great dejection of mind, therefore, but without chapter further delay, he quitted the court, and bent his way to the south, with the apparently almost desperate intent of seeking out some other patron to his undertaking.[1]
He prepares to leave Columbus had already visited his native city of Genoa, for the purpose of interesting it in his scheme of discovery ; but the attempt proved unsuccessful. He now made application, it would seem, to the dukes of Medina Sidonia and Medina Celi, successively, from the latter of whom he experienced much kindness and hospitality; but neither of these nobles, whose large estates lying along the sea-shore had often invited them to maritime adventure, was disposed to assume one which seemed too hazardous for the resources of the crown. 1491. Without wasting time in further solicitation, Columbus prepared with a heavy heart to bid adieu to Spain, and carry his proposals to the king of France, from whom he had received a letter of encouragement while detained in Andalusia.[2]
- ↑ Fernando Colon, Hist, del Almirante, cap. 11.—Salazar de Mendoza, Cròn. del Gran Cardenal, p. 215.—Muñoz, Hist, del Nuevo-Mundo, lib. 2, sec. 25, 29. — Navarrete, Coleccion de Viages, tom, i., introd., sec. 60.
- ↑ Herrera, Indias Occidentales, dec. 1, lib. 1, cap. 8.—Muñoz, Hist, del Nuevo-Mundo, lib. 2, sec. 27.—Spotorno, Memorials of Columbus, pp. 31-33.—The last dates the application to Genoa prior to that to Portugal.A letter from the duke of Medina Celi to the cardinal of Spain, dated 19th March, 1493, refers to his entertaining Columbus as his guest for two years. It is very difficult to determine the date of these two years. If Herrera is correct in the statement, that, after a five years' residence at court, whose commencement he had previously referred to 1484, he carried his proposals to the duke of Medina Celi, (see cap. 7, 8,) the two years may have intervened between 1489-1491. Navarrete places them between the departure from Portugal, and the first application to the court of Castile, in 1486. Some other writers, and among them Munoz and Irving,
