lature, and was favored by the Society for the Preservation of Forests. Under the act of Congress authorizing the reservation of sources of water supply, the President made a proclamation to that effect, Oct. 16, 1891. The White river plateau is described as an undulating table-land, 9,000 to 11,000 feet high, one of the principal sources of water supply for the Grand, White, and Yampa rivers. Considerable opposition has been developed among the people in the region, on the ground that there are both mineral and agricultural lands within the reservation; that there are already many settlers and claims located in it; that the timber lands of the Rio Blanco are all within its boundaries; and that the United States is under contract with the Utes to sell the land at $1.25 an acre and turn the proceeds over to the tribes interested. On the other hand, it is asserted that the land is too high for farming; that there are no valuable mineral claims within it; that the rights of settlers, of whom there are but few, are well secured by the terms of the proclamation; that the preservation of the timber lands is necessary for the water supply; and that without the park all the large game in the State will disappear within twenty years. With regard to the Utes, it appears that the treaty made with them in 1881 stipulated that as fast as the land on this reservation should be sold the amounts realized from it should be placed to their credit to pay for the land to which they were removed, so that if the land is taken for national purposes the present reservation could be turned over to the Utes in payment.

The proposed park has an area of 1,184,480 acres. In winter it is mostly covered with a great depth of snow, but "in summer it is a vast natural garden of luxuriant grass and flowers, groves, parks, crystal lakes and streams, interspersed with odd-shaped peaks and rugged cañons."

The land comprising Lost Park has also been withdrawn from settlement and entry, with a view to its being ultimately set apart as a national park and timber reservation. Lost Park is in Jefferson and Park Counties, and contains approximately 720,000 acres.

The Capitol.-The new Capitol has been more than three years in building. It has employed 560 men, at average wages of $4 for eight hours' labor. The basement, without the storage rooms below, reaches from the outside bottom to the flooring of the first story, a height of 16 feet. The first story is 21 feet, the second 20 feet 4 inches, the third 18 feet 4 inches high. Thirty-two steps, covering a width of 97 feet, with beautiful ornaments on both the sides, lead from the bottom to the flooring of the first floor. The portico has a length of 106 feet and a width of 20 feet 5 inches. Stones were used which have a length of 17 feet, a width of 3 feet 9 inches, and a height of 2 feet 9 inches. They weigh 30,000 pounds. For the building were used 250,000 cubic feet of granite, 160,000,000 bricks, and 450.000 cubic feet of building stone.

Western Congress.-The third session of the Congress of the Western Counties began at Ouray, June 14. The principal subject of discussion was railroad transportation. The rates, it was asserted, are so high as to interfere seriously with the growth of the section. An anti-pool resolution was passed, and also one appropriat

ing $500 for the purpose of enforcing the interstate commerce law in Colorado.

Political.-On April 26 a State convention of free-coinage clubs was held at Denver. Delegates were appointed to the National Silver Convention, to meet at Washington in May. The resolutions below express the aims of the convention:

Whereas, Silver was demonetized in 1878 by fraud and in the interest of the money power of the country; and

Whereas, The circulating medium is not sufficient for the transaction of the ordinary business without the unnecessary payment of gain to the millionaires that have grown up under our system of government; and Whereas, The time has come that, in behalf of the laborers of all classes-the farmer, the mechanic, and the miner-a firm stand must be taken in behalf of honest money; and

Whereas, Silver is the money of the people, and the continued demonetization of it will cause a financial panic more direful in its results than is found in history; therefore, be it

Resolved, That we are in favor of the free and unlimited coinage of silver, first, last, and all the time, as paramount to all other national issues.

Resolved, That the time has come when no longer the division of party should be made upon any party political differences, and that we send greetings to the silver men of the South and all other States and Territories, asking them to meet us upon this proposition for their and our coming good.

Resolved, That it is the sentiment of this convention that the Colorado State conventions of all parties should instruct their delegates to the national conventions held for the purpose of nominating candidates for President and Vice-President to withdraw from said convention if they do not succeed in getting nominees who are unquestionably in favor of the full free-coinage planks in their party platforms, with

remonetization of silver.

