nd hinted at so early as 1447, upon the
famous mappe-Monde of the Pitti Palace in Florence, whereon Europe
appears projected far round to the northwest. Columbus seems to have
viewed this extension as a sort of yoke joining India to Scandinavia by
the north. He judged that Asia, or at least Cipango, stretched
two-thirds of the way to Europe, India being twice as near westward as
eastward. Thirty or forty days he deemed sufficient for making it.
Toscanelli and Behem as well as he held this belief; he dared boldly to
act upon it.

[Illustration: Queen Isabella of Spain.]

But to do so required resources. There are indications that Columbus at
some time, perhaps more than once, urged his scheme upon Genoa and
Venice. If so it was in vain. Nor can we tell whether such an attempt,
if made, was earlier or later than his plea before the court of
Portugal, for this cannot be dated. The latter was probably in 1484.
King John II. was impressed, and referred Columbus's scheme to a council
of his wisest advisers, who denounced it as visionary. Hence in 1485 or
1486 Columbus proceeded to Spain to lay his project before Ferdinand and
Isabella.

On the way he stopped at a Franciscan convent near Palos, begging bread
for himself and son. The Superior, Marchena, became interested in him,
and so did one of the Pinzons--famous navigators of Palos. The king and
queen were at the time holding court at Cordova, and thither Columbus
went, fortified with a recommendation from Marchena. The monarchs were
engrossed in the final conquest of Granada, and Columbus had to wait
through six weary and heart-sickening years before royal attention was
turned to his cause. It must have been during this delay that he
despatched his brother Bartholomew to England with an appeal to Henry
VII. Christopher had brought Alexander Geraldinus, the scholar, and also
the Archbishop of Toledo, to espouse his mission, and finally, at the
latter's instance, Ferdinand, as John of Portugal had done, went so far
as to convene, at Salamanca, a council of reputed scholars to pass
judgment upon Columbus and his proposition. By these, as by the
Portuguese, he was declared a misguided enthusiast. They were too much
behind the age even to admit the spherical figure of the earth.
According to Scripture, they said, the earth is flat, adding that it was
contrary to reason for men to walk heads downward, or snow and rain to
ascend, or trees to grow with their roots upward.

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