l productions.

Columbus remained in Barcelona until the twenty-third of May. But before
that time, the important orders for the expedition had been given.
He then went to Cadiz himself, and gave his personal attention to the
preparations. Applications were eagerly pressed, from all quarters, for
permission to go. Young men of high family were eager to try the great
adventure. It was necessary to enlarge the number from that at first
proposed. The increase of expense, ordered as the plans enlarged, did
not please Fonseca. To quarrels between him and Columbus at this time
have been referred the persecutions which Columbus afterwards suffered.
In this case the king sustained Columbus in all his requisitions, and
Fonseca was obliged to answer them.

So rapidly were all these preparations made, that, in a little more than
a year from the sailing of the first expedition, the second, on a scale
so much larger, was ready for sea.

CHAPTER VIII. -- THE SECOND EXPEDITION SAILS

--FROM CADIZ AT CANARY ISLANDS--DISCOVERY OF DOMINICA
AND GUADELOUPE--SKIRMISHES WITH THE CARIBS--PORTO RICO
DISCOVERED--HISPANIOLA--THE FATE OF THE COLONY AT LA NAVIDAD.

There is not in history a sharper contrast, or one more dramatic, than
that between the first voyage of Columbus and the second. In the first
voyage, three little ships left the port of Palos, most of the men of
their crews unwilling, after infinite difficulty in preparation, and in
the midst of the fears of all who stayed behind.

In the second voyage, a magnificent fleet, equipped with all that the
royal service could command, crowded with eager adventurers who are
excited by expectations of romance and of success, goes on the very same
adventure.

In the first voyage, Columbus has but just turned the corner after the
struggles and failures of eight years. He is a penniless adventurer who
has staked all his reputation on a scheme in which he has hardly any
support. In the second case, Columbus is the governor-general, for aught
he knows, of half the world, of all the countries he is to discover;
and he knows enough, and all men around him know enough, to see that his
domain may be a principality indeed.

Success brings with it its disadvantages. The world has learned since,
if it did not know it then, that one hundred and fifty sailors, used to
the hard work and deprivations of a seafaring life, would be a much
more efficient force for purposes of discovery, than a thousa