On Nov. 8 a Governor and other State officers and two Representatives in Congress were elected, as well as a successor to Chief-Justice Helm, of the Supreme Court, who resigned in September to become a candidate for the office of Governor. At that time also the following proposed amendments to the Constitution of the State were submitted to the electors:

Section 3 of Article X of the Constitution of the State of Colorado shall be amended so as to read as

follows: Section 3. All taxes shall be uniform upon the same class of subjects within the territorial limits of the authority levying the tax, and shall be levied and collected under general laws, which shall prescribe such regulations as shall secure a just valuation for the taxation of all property, real and personal: Provided, that the household goods of every person being the head of a family, to the value of $200, shall be exempt from taxation. Ditches, canals, and flumes owned and used by individuals or corporations for irrigating lands owned by such individuals or corporations, or the individual members thereof, shall not be separately taxed so long as they shall be owned and used exclusively for such purpose; and Provided, further, that the provisions of this section shall not affect such special assessments for benefits and municipal improvements as the corporate authorities of cities, towns, or improvement districts may assess and collect under provisions to be prescribed by law.

SEC. 2. Section 11 of said article shall be amended so as to read as follows: Section 11. The rate of taxa

tion on property for State purposes shall not exceed 4 mills on each dollar of valuation.

The Prohibition party met in May and nominated an entire State ticket. There was some discussion on a proposition to place the words

"recognizing Almighty God" in the preamble of the platform, and the words were finally inserted. The platform contains the following propositions:

The abolition of the saloon; the free and unlimited coinage of silver; abolition of the national banks; Government ownership of railroad, telegraph, and telephone-lines; the election of United States Senators by a popular vote; opposition to State convicts working in the interest of ditch corporations; and a modification of the Australian ballot system, so that a fair and equal consideration shall be bestowed upon both old and new parties."

"

Delegates were appointed to the national convention at Omaha, and a preference was recorded for John P. St. John as candidate for President, and Gilbert De la Matyr for Vice-President. The following was the State ticket: Governor, John Hipp; Lieutenant-Governor, D. W. Barkly; Secretary of State, R. A. Rice; Treasurer, Fred White; State Auditor, L. C. Aley; AttorneyGeneral, J. C. Horne; Superintendent of Schools, A. B. Hyde; Regents of the University, H. H. Bell, Edwin Hungerford. Frank 1. Wilson was the nominee for Justice of the Supreme Court.

The Republican Convention, which met Sept. 8, declared for free silver, and condemned President Harrison for his opposition to free coinage. Joseph C. Helm was nominated for Governor, J. M. Downing for Lieutenant-Governor, E. J. Eaton for Secretary, Harry Mulnix for Treasurer, Harry Tarbell for Auditor, C. S. Libby for Attorney-General, G. B. Timberlake for Superintendent of Public Instruction, George W. Allen for Justice of the Supreme Court, and for Regents of the University, J. Semple and Warren E. Knapp.

The Democratic Convention met at Pueblo in September. The fusionists having gained control in the organization, the "straight" Democrats bolted and held another convention. Following is the ticket of the People's party and the fusionists: For Governor, David H. Waite; for Lieutenant-Governor, D. H. Nichols; for Secretary of State, N. O. McClees; for Treasurer, Albert Nance; for Auditor, F. M. Goodykoontz; for Attorney-General, Eugene Engley; for Regents of the University, D. M. Richards, W. E. Anderson; for Superintendent of Public Instruction, John F. Murray; for Justice of the Supreme Court, Luther M. Goddard.

The bolting Democrats nominated the following ticket: For Governor, Joseph H. Maupin; for Lieutenant-Governor, W. M. McMechen; for Secretary of State, C. B. Noland; for Treasurer, W. E. Hamilton; for Auditor, John H. Fox; for Attorney-General, W. P. Skelton; for Superintendent of Public Instruction, Nathan B. Coy; for Regents of the University, Henry Johnson, Lee Champion; for Justice of the Supreme Court, Luther M. Goddard.

The platform approved the platform and ticket of the Chicago convention, favored the free and unlimited coinage of silver, denounced the employment of detectives to coerce labor, and urged legislation as follows: First, to prevent combinations and monopolies designed to raise the price of coal and other articles of necessity; second, to make eight hours a legal day's work; third, to secure to mechanics, miners, and laborers an effective lien law; fourth, to secure an

equitable employers' liability act; fifth, to prohibit the employment of child labor in mines and factories; sixth, to secure from railway companies fair rates for transportation, and to prevent unjust discrimination.

