by the admiral in
favour of his proposed undertaking, that the only remaining difficulty was
in complying with the terms my father demanded for himself in case of
success: For my father, who was a man of a noble and dignified spirit,
insisted upon conditions which should redound to his honour and reputation;
being resolved to leave behind him such a reputation, and so considerable
a family as he deemed due to his merits and the actions which he
confidently expected to perform.

While matters were in this train, by the advice of one Doctor Calzadilla
in whom he reposed great confidence, the king of Portugal resolved to
dispatch a caravel in secret to attempt making the discovery which my
father had proposed to him; as, if he could make the discovery in this
clandestine manner, he should be freed from the obligation of bestowing
any great reward on the occasion. Accordingly, a caravel was fitted out
under pretence of carrying supplies to the Cape Verd islands, with private
instructions to sail in the direction in which my father had proposed to
go upon his intended discovery. But the people who were sent upon this
expedition did not possess sufficient knowledge or spirit; and, after
wandering many days in the Atlantic, they returned to the Cape Verd
islands, laughing at the undertaking as ridiculous and impracticable, and
declaring that there could not possibly be any land in that direction or
in those seas. When this scandalous underhand dealing came to my fathers
ears, he took a great aversion to Lisbon and the Portuguese nation; and,
his wife being dead, he resolved to repair into Castile, with his son Don
James Columbus, then a little boy, who has since inherited his fathers
estate. But, lest the sovereign of Castile might not consent to his
proposal, and he might be under the necessity of applying to some other
prince, by which much time might be lost, he dispatched his brother
Bartholomew Columbus from Lisbon to make similar proposals to the king of
England. Bartholomew, though no Latin scholar, was skilful and experienced
in sea affairs, and had been instructed by the admiral in the construction
of sea charts, globes, and other nautical instruments. While on his way to
England, Bartholomew Columbus had the misfortune to be taken by pirates,
who stript him and all the rest of the ships company of every thing they
had of value. On this account he arrived in England in such great poverty,
and that aggravated by sickne