She was buried in the Monastery
do Carmo, at Lisbon, and some trace of her may hereafter be found in the
archives of the Provedor or Registrar of Wills, at Lisbon, when these
papers are arranged, as she must have bequeathed a sum to the poor,
under the customs then prevailing.

From Cordova, Columbus followed the court to Salamanca, where he was
introduced to the notice of the grand cardinal, Pedro Gonzales de
Mendoza, "the third King of Spain." The cardinal, while approving the
project, thought that it savored strongly of heterodoxy; but an
interview with the projector brought him over, and through his influence
Columbus at last got audience of the King. The matter was finally
referred, however, to Fernando de Talavera, who, in 1487, summoned a
junta of astronomers and cosmographers to confer with Columbus, and
examine his design and the arguments by which he supported it. The
Dominicans of San Esteban in Salamanca entertained Columbus during the
conference. The jurors, who were most of them ecclesiastics, were by no
means unprejudiced, nor were they disposed to abandon their pretensions
to for Spain (1484), taking with him his son Diego, the only issue of
his marriage with Felipa Moniz. He departed secretly, according to some
writers to give the slip to King John, according to others to escape his
creditors. In one of his letters Columbus says: "When I came from such a
great distance to serve these princes, I abandoned a wife and children,
whom, for this cause, I never saw again." The first traces of Columbus
at the court of Spain are on May 5, 1487, when an entry in some accounts
reads: "Given to-day 3,000 maravedis (about $18) to Cristobal Colomo, a
stranger." Three years after (March 20, 1488), a letter was sent by the
King to "Christopher Colon, our especial friend," inviting him to
return, and assuring him against arrest and proceedings of any kind; but
it was then too late.

Columbus next betook himself to the south of Spain, and seems to have
proposed his plan first to the Duke of Medina Sidonia (who was at first
attracted by it, but finally threw it up as visionary and
impracticable), and next to the Duke of Medina Celi. The latter gave him
great encouragement, entertained him for two years, and even determined
to furnish him with the three or four caravels. Finally, however, being
deterred by the consideration that the enterprise was too vast for a
subject, he turned his guest from the determination he had c