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GALERÍA
HISPÁNICA:
Tales and Images From the
Spanish-Speaking World
Volume X: Columbus, Spain, and
the Enterprise of the Indies
Part 2
In 1485, Cristóbal Colón entered
Spain from Portugal for the
first time. He hadn’t been
successful in obtaining
financial and political backing
from King John II of Portugal.
Even though the Portuguese king
had a keen interest in
exploration, his own Royal
Commission on Exploration gave
Colón’s enterprise a thumbs down
for several reasons: (1) the
primary thrust of Portuguese
exploration had been the coast
of Africa and the conversion to
Christianity of the natives
there, (2) the Portuguese
believed that the only realistic
way to reach India would be by
sailing around the southern tip
of Africa, (3) they thought that
Colón’s enterprise was risky and
without foundation, and that (4)
the risk of such an enterprise
was not worth the money it would
take to fund it. Colón, however,
would not be dissuaded by that
rejection. His passion for his
project led him to seek funding
elsewhere. Without hesitation,
he went to Spain where his goal
was to gain an audience with the
Catholic Monarchs, Fernando and
Isabel.
Colón lodged himself and his
young son, Diego, in the convent
of La Rábida at Palos de la
Frontera. Palos and nearby
Huelva were seafaring towns on
the Mediterranean coast. The
people of these places would be
the eventual source from which
he could draw his ships and crew
for his first voyage. The
searfaring Pinzón family was
from the town of Huelva. They
would command one of Colón’s
vessels on his first voyage and
they would provide the drama on
the High Seas on the ships’
return to port. Even more
importantly, at the monastery of
La Rábida, Colón would make
certain acquaintances that would
open for him the doors of the
Spanish court and access to the
King and Queen of Spain.
Colón first met Fray (Friar)
Antonio Marchena and then later,
Fray Juan Pérez. Fray Marchena
was a learned individual,
especially on the subject of
geography. He gave Colón access
to church documents, charts, and
to other people in the church
hierarchy who had an interest in
exploration to the West. He
introduced Colón to the local
nobility who would form part of
the respectable references Colón
would need to gain the ear of
the monarchs. Fray Pérez was
actually the real key to
unlocking the door of access to
the Spanish court. Fray Pérez
was the religious confessor of
Queen Isabel.
Colón left his young son behind
at the monastery in the care of
the friars there and he moved to
Sevilla. It is important to
note that by then the Catholic
Monarchs had taken up residence
in the Alcázar de Sevilla in
order to be closer to the battle
front in the reconquest of Spain
from the Moors. At that time,
the Moors were being forced by
the Christian armies to hold up
in Granada where eventually they
would be encircled and forced to
surrender. The Catholic
Monarchs had their hands full
with the last battle front of
the reconquest and it was still
the center of their attention.
However, they did give Colón an
audience and his initial
proposal was well received. The
monarchs turned the evaluation
of the project over to a
commission of learned
individuals in 1487. Once again,
Colón’s petition was turned down.
His plan was rejected as being
too grandiose a scheme for the
technology and knowledge of the
time. Colón petitioned the
court several more times before
1491 and all petitions were
rejected.
By 1488, Colón had another child,
Fernando, out of wedlock. Just
as Colón was running out of
personal funds to support
himself, his family, and his
enterprise, King John of
Portugal invited Colón to
resubmit his proposal to the
court of Portugal. Portugal had
been trying to find a route to
the Indies around the tip of
Africa for years but without
success. One Portuguese
explorer, Bartolomé Díaz, had
left a year and a half earlier
to attempt the crossing to the
Orient at the tip of Africa, but
he had never returned. Colón’s
enterprise was beginning to gain
support at the court of Lisbon
when out of nowhere Bartolomé
Díaz returned to Lisbon after
everyone assumed he had perished
at sea. Díaz had indeed
discovered a route to the Indies
by sailing around the southern
tip of Africa. That discovery
dashed all of Colón’s hope of
Portuguese support for his own
enterprise. The Portuguese then
had the access to the Orient and
to the souls of the African
peoples they hoped to evangelize.
They had no further reason to
consider the proposal of
Cristóbal Colón.
For a couple of years, Colón
continued to press the court of
Spain for the financial backing
of his enterprise. By year’s
end of 1491, the Catholic
Monarchs were knocking on the
door of military victory over
the Moors in Granada. Fernando
and Isabel were encamped outside
of Granada in the final days of
the seige. Colón was invited to
give one final presentation of
his proposal at a royal audience
at the Granada encampment.
Colón’s mistake in the
estimation of many historians,
was that he demanded too much
from Spain. In negotiating a
contract with the Spanish
throne, Colón asked for a
percentage of the wealth that
might be discovered in the
Indies, certain titles of
nobility to go along with his
supposedly increased statue, and
lands. Colón wanted, upon
return from his voyage, the
regal title of ‘Admiral of the
Ocean Seas’ as a reward for a
successful voyage. Fernando and
Isabel turned down Colón’s
enterprise as too costly and
with too little collateral.
Colón departed Granada uncertain
of his future and that of his
enterprise. As he was leaving
Granada, the King’s treasurer
convinced the monarchs to bring
Colón back to camp, which they
did, and eventually an agreement
was reached to fund the first
voyage of Colón.
Image 26
These are statues of Cristóbal
Colón and the Catholic Monarchs,
Fernando and Isabel, inside the
royal alcázar at Córdoba, Spain.
Cristóbal Colón, at age 41,
sailed his tiny flotilla of
three caravelles out of the
harbor at Palos de la Frontera
on August 3, 1492 heading
westward toward the ‘Indies’
that lay east.
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