He sent his
plans for such a voyage to the courts of Portugal and Spain.
The Portuguese, who felt certain that they possessed a monop-
oly of the eastern route, would not listen to his plans. In
Spain, Ferdinand of Aragon and Isabella of Castile, whose
marriage in 1469 had made Spain into a single kingdom, were
busy driving the Moors from their last stronghold, Granada.
They had no money for risky expeditions. They needed every
peseta for their soldiers.
Few people were ever forced to fight as desperately for
their ideas as this brave Italian. But the story of Colombo
(or Colon or Columbus, as we call him,) is too well known to
bear repeating. The Moors surrendered Granada on the second
of January of the year 1492. In the month of April of the
same year, Columbus signed a contract with the King and
Queen of Spain. On Friday, the 3rd of August, he left Palos
with three little ships and a crew of 88 men, many of whom
were criminals who had been offered indemnity of punishment
if they joined the expedition. At two o'clock in the morning
of Friday, the 12th of October, Columbus discovered land. On
the fourth of January of the year 1493, Columbus waved farewell
to the 44 men of the little fortress of La Navidad (none
of whom was ever again seen alive) and returned homeward.
By the middle of February he reached the Azores where the
Portuguese threatened to throw him into gaol.
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