tnote 423: The date 1470 rests upon a letter of Columbus to
King Ferdinand of Aragon in May, 1505. He says that God must
have directed him into the service of Spain by a kind of
miracle, since he had already been in Portugal, whose king was
more interested than any other sovereign in making discoveries,
and yet God closed his eyes, his ears, and all his senses to
such a degree that _in fourteen years_ Columbus could not
prevail upon him to lend aid to his scheme. "Dije
milagrosamente porque fui a aportar a Portugal, adonde el Rey
de alli entendia en el descubrir mas que otro: el le atajo la
vista, oido y todos los sentidos, que en catorce anos no le
pude hacer entender lo que yo dije." Las Casas, _op. cit._ tom.
iii. p. 187; Navarrete, tom. iii. p. 528. Now it is known that
Columbus finally left Portugal late in 1484, or very early in
1485, so that fourteen years would carry us back to before 1471
for the first arrival of Columbus in that country. M. Harrisse
(_op. cit._ tom. i. p. 263) is unnecessarily troubled by the
fact that the same person was not king of Portugal during the
whole of that period. Alfonso V. (brother of Henry the
Navigator) died in 1481, and was succeeded by his son John II.;
but during a considerable part of the time between 1475 and
1481 the royal authority was exercised by the latter. Both
kings were more interested in making discoveries than any other
European sovereigns. Which king did Columbus mean? Obviously
his words were used loosely; he was too much preoccupied to be
careful about trifles; he probably had John in his mind, and
did not bother himself about Alfonso; King Ferdinand, to whom
he was writing, did not need to have such points minutely
specified, and could understand an elliptical statement; and
the fact stated by Columbus was simply that during a residence
of fourteen years in Portugal he had not been able to enlist
even that enterprising government in behalf of his novel
scheme.

In the town archives of Savona we find Christopher Columbus
witnessing a document March 20, 1472, endorsing a kind of
promissory note for his father August 26, 1472, and joining
with h