90
LIFE
AND
VOYAGES
OF
[BOOK I X .
CHAPTER III. PREPARATIONS FOR A THIRD VOYAGE.—DISAPPOINTMENTS AND DELAYS. [1497.]
IT was not until the following spring of 1497, that the concerns of Columbus and of the New "World began to receive serious attention from the sovereigns. The fleet had returned from Flan ders with the Princess Margarita of Austria. Her nuptials with Prince Juan, the heir-apparent, had been celebrated at Burgos, the capital of Old Castile, with extraordinary splendor. All the grandees, the dignitaries, and chivalry of Spain, together with ambassadors from the principal potentates of Christendom, were assembled on the occasion. Burgos was for some time a scene of chivalrous pageant and courtly revel, and the whole kingdom celebrated with great rejoicings this powerful alliance, which seemed to insure to the Spanish sovereigns a continuance of their extraordinary prosperity. In the midst of these festivities, Isabella, whose maternal heart had recently been engrossed by the marriages of her chil dren, now that she was relieved from these concerns of a tender and domestic nature, entered into the affairs of the New World with a spirit that showed she was determined to place them upon