CHAP.
CHRISTOPHER
VI.l
COLUMBUS.
King John to renew the negotiation.
69
The death of his wife,
which had occurred some time previously, had dissolved the domestic tie which bound him to Portugal; he determined, there fore, to abandon a country where he had been treated with so little faith, and to look elsewhere for patronage.
Before his
departure, he engaged his brother Bartholomew to carry propo sals to the king of England, though he does not appear to have entertained great hope from that quarter; England by no means possessing at the time the spirit of nautical enterprise which has since distinguished her.
The great reliance of Columbus was on
his own personal exertions. It was towards the end of 1484 that he left Lisbon, taking with him his son Diego.
His departure had to be conducted
with secrecy, lest, as some assert, it should be prevented by King John; but lest, as others surmise, it should be prevented by his creditors.*
Like many other great projectors, while engaged
upon schemes of vast benefit to mankind, he had suffered his own affairs to go to ruin, and was reduced to struggle hard with pov erty ; nor is it one of the least interesting circumstances in his eventful life, that he had, in a manner, to beg his way from court to court, to offer to princes the discovery of a world. * This surmise is founded on a letter from King John to Columbus, written some years afterwards, inviting him to return to Portugal, and insuring him against arrest on account of any process, civil or criminal, which might be pending against him.
See Navarrete, Collec. torn. ii. doc. 3.