Page:History of merchant shipping and ancient commerce (Volume 1).djvu/613

 de Marchena, happening to pass at the time, was struck with the dignified, careworn, and poverty-stricken appearance of the stranger, and, entering into conversation with him, soon ascertained the leading incidents of his life, and the object of his visit to Spain. The prior himself, a man of extensive information, who had already paid some attention to geographical and nautical science, detained Columbus as his guest, at the same time sending for a scientific friend, Garcia Fernandez (to whom we are indebted for this account), to converse with him; and, in the end, the prior's first impressions were in some measure confirmed by the ancient mariners of Palos, for they, too, had heard of strange and rich lands beyond the setting sun. The earnest manner of Columbus, and his extensive knowledge made, day by day, an increasing impression on the prior and his friends, till at length in the spring of 1485, when the Spanish court had reached the ancient city of Cordova with the view of prosecuting the war against the Moorish kingdom of Granada, Columbus, furnished with letters of introduction from the worthy prior, determined to lay his grand scheme before Ferdinand and Isabella.

Nearly a year elapsed, however, before Columbus was enabled to obtain an audience with the sovereigns, and even then his troubles were not overcome. The king referred his project for consideration to a body of "learned men," who met in the Dominican convent of St. Stephen in Salamanca; and although at this convent Columbus was hospitably entertained during the course of the inquiry, his theory was received with incredulity. Nor, indeed, was this surprising. An obscure mariner and a