at the front in the wars just concluded between
Spaniard and Moor, and where he was, there he expected his squires to
be. There was no place among the youths whose fathers had given him
charge of their military training, for a lad with a grain of physical
cowardice. Ojeda moreover had a quick temper and a fiery sense of honor,
and it really seemed to savor of the miraculous that he had escaped all
harm. At any rate he had reached the age of twenty-one with unabated
faith in the little Flemish painting.

"These youngsters--" the veteran seaman said to himself as he looked at
the straight, proud, keen-faced squires and youthful knights marching
along the streets of the temporary capital, "now that the Moors are
vanquished what won't they do in the Indies! I think the golden days
must be come for Christians. And shall you be a soldier also, my lad?"
he asked of the sharp-faced boy, who still stood near him.

"My father says not. He wants me to be a lawyer," said the youngster
indifferently. Then he slipped away as some companions of his own age,
or a little older, came by, and one said enviously,

"Where have you been, Hernan' Cortes? Lucky you were not with us. My
faith--" the speaker wriggled expressively, "we caught a drubbing!"

"Told you so," returned the lad addressed, with cool unconcern. "Why
can't you see when to let go the cat's tail?"

"He has a head on him, that one," the seaman chuckled. "There is always
one of his sort in every gang of boys. But that young gallant Ojeda! A
fine young fellow, and as devoted as he is brave." Juan de la Cosa had
conceived at first sight an admiration and affection for Ojeda which was
to last as long as they both should live.

The fleet that stately sailed from Cadiz on September 25, 1493, was a
very different sight from the three shabby little caravels that slipped
down the Tinto a year and a half before. The Admiral now commanded
fourteen caravels and three great carracks or store-ships, on board of
which were horses, mules, cattle, carefully packed shoots of grape-vines
and sugar-cane, seeds of all kinds, and provisions ready for use. The
fleet carried nearly fifteen hundred persons,--three hundred more than
had been arranged for, but the enthusiasm in Spain was boundless. It
carried also the embittered hatred of Fonseca. The Bishop, having been
the Queen's confessor, naturally became head of the Department of the
Indies in order to forward with all zeal the conversion of