half. He had
not accomplished a single thing he set out to do. He had met with
disappointment and disaster over and over again, and had left the four
ships that had been given him a total wreck upon the shores of Jamaica.
He came back poor, unsuccessful, unnoticed, and so ill that he could
scarcely get ashore.

And so the fourth voyage of the great Admiral ended. It was his last.
His long sickness had almost made him crazy. He said and did many odd
things, such as make us think, nowadays, that people have, as we call
it, "lost their minds." But he was certain of one thing--the king and
queen of Spain had not kept the promises they had made him, and he was
determined, if he lived, to have justice done him, and to make them do
as they said they would.

They had told him that only himself or one of his family should be
Admiral of the Ocean Seas and Viceroy of the New Lands; they had sent
across the water others, who were not of his family, to govern what he
had been promised for his own. They had told him that he should have a
certain share of the profits that came from trading and gold hunting in
the Indies; they had not kept this promise either, and he was poor when
he was certain he ought to be rich.

So, when he was on land once more, he tried hard to get to court and see
the king and queen. But he was too sick.

He had got as far as beautiful Seville, the fair Spanish city by the
Guadalquivir, and there he had to give up and go to, bed. And then came
a new disappointment. He was to lose his best friend at the court. For
when he had been scarcely two weeks in Spain, Queen Isabella died.

She was not what would be considered in these days either a particularly
good woman, or an especially good queen. She did many cruel things; and
while she talked much about doing good, she was generally looking out
for herself most of all. But that was not so much her fault as the fault
of the times in which she lived. Her life was not a happy one; but she
had always felt kindly toward Columbus, and when he was where he could
see her and talk to her, he had always been able to get her to side with
him and grant his wishes.

Columbus was now a very sick man. He had to keep his bed most of the
time, and this news of the queen's death made him still worse, for he
felt that now no one who had the "say" would speak a good word for the
man who had done so much for Spain, and given to the king and queen the
chance to make their nation