"You might as well expect to find land in the sky," they said,
"as in those terrible waters."

And when, in this way, Columbus found out that King John had tried to
use his ideas without letting him know anything about it, he was very
angry. His wife had died in the midst of this mean trick of the
Portuguese king, and so, taking with him his little five-year-old son,
Diego, he left Portugal secretly and went over into Spain.

Near the little town of Palos, in western Spain, is a green hill looking
out toward the Atlantic. Upon this hill stands an old building that,
four hundred years ago, was used as a convent or home for priests. It
was called the Convent of Rabida, and the priest at the head of it was
named the Friar Juan Perez. One autumn day, in the year 1484, Friar Juan
Perez saw a dusty traveler with a little boy talking with the
gate-keeper of the convent. The stranger was so tall and fine-looking,
and seemed such an interesting man, that Friar Juan went out and began
to talk with him. This man was Columbus.

As they talked, the priest grew more and more interested in what
Columbus said. He invited him into the convent to stay for a few days,
and he asked some other people--the doctors of Palos and some of the sea
captains and sailors of the town--to come and talk with this stranger
who had such a singular idea about sailing across the Atlantic.

It ended in Columbus's staying some months in Palos, waiting for a
chance to go and see the king and queen. At last, in 1485, he set out
for the Spanish court with a letter to a priest who was a friend of
Friar Juan's, and who could help him to see the king and queen.

At that time the king and queen of Spain were fighting to drive out of
Spain the people called the Moors. These people came from Africa, but
they had lived in Spain for many years and had once been a very rich and
powerful nation. They were not Spaniards; they were not Christians. So
all Spaniards and all Christians hated them and tried to drive them out
of Europe.

The king and queen of Spain who were fighting the Moors were named
Ferdinand and Isabella. They were pretty good people as kings and queens
went in those days, but they did a great many very cruel and very mean
things, just as the kings and queens of those days were apt to do. I am
afraid we should not think they were very nice people nowadays. We
certainly should not wish our American boys and girls to look up to them
as good and true a