maravedis (29,500 dollars). Account-books preserved
in the archives of Simancas show that the sums paid from the
treasury of Castile amounted to 1,140,000 maravedis (67,500
dollars). Assuming the statement of Las Casas to be correct,
the amounts contributed would perhaps have been as follows:--

Queen Isabella, from Castile treasury $67,500
" loan from Santangel 59,000
Columbus 29,500
Other sources, including contribution levied
upon the town of Palos 80,000
--------
Total $236,000

This total seems to me altogether too large for probability,
and so does the last item, which is simply put at the figure
necessary to make the total eight times 29,500. I am inclined
to suspect that Las Casas (with whom arithmetic was not always
a strong point) may have got his figures wrong. The amount of
Santangel's loan also depends upon the statement of Las Casas,
and we do not know whether he took it from a document or from
hearsay. Nor do we know whether it should be added to, or
included in, the first item. More likely, I think, the latter.
The only item that we know with documentary certainty is the
first, so that our statement becomes modified as follows:--

Queen Isabella, from Castile treasury $67,500
" loan from Santangel ?
Columbus ?
{ rent of two fully
Town of Palos { equipped caravels
{ for two months, etc.
----------------------
Total ?

(Cf. Harrisse, tom. i. pp. 391-404.) Unsatisfactory, but
certain as far as it goes. Alas, how often historical
statements are thus reduced to meagreness, after the
hypothetical or ill-supported part has been sifted out! The
story that the Pinzon brothers advanced to Columbus his portion
is told by Las Casas, but