis de St. Angel, remonstrated with the queen on these proceedings in the most earnest manner. He frankly told her, that Columbus's demands, if high, were at least contingent on success, when they would be well deserved ; that, if he failed, he required nothing. He expatiated on his qualifica- tions for the undertaking, so signal as to insure in all probability the patronage of some other monarch, who would reap the fruits of his discoveries ; and he ventured to remind the queen, that her present policy was not in accordance with the magnanimous spirit, which had hitherto made her the ready patron 22 Muiioz, Hist, del Neuvo-Mun- Colon, Plist. del Almirante, ubi do, lib. 3, sec. 28, 29. — Fernando supra.
