d he impress the Sovereigns with his assurance that this time
the thing amounted to what is vulgarly called "a dead certainty," that
they promised him he should have his ships.

But promise and performance, as no one knew better than Columbus, are
different things; and it was a long while before he got his ships. There
was the usual scarcity of money, and the extensive military and
diplomatic operations in which the Crown was then engaged absorbed every
maravedi that Ferdinand could lay his hands on. There was an army to be
maintained under the Pyrenees to keep watch over France; fleets had to be
kept patrolling both the Mediterranean and Atlantic seaboards; and there
was a whole armada required to convey the princesses of Spain and Austria
to their respective husbands in connection with the double matrimonial
alliance arranged between the two countries. And when at last, in
October 1496, six million maravedis were provided wherewith Columbus
might equip his fleet, they were withdrawn again under very mortifying
circumstances. The appropriation had just been made when a letter
arrived from Pedro Nino, who had been to Espanola and come back again,
and now wrote from Cadiz to the Sovereigns, saying that his ships were
full of gold. He did not present himself at Court, but went to visit his
family at Huelva; but the good news of his letter was accepted as an
excuse for this oversight.

No one was better pleased than the Admiral. "What did I tell you?" he
says; "you see the mines of Hayna are paying already." King Ferdinand,
equally pleased, and having an urgent need of money in connection with
his operations against France, took the opportunity to cancel the
appropriation of the six million maravedis, giving Columbus instead an
order for the amount to be paid out of the treasure brought home by Nino.
Alas, the mariner's boast of gold had been a figure of speech. There was
no gold; there was only a cargo of slaves, which Nino deemed the
equivalent of gold; and when Bartholomew's despatches came to be read he
described the affairs of Espanola as being in very much the same
condition as before. This incident produced a most unfortunate
impression. Even Columbus was obliged to keep quiet for a little while;
and it is likely that the mention of six million maravedis was not
welcomed by him for some time afterwards.

After the wedding of Prince Juan in March 1497, when Queen Isabella had
more time to give to externa