Earl B. Coe and H. H. Eddy were the nominees of the Republicans for members of Congress, Lafe Pence and John C. Bell of the united People's party and Democrats, John G. Taylor and John D. Bell of Democrats, and N. G. Sprague and I. J. Keator of the Prohibitionists. At the election in November the entire People's party, or fusion ticket, was elected. The Rev. Myron W. Reed, of Denver, was nominated for Congress from the First District by the People's party and both conventions of Democrats. He declined, and Lafe Pence was nominated on the fusion ticket, and John G. Taylor by the straight Democrats. Later in the canvass the names of the Cleveland electors were removed from the State Democratic ticket.

At the election, Nov. 8, the total vote for electors was 93,275, of which the Populists received 52,982, the Republicans 38,614, and the Prohibitionists 1,677. The People's party elected their entire State ticket. Following is the vote for Governor: Helm, 38,812; Maupin, 8,938; Waite, 41,344; Hipp, 1,742. The Republicans will have a small majority in the Legislature.

COLUMBUS, CHRISTOPHER, discoverer, born in Genoa, Italy, about 1446; died in Valladolid, Spain, May 20, 1506. The undisputed statements in the undisputed will of Columbus read: "I also pray the King and Queen, our sovereigns, and their eldest born, Prince Don Juan, our lord, and their successors, for the sake of the services I have done them, and because it is just, that it may please them not to permit this my will and constitution of my entailed estate to be in any way altered, but to leave it in the form and manner which I have ordained forever, for the greater glory of the Almighty, and that it may be the root and basis of my lineage, and a memento of the services I have rendered their highnesses, that, being born in Genoa, I came over to serve them in Castile. . . . I also enjoin Diego, or any one that may inherit the estate, to have and maintain in the city of Genoa one person of our lineage to reside there with his wife, . . . from which great good may accrue to him, inasmuch as I was born there, and came from thence. . . . I command the said Diego, or whoever may possess the said estate, to labor and strive for the honor, welfare, and aggrandizement of the city of Genoa, and to make use of all his power and means in defending and enhancing the good and credit of that republic in all things not contrary to the service of the Church of God, or the high dignity of the King and Queen, our lords, and their successors.”

In view of these words, it seems amazing that the long and involved disputes in regard to the birthplace of Columbus could have arisen. That claims should have been made by other cities was natural, and they had some show of probability, as, for instance, in the case of Placentia, where the family of Columbus owned a small property in the village of Pradello, which was originally held by Bartolino Colombo, great-grandfather of Columbuş, and the rental of which descended to Columbus and his brother. Piedmont was a per

sistent claimant. One Domenico Colombo (identical in name with the father of Columbus) was lord of Cucorro, in Montferrat, at the time of the birth of the discoverer. A claim in law to the estates of Columbus, put forth by a descendant of the lord, only brought forth proof that the father of Columbus was resident in Genoa both before and for many years after the death of the nobleman of the same name. The family of Columbus also possessed a small property at a hamlet called Terra Rosa (or Terras Rubra, in Latin), near the towns of Nervi and Quinto, which have therefore claimed him. A tower at Terra Rosa bore recently the name Torre dei Colombi; and Bartholomew, brother of Christopher, signed himself "of Terra Rubra," in a Latin inscription on a map that he presented to Henry VII of England-a subscription which his nephew says, in the life of his father, his uncle was accustomed to use. Cogoletto claimed Columbus, because two admirals of that name (Colombo), uncle and nephew, were native there. They were probably of distant kindred, for Christopher, in one of his letters, says: "I am not the first admiral of my family." Savona also claimed him, which was natural enough, as Domenico Colombo, father of Christopher, removed to that city, and lived there two or three years. One of her citizens, writing of the claim, says emphatically: "Genoa, most noble city, was the birthplace of Columbus." At the time of Christopher's birth the family were wool carders, which humble business they had followed for generations. From a notary's register, in 1311, it appears that Giacomo Colombo, wool carder, lived outside the gate of St. Andrea. In 1489 Domenico Colombo is recorded as possessing a house and shop, and a garden with a well, in the street of St. Andrew's gate, anciently without the walls, which Irving says was believed to be the same dwelling formerly owned by Giacomo. Signor Staglieno has identified and pictured one of these little rickety houses in the wool-carder's quarter of the modern city of Genoa as the home and probable birthplace of the discoverer. Domenico rented another house, from the monks of St. Stephen, his name being found several times between 1456 and 1459, the last recorded payment being in 1489. He is there called a son of Giovanni Colombo, husband of Susanna Fontanarossa, father of Christopher, Bartholomew, and Diego, a particularity in description that would lead us to conclude that others of the family were on the rent roll of the monks. We know that there were uncles and cousins from whom the fortunes of his life separated the explorer, although his memory recurred to them when, in his will, he laid injunction upon his son to "appoint two persons of conscience and authority, and most nearly related to the family, who are to examine the revenue and cause the said tenth to be paid to the most necessitated members of my family that may be found here or elsewhere."

