So he appeared before Queen Isabella and her chief men and told them
again of all his plans and desires. The queen and her advisers sat in a
great room in that splendid Alhambra I have told you of. King Ferdinand
was not there. He did not believe in Columbus and did not wish to let
him have either money, ships or sailors to lose in such a foolish way.
But as Columbus stood before her and talked so earnestly about how he
expected to find the Indies and Cathay and what he hoped to bring away
from there, Queen Isabella listened and thought the plan worth trying.

Then a singular thing happened. You would think if you wished for
something very much that you would give up a good deal for the sake of
getting it. Columbus had worked and waited for seventeen years. He had
never got what he wanted. He was always being disappointed. And yet,
as he talked to the queen and told her what he wished to do, he said he
must have so much as a reward for doing it that the queen and her
chief men were simply amazed at his--well, what the boys to-day call
"cheek"--that they would have nothing to do with him. This man really
is crazy, they said. This poor Genoese sailor comes here without a thing
except his very odd ideas, and almost "wants the earth" as a reward.
This is not exactly what they said, but it is what they meant.

His few friends begged him to be more modest. Do not ask so much, they
said, or you will get nothing. But Columbus was determined. I have
worked and waited all these years, he replied. I know just what I can
do and just how much I can do for the king and queen of Spain. They must
pay me what I ask and promise what I say, or I will go somewhere else.
Go, then! said the queen and her advisers. And Columbus turned his back
on what seemed almost his last hope, mounted his mule and rode away.

Then something else happened. As Columbus rode off to find the French
king, sick and tired of all his long and useless labor at the Spanish
court, his few firm friends there saw that, unless they did something
right away, all the glory and all the gain of this enterprise Columbus
had taught them to believe in would be lost to Spain. So two of them,
whose names were Santangel and Quintanilla, rushed into the queen's
room and begged her, if she wished to become the greatest queen in
Christendom, to call back this wandering sailor, agree to his terms and
profit by his labors.

What if he does ask a great deal? they said. He has spen