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5 world. Having fully satisfied himself with respect to the truth of his system, he became impatient to reduce it to practice. The first step towards this was to secure the patronage of some of the European powers. Accordingly, he laid his scheme before the senate of Genoa, making his native country the first offer of his services. They rejected his proposal as the dream of a chimerical projector. He next applied to John II., king of Portugal, a monarch of an enterprising genius, and no incompetent judge of naval affairs. The king listened to him in the most gracious manner, and referred the consideration of his plan to a number of eminent cosmographers, whom he was accustomed to consult in matters of this kind. These men, from mean and interested views, started innumerable objections, and asked many captious questions, on purpose to betray Columbus into a full explanation of his system. Having done this, they advised the king to dispatch a vessel, secretly, in order to attempt the proposed discovery, by following exactly the course which Columbus had pointed out. John, forgetting on this occasion the sentiments becoming a monarch, meanly adopted their perfidious counsel.

Upon discovering this dishonourable transaction, Columbus, with an indignation natural to an ingenuous mind, quitted the kingdom, and landed in Spain in 1484. Here he represented his scheme, in person, to Ferdinand and Isabella, who at that time governed the united kingdoms of Castile and Arragon. They injudiciously submitted it to the examination of unskilful judges, who, ignorant of the principles on which Columbus founded his theory, rejected it