f seas. He first tried his own countrymen
at Genoa, but found none ready to help him. He then went to Portugal,
and submitted his project to John II., who laid it before his council.
It was scouted as extravagant and chimerical. Nevertheless, the king
endeavored to steal Columbus's idea. A fleet was sent forth in the
direction indicated by the navigator, but, being frustrated by storms
and winds, it returned to Lisbon after four days' voyaging.

Columbus returned to Genoa, and again renewed his propositions to the
Republic, but without success. Nothing discouraged him. The finding of
the New World was the irrevocable object of his life. He went to Spain,
and landed at the town of Palos, in Andalusia. He went by chance to a
convent of Franciscans, knocked at the door and asked for a little bread
and water. The prior gratefully received the stranger, entertained him,
and learned from him the story of his life. He encouraged him in his
hopes, and furnished him with an admission to the Court of Spain, then
at Cordova. King Ferdinand received him graciously, but before coming to
a decision he desired to lay the project before a council of his wisest
men at Salamanca. Columbus had to reply, not only to the scientific
arguments laid before him, but to citations from the Bible. The Spanish
clergy declared that the theory of the antipodes was hostile to the
faith. The earth, they said, was an immense flat disk; and if there was
a new earth beyond the ocean, then all men could not be descended from
Adam. _Columbus was considered a fool._

Still bent on his idea, he wrote to the King of England, then to the
King of France, without effect. At last, in 1492, Columbus was
introduced by Louis de Saint Angel to Queen Isabella of Spain. The
friends who accompanied him pleaded his cause with so much force and
conviction that he at length persuaded the queen to aid him.

Lord Ellenborough was a great worker. He had a very hard time in getting
a start at the bar, but was determined never to relax his industry until
success came to him. When he was worked down to absolute exhaustion, he
had this card which he kept constantly before his eyes, lest he might be
tempted to relax his efforts: "Read or Starve."

Show me a man who has made fifty thousand dollars, and I will show you
in that man an equivalent of energy, attention to detail,
trustworthiness, punctuality, professional knowledge, good address,
common sense, and other marketable qua