Whether the noble Colombos and the nautical Colombos and the weaver Colombos were originally one stock, broken asunder by the early feuds of Italy, is of the less consequence, as Columbus in his early struggle certainly never had a helping hand from a rich or powerful relative, never mentions them even when, amid VOL. XXXII-9 A

the taunts of the Spanish lords on the obscurity of his birth, to have proclaimed to them his descent from titled men might have saved the long years of agonized appeal at court or quieted a mutiny in perilous conditions of the New World. If there ever was a self-made man on earth, that man was Christopher Columbus.

6

The only other members of the family were a brother, who probably died young, and a sister, who married Giacomo Baverello, a cheese merchant. It would be very interesting to know something of the two women who especially influenced his early life. Was it an unhappy memory of them, or the long suit he had paid to Queen Isabella, that caused him to say in his will: "This entailed estate shall in no wise be inherited by a woman, except in case that no male is to be found, either in this or any other quarter of the world, of my real lineage. In such an event (which may God forefend), then the female of legitimate birth most nearly related to the preceding possessor of the estate shall succeed to it."

The weavers of Genoa had established schools for themselves outside the city, and at one of these Columbus learned to read and write, becoming proficient in the latter accomplishment. In arithmetic, drawing, and painting he acquired great skill. Somehow the artisan parent managed to send his son for a little while to the then celebrated University of Pavia, where he studied grammar, Latin, geometry, geography, astronomy, and navigation. The writings of Ptolemy had been translated into Latin, while Pliny, Pomponius, Mela, and Strabo had been revived, and the great Arabian astrologers were beginning to be eagerly sought for. Columbus could have had hardly more than time to acquire a love for such studies, for he says that at fourteen years of age he began to navigate. Of his early nautical experiences little is known. The first voyage was that in the armament which Genoa fitted out to help the Duke of Calabria, John of Anjou, in an attack upon Naples to recover that kingdom for his father. Many private ships or galleys joined the expedition.

HOUSE IN WHICH COLUMBUS

LIVED, AS IT IS AT PRESENT.

Among them was that of an admiral of Columbus's own name, with whom he sailed. This man and his nephew, also named Colombo, were well-known seamen, and he was with one or the other of them in many adventures for commerce or conquest. Genoa had then appealed to Louis XI of France, and was under his jurisdiction. Additional proof that Columbus was engaged in naval enterprises at that time-enterprises that sometimes led to conflicts with Spanish shipslies in the fact that Ferdinand calls Columbus a subject of Louis, and Isabella rebukes him for having injured Spanish interests.

In a letter to the King and Queen, later in life, he says incidentally of this period:

It happened to me that King Reinel (whom God has taken to himself) sent me to Tunis to capture the galley "Fernandina," and when I arrived off the island of St. Pedro, in Sardinia, I was informed that there were two ships and a carrack with the galley; by which intelligence my crew were so troubled that they determined to proceed no further, but to return to Marseilles for another vessel and more people. As I could not by any means compel them, I assented apparently to their wishes, altering the point of the compass, and spreading all sail. It was then evening, and next morning we were within the Cape of Carthagena, while all were firmly of opinion that they were sailing toward Marseilles.

Not a glimpse is shown us of the result of this bold method of dealing with a mutinous crew on the part of a captain who must have been young for such command, and as skillful and confident in navigation as he was resolute in spirit. In another letter he mentions the fact that he had been at the island of Scio, and had witnessed the process of getting mastic.

