dinand and Queen Isabella. He was now
so poor that he was frequently obliged to beg as he went along.

About half a league from Palos, a sea-port of Andalusia in Spain, on a
solitary height, overlooking the sea-coast, and surrounded by a forest
of pines, there stood, and now stands at the present day, an ancient
convent of Franciscan friars.

[Illustration]

A stranger, travelling on foot, accompanied by a young boy, stopped one
day at the gate of the convent, and asked of the porter a little bread
and water for his child.--That stranger was Columbus, accompanied by his
son Diego.

While receiving this humble refreshment, the guardian of the convent,
Friar Juan Perez, happening to pass, was taken with the appearance of
the stranger, and being an intelligent man and acquainted with
geographical science, he became interested with the conversation of
Columbus, and was so struck with the grandeur of his project that he
detained him as his guest and invited a friend of his, Martin Alonzo
Pinzon, a resident of the town of Palos, to come and hear Columbus
explain his plan.

Pinzon was one of the most intelligent sea captains of the day, and a
distinguished navigator. He not only approved of his project, but
offered to engage in it, and to assist him.

Juan Perez now advised Columbus to repair to court. Pinzon generously
furnished him with the money for the journey, and the friar kindly took
charge of his youthful son Diego, to maintain and educate him in the
convent, which I am sure you will think was the greatest kindness he
could have done him at that time.

Ferdinand and Isabella gave him hopes and promises, then they made
difficulties and objections, and would do nothing. At last, after
waiting five years, he was just setting off for England, where he had
previously sent his brother Bartholomew, when he was induced to wait a
little longer in Spain.

This little longer was two years, but then at last he had his reward,
for queen Isabella stood his friend, and even offered to part with her
own jewels in order to raise money to enable him to make preparations
for the voyage, so that he contrived to fit out three very small vessels
which altogether carried but one hundred and twenty men.

Two of the vessels were light _barques_, or barges built high at the
prow and stern, with forecastles and cabins for the crew, but were
without deck in the centre; only one of the three, the Santa Maria, was
completely decked; on