ese capital, Columbus took up his abode, busying
himself with the papers of his deceased father-in-law, and earning a
livelihood by making maps and charts for sale. It is a curious fact that
the great chief of American discoverers should thus have inhabited a spot
which was the first advanced outpost in African discovery. He was here on
the high road to Guinea, and being in constant communication with the
explorers of the new regions, it was likely that he would become imbued
with some of their enthusiasm for adventure.

THE BISHOP OF CEUTA; RETURN OF THE CARAVEL.

Shrouded in obscurity as this period of his life remains, we are only able
to find vague traditions of the unsuccessful effort which Columbus
made to induce the Senate of Genoa to take up his project. From the
Portuguese crown he could scarcely look for help, embroiled as it was in
costly wars, and having already a field for discovery along the African
coast, which it would scarcely be wise to forsake for an undertaking
similar in kind, but more hazardous and less definite. However, King John
the Second, to whom Columbus applied, seems to have listened with
attention to the exposition of his scheme, and indeed, according to the
account of Fernando, to have given a sort of qualified promise of his
support, but to have disagreed with Columbus as to terms. The king
referred the matter to a Committee of Council for Geographical Affairs,
before whom Columbus laid his plans; but it is possible that even in the
fifteenth century Boards had come to regard projectors as their natural
enemies, and the report of the Committee was entirely adverse to the
scheme for Atlantic discovery. But it seems that the king, was not
satisfied yet, whereupon the Bishop of Ceuta (who had headed the
opposition to Columbus in the Council) suggested that a caravel should be
secretly equipped and sent out, with instructions founded on the plan laid
before the committee. And this piece of episcopal bad faith was actually
perpetrated. The caravel, however, returned without having accomplished
anything, the sailors not having had heart to adventure far enough
westward. It was not an enterprise to be carried out successfully by men
who had only stolen the idea of it.

CHAPTER III. Columbus in Spain.

Columbus, disgusted at the treatment he had received from the Portuguese
Court, quitted Lisbon for Spain, probably in the year 1485, with his son
Diego, the only issue of his marriage