Meantime, in the intervals of his maritime expeditions, Columbus was a bookseller and chartinaker in Genoa. In 1470 he signed a contract to pay a wine merchant $60 for wine that he would take on his vessel to sell. About 1471, when Columbus was twenty-five years old, Domenico Colombo, the father, removed his business and his family to Savona. In a will left two years after that time, by Nicolo Monelone, the 6 witnesses were 3 tailors, 1 bootmaker, 1 cloth dresser, and Christoforo Colombo, weaver, of Genoa. A little later he, with his father, signed an agreement to pay for wool in cloth. These two last transactions must have taken place when Columbus was at his father's house on visits during his naval expeditions; for Oviedo says that when on shore he made maps and charts for the support of his family. He was poor, but gave what he could to his father to educate his brothers. In 1470 Columbus went to Portugal and joined his brother Bartholomew, who was earning a living in Lisbon as a chart draughtsman for the adventurous navigators of that capital. Bartholomew Columbus was an extraordinary man, overshadowed by the more remarkable brother to whom he lent great assistance from the beginning to the close of his life. Prince Henry, the navigator, was pushing his explorations far and near, especially along the coast of Africa. Columbus sailed in many of these expeditions, and afterward said in one of his letters that during this time he sailed east, west, north and south. According to the descriptions given of Columbus, he must have been, at this time, tall, well-formed and muscular. He had a long face, neither lean

nor full, fair and freckled complexion, somewhat ruddy, aquiline nose, rather high cheek bones, light-gray eyes, and light hair, turned white at thirty. His carriage was dignified and lofty, his temper quick, his eyes full of fire and enthusiasm. He was moderate and simple in diet and apparel, eloquent in conversation, and very affable. He was always devoutly religious, and on coming to Lisbon attended services frequently at the chapel of the Convent of All Saints. Here he met Doña Felipa Moñis de Perestrello, who, with other young women of rank, was received as a boarder at the convent. Columbus formed an attachment for her and married her. Her father, Bartolomeo Moñis de Perestrello, was an Italian captain in the service of Prince Henry, to whom the Prince had given the governorship of the island of Porto Santo, of the Madeira group. On the death of the captain soon after their marriage, Columbus and his wife took up their residence with his mother-in-law on the little property bequeathed to her in Porto Santo. Here, in 1474, his son Diego was born, and here Columbus studied the maps and charts of Perestrello, and gleaned from his widow many anecdotes and incidents of his voyages. His wife's sister was married to a noted navigator, Pedro Correo. Columbus had been speculating on these matters, when it was reported to him that Paulo Toscanelli, a savant of Florence, had sent to Fernando Martinez, a learned canon of Lisbon, a letter telling him that by sailing westward he could reach India much quicker than by his proposed route around Africa. He wrote to inquire of Toscanelli, and in reply received a copy of the letter and a map that represented India as lying not far west from the coast of Spain.

In the life of his father, Fernando Columbus gives, as a summary from his father's notes and papers, what he considers to be the causes that acted upon Columbus, and led to his determination: 1, the nature of things; 2, the authority of learned writers; 3, the reports of navigators. Under the first he mentions his father's belief that the earth was a terraqueous globe, which might be traveled round from east to west, and that, when opposite, men stood foot to foot. He divided the circumference from east to west at the equator into twenty-four hours, of 15° each. Of these he thought 15° were known to the ancients. Portugal had advanced the western frontier equal to one hour more. There remained, therefore, 8° unexplored. This space might be nearly filled up with the eastern portion of Asia. Thus, by sailing westward, a navigator would find Asia and any intervening land. Under the second head he mentions Aristotle, Seneca, Pliny, Strabo, the travels of Marco Polo and John Mandeville, as believing that the space was not great between the land washed by the other extremity of the one known ocean. Under the last head he mentions signs of land, and even of civilization, that had been washed upon islands, or upon the mainland of Europe. He had a memorandum of these latter trophiesreeds, such as he believed to be described by Eastern travelers, trunks of foreign trees, carved wood, a strange iron instrument, bodies of two men of unknown race, reports of mariners of land seen at the westward, as well as the rumors of fancied islands-islands, indeed, which Tosca

nelli sprinkled liberally in his map as being convenient stopping places on the comparatively short route to Asia.

