s from the king of Portugal to the governors of his various
islands. If Columbus had gone ashore he would probably have been
arrested himself. As it was, he took such a high tone and threatened to
such good purpose that the governor of St. Mary was fain to give up his
prisoners for fear of bringing on another war between Portugal and
Castile.

[Footnote 523: Las Casas, tom. i. pp. 443, 449.]

[Sidenote: Columbus is driven ashore in Portugal, where the king is
advised to have him assassinated;]

[Sidenote: but to offend Spain so grossly would be dangerous.]

Having at length got away from this unfriendly island, as the Nina was
making her way toward Cape St. Vincent and within 400 miles of it, she
was seized by another fierce tempest and driven upon the coast of
Portugal, where Columbus and his crew were glad of a chance to run into
the river Tagus for shelter. The news of his voyage and his discoveries
aroused intense excitement in Lisbon. Astonishment was mingled with
chagrin at the thought that the opportunity for all this glory and
profit had first been offered to Portugal and foolishly lost. The king
even now tried to persuade himself that Columbus had somehow or other
been trespassing upon the vast and vague undiscovered dominions granted
to the Crown of Portugal by Pope Eugenius IV. Some of the king's
counsellors are said to have urged him to have Columbus assassinated; it
would be easy enough to provoke such a high-spirited man into a quarrel
and then run him through the body.[524] To clearer heads, however, the
imprudence of such a course was manifest. It was already impossible to
keep the news of the discovery from reaching Spain, and Portugal could
not afford to go to war with her stronger neighbour. In fact even had
John II. been base enough to resort to assassination, which seems quite
incompatible with the general character of Lope de Vega's "perfect
prince," Columbus was now too important a personage to be safely
interfered with. So he was invited to court and made much of. On the
13th of March he set sail again and arrived in the harbour of Palos at
noon of the 15th. His little caravel was promptly recognized by the
people, and as her story flew from mouth to mouth all the business of
the town was at an end for that day.[525]

[Footnote 524: This story rests upon the explicit statement of
a contemporary Portuguese historian of high authority, Garcia
de Resende, _Ch