Page:History of the Reign of Ferdinand and Isabella the Catholic Vol. II.djvu/189

165 sovereigns. SECOND VOYAGE. 165 been reserved only for rank, or fortune, or military chapter success, purchased by the blood and tears of thou- sands, were, in his case, a homage to intellectual power, successfully exerted in behalf of the noblest interests of humanity. " After a brief interval, the sovereigns requested ^/th'Tlfe' from Columbus a recital of his adventures. His manner was sedate and dignified, but warmed by the glow of natural enthusiasm. He enumerated the several islands which he had visited, expatiated on the temperate character of the climate, and the capacity of the soil for every variety of agricultural production, appealing to the samples imported by him, as evidence of their natural fruitfulness. He dwelt more at large on the precious metals to be found in these islands, which he inferred, less from the specimens actually obtained, than from the uni- form testimony of the natives to their abundance in the unexplored regions of the interior. Lastly, he pointed out the wide scope afforded to Christian zeal, in the illumination of a race of men, whose minds, far from being wedded to any system of idolatry, were prepared by their extreme simplicity for the reception of pure and uncorrupted doctrine. The last consideration touched Isabella's heart most sensibly ; and the whole audience, kindled with various emotions by the speaker's eloquence, filled 11 Peter Martyr, Opus Epist., supra. — Zuniga, Annales de Se- epist. 133, 134:, 140. — Bernaldez, villa, p. 413.— Gomara, Hist, de Reyes Catolicos, MS,, cap. 118. las Indias, cap. 17. — Benzoni, — Ferreras, Hist. d'Espagne, torn. Novi Orbis Hist., lib. 1, cap. 8, 9. viii. pp. 141, 142. — Fernando — Gallo, apud Muratori Rerum Colon, Hist, del Almirante, ubi Ital. Script., torn, xxiii. p. 203.