St. Landry democrat., 1890-06-14
Discovering America.

The statement is sometimes made tn8t
Queen Isabella of Spain pawned her jew
els in order to provide funds for fitting out
the expedition for the discovery of Amer
lea. This is very old story. first told not
long after the death of Columbus, and
though it is not true, its origin is not dltfi-
cult to discover. AS every fact about the
great voyage is of interest to Americans,
especially now that we are soon to cele
brate it's four hundredth anniversary. we
will briefly give the facts about the raising
of the money.
Columbus went to the Spanish court to
lay his ambitious project before the King
and queen lust as the last great stronghold
of the Moors, Granada, had surrendered to
the forces of Ferdinand and Isabella.
In some respects it was an inopportune
time. The country was exhausted by the
war which had just closed with this splen-
did success, and the joint monarchs were
not inclined to embark upon any new and
uncertain adventure and what was more
important, the treasures of both Aragon
and CASTLE were nearly empty. Queen
Isabella, in fact, had been obliged to
pledge her Jewels to get money for the
prosecution of the war against the Moors.
The Genoese navigator pleaded his cause
in vain. Both king and queen listened
coldly to his enthusiastic plans, in which
the recovery of the Holy Sepulchre from
the Turk was strangely mingled. They
refused to assist his enterprise, and Co.
lumbus in despair left Granada, intending
to make final effort for assistance at the
French court
At his audience with the Spanish mon
archs, however, there were two persons
who were convinced of the truth of his
daring theories, or at least of the wisdom
of attempting to prove them to be true.
They were, singulsrly. the finance minis
ters of the two crowns, St. Angel for Ara
gon and Quintanilla for CASTLE.
St. Angel obtained an audience as soon
as possible with the queen, and so warm
was his advocacy of the theories of the
Genoese stranger, so convincing his argu-
ments for assisting him, that Isabella,
fred by his enthusiasm, exclaimed, 81
undertake the enterprise for my own
crown of CASTLE, and will pledge my pri
vate Jewels to raise the necessary funds. :"
The minister assured her that this gen
erous measure would be unnecessary, and
hastened from the royal presence to send
messenger after Columbus, who speedi
ly returned to- Granada. The arrange
ments for the expedition were speedily
made St. Angel supplied about seven.
teen thousand forms from the treasury OF
Aragon. 80,
The three Pinzon Brothers, ship build
ers at Palos de Moguer, loaned Columbus
one-eighth of the necessary money, he
having assumed this share of the expense
in consideration of his receiving one eighth
of the profit. They also furnished addi-
tional money, and two of the vessels, and
all three of the brothers went upon the
expedition, two as captains of the caravals
La Nina and La Pinta, the other as a
pilot. The third vessel, La Pinta, was
impressed, to the great horror of the own
or and the crew.
1t may be well to add that Colum bus
repaid the loan made by St. Angel with
the gold which he brought back from the
New World on his first voyage. por-
ton of this gold was employed in gliding
the vaults and ceilings of the royal saloon
of King Ferdinand's grand palace at Ear
agoza, or saragossa, the Aljaferri, where
possibly it may still be visible to the
American pilgrim. and School VS.
| Stor.