The riches of the Orient, dwelt upon by the travelers, were also pictured afresh in the letters of Toscanelli. It was a time of wild rumor and fantastic faith in regard to the unknown lands supposed to be hidden by the sea. The Antilla, the Seven Cities, and many other islands, lived firmly in fancy, while the unseen "Island of St. Brandon" was not only set down on the maps, but estates on it were given by princes to subjects who set out to take possession of a home that forever retreated with the margin of the sea. Columbus noted all these; but he said, especially in regard to St. Brandon, which the people of the Canary islands described as being often distinctly visible, that the mirage might have come from rocks lying in the ocean, or floating islands of twisted roots and light, porous stone, often with trees upon them, driven about the ocean by winds. Visionary in regard to mental phenomena, Columbus, though imaginative, as all genius must be, was sternly practical in regard to physical phenomena. One of the points of deepest interest in his career is the fact that his was no random or accidental disIt was founded on carefully considered knowledge, and carried out according to the most advanced scientific methods. That the knowledge was incorrect, and the science in part deceptive, does not in the least militate against the value to human progress of that element in the undertaking. It was better for the cause of the human intellect that savage America should have been discovered in that way than that the wealth of the Indies should have been hit upon by accident. Meantime he was gaining practical experience as a navigator. Of one of his Voyages at this time he afterward writes to his

covery.

son:

In the year 1477, in February, I navigated 100 leagues beyond Thule, the southern part of which is 73" distant from the equator, and not 63°, as some pretend; neither is it situated within the line which includes the west of Ptolemy, but is much more westerly. The English, principally those of Bristol, go with their merchandise to this island, which is as large as England. When I was there the sea was not frozen, and the tides were so great as to rise and fall 26

fathoms.

It was about the year 1474 that Columbus formed his conclusion that the land at the east could be reached by sailing westward. While that was a startling step in advance of those who still hooted at the idea that the earth was round, the attempt to reach it was far from feasible even to the adventurous navigator's fancy. Although the compass was in use, sailors had navigated far enough toward the equator to know that the north star was seen in a different quarter while a guide in the southern heavens had not been sought and was not known. Land in easy reach had been thus far the only safety for the mariner. A hint of the difficulties through which Columbus had worked his own way to his conclusion may be gained if we pause to remember that in all his calculations this earth was the center of the solar system. Although Copernicus was born, the most daring students of geography and astronomy had not yet got far

beyond the opinion of the old Arabian writer Xerif al Edrisi: "The ocean encircles the ultimate bounds of the inhabited earth, and all beyond it is unknown. There is no mariner who dares to enter into its deep waters; or, if any have done so, they have merely kept along its coasts, fearful of departing from them. The waves of this ocean, although they roll as high as mountains, yet maintain themselves without breaking; for if they broke, it would be impossible for ship to plow them."

Meantime, while Columbus was nursing his secret project and strengthening his conclusions by every means in his power, King John II of Portugal was endeavoring to further the great scheme that Prince Henry had bequeathed to him and to the Portuguese people, to find a route to China round the shores of Africa. In furtherance of this, he called a council of the most learned scientific men of the kingdom, and as a result of this conference the astrolabe was applied to navigation, and henceforth the sailor was able, from the altitude of the sun, to ascertain his distance from the equator. This discovery allowed the mariner to forget the land, and by the sun and stars to map his course on the hitherto hopelessly wide waste of waters. To Columbus this was the final fact, and without the least hesitation he offered himself and his great enterprise at the court of Portugal.

King John received his proposition, that, if the King would furnish him with ships and men, he would sail by a shorter route, cross the Atlantic to the island of Cipango (Japan), at which he should expect first to arrive; and the reasons for this belief were fully set forth to the monarch. John called a council, in which were two able cosmographers, and the council agreed that the project was visionary and absurd. The Bishop of Ceuta took occasion to say that the whole business of discovery was detrimental to the interests of the country, and that Christian wars against the infidel Moors would be much more profitable. This drew from a distinguished courtier, Count of Villa Real, not of the council, a reply, from which the following is an abstract: Portugal is not in its infancy, nor are its princes so poor as to lack means to engage in discoveries. Even granting that those proposed by Columbus are conjectural, why should they abandon those begun by the late Prince Henry? It would be the greatest laud for Portuguese valor to penetrate into the secrets and horrors of the ocean sea, so formidable to the other nations of the world. Great souls were born for great enterprises. He wondered much that a prelate so religious as the Bishop of Ceuta should oppose this undertaking, the ultimate object of which was to augment the Catholic faith and spread it from pole to pole. He ended by saying that, although a soldier, he dared to prognosticate with a voice and spirit as if from heaven, to whatever prince should achieve this enterprise, more happy success and durable renown than had ever been obtained by sovereign the most valorous and fortunate.

His words were echoed with enthusiasm, and the King showed to his confessor such an evident desire to try the wondrous plan set forth by Columbus, that the bishop suggested its trial in a way that would secure the advantage if success