Page:History of the Reign of Ferdinand and Isabella the Catholic Vol. II.djvu/202

178 178 RETURN OF COLUMBUS. PART embarrassment now arose from the difficulty of se- — ^ lection among the multitude of competitors, who pressed to be enrolled in the present expedition. The reports and sanguine speculations of the first adventurers had inflamed the cupidity of many, which was still further heightened by the exhibition of the rich and curious products which Columbus had brought back with him, and by the popular be- lief that the new discoveries formed part of that gorgeous east, " whose caverns teem With diamond flaming, and with seeds of gold," and which tradition and romance had alike invested with the supernatural splendors of enchantment. Many others were stimulated by the wild love of adventure, kindled in the long Moorish war, but which, now excluded from that career, sought other objects in the vast, untravelled regions of the New World. The complement of the fleet was original- ly fixed at twelve hundred souls, which, through importunity or various pretences of the applicants, was eventually swelled to fifteen hundred. Among these were many who enlisted without compensa- tion, including several persons of rank, hidalgos, and members of the royal household. The w^hole squadron amounted to seventeen vessels, three of them of one hundred tons' burden each. With this gallant navy, Columbus, dropping down the Gua- dalquivir, took his departure from the bay of Cadiz, on the 25th of September, 1493 ; presenting a striking contrast to the melancholy plight, in which, but the year previous, he sallied forth like some