d Father Buil, and with his missionaries moved up the beach.

Luis and I began to talk. "No need to tell me that Spain gave you
welcome!"'

"The royalest ever! First we came to Lisbon, driven in by storm, and had
it there from King John, and then to Palos which, so to speak, went mad!
Then through Spain to Barcelona, where was the court, and all the bells
in every town ringing and every door and window crowded, and here is
the Faery Prince on a white charger, his Indians behind him and gold
and parrots and his sailors! Processions and processions--alcalde and
alcayde and don and friar and priest, and let us stop at the church
and kneel before high altar, and vow again in seven years to free the
Sepulchre! He hath walked and ridden, waked and slept, in a great, high
vision! Most men have visions but he can sustain vision."

"Aye, he can!"

"So at last into Barcelona, where grandees meet us, and so on to the
court, and music as though the world had turned music! And the King and
Queen and great welcome, and, 'Sit beside us, Don Cristoval Colon!' and
'Tell and tell again', and 'Praise we Most High God!'"

"It is something for which to praise! Ends of the earth beginning to
meet."

"Aye! So we write that very night to the Pope to be confirmed that the
glory and profit under God are to Castile and Aragon. But the Queen
thought most of the heathen brought to Christ. And the Admiral thinks of
his sons and his brothers and his old father, and of the Holy Sepulchre
and of the Prophecies, and he has the joy of the runner who touches
the goal!--I would you could have seen the royalty with which he was
treated--not one day nor week but a whole summer long--the flocking,
the bowing and capping, the 'Do me the honor--', the 'I have a small
petition.' Nothing conquers like conquering!"

"He had long patience."

"Aye. Well, he is at height now. But he has got with him the old
disastrous seeds.--Fifteen hundred men, and among them quite a plenty
like Gutierrez and Escobedo! But there are good men, too, and a great
lot of romantical daredevils. No pressing this time! We might have
brought five thousand could the ships have held them. 'Come to the
Indies and make your fortune!'--'Aye, that is my desire!'"

I said, "I am looking now at a romantical daredevil whom I have seen
before, though I am sure that he never noticed me."

"Don Alonso de Ojeda? He is feather in cap, and sometimes cap, and even
at stress head within the cap!