Wauwatosa news. [volume] (Wauwatosa, Wis.) 1900-1948, 1912-06-21

finances are absolutely drained by this war"
Still she could not renounce the project, and re
NAMED much more attentive to 1t than to the
wonderful plaster palace into which the court had
Just moved. Thither came Don Luis de Santangel,
treasurer of the church revenues. and a stanch
friend of Columbus, and sought audience with her
majesty. He asked In amazement IL she would
let the paltry sum Columbus demanded deprive
her and Spain of Unreasonable glory All ne
needs to set the expedition afloat said Santangel
lis million maravedi!" (between three and five
thousand dollars), and he straightway offered TO
advance the money
This generous offer seems to have piqued itA
royal hearer into proper contempt for the courts
nggardliness. Also it put end to her mis-.
giyings and to her difference to Ferdinands opin.
ion. For the first time the scheme broke upon
her In all its grandeur and the palace wall that
had echoed so many dangerous Arabian love
songs now rang to her stirring cry: Il will under
take this enterprise for my own kingdom of Cas-
tile! And If its treasury Is empty will convert
my jewels into the necessary money
So messengers were dispatched instantly to
bring Columbus back. They overlook him some
ten miles off, just he crossing the Bridge
of Pinos-a fine little stone structure with turrets
and abutments, massively built for the Cubillas
has great volume there in spring. This Pinos.
an ancient Roman town, is prettily situated at the
foot of the Sierre de Evira 1t has been the
scene of many bloody encounter between Mos.
frightful defeat there at the hands of the Moors,
both the royal princes, Don Pedro and Don Juan,
being killed But Pinos' great date is 1892, when
lonely traveller on muleback bordering detected
ly on how large part of his life had away
and must still wear away in fruitless solicitngs,
was halted on the bridge by the queens messen,
gers and brought back to Granada. That bridge
more than any other spot in Europe (save perhaps
the convent of La Rabida) should be held sacred
by Americans. Yet few take the trouble to visit
it, though many climb to the spot in the mountain
now called THE Moors Last SIGH
Columbus soulsick of royal promises, needed
much urging ere he left the little bridge and
turned back: but when next he rode his mule out
of Granada his head and his hopes were high
his heart sang; the capitulations had been signed
at Santa Fe and he carried in his pocket an order
to the citizens Of the little port of Palos to fur
nish him with ships and men. Thus this most
momentous and adventurous Journey ever re-
corded in history may truly be considered to have
begun in Granada.
Today this city of so many memories is de-
scribed as living ruin" But even the city
itself has suffered mildly compared with the Al
hambra. Charles ". Isabella's grandson pulled
down large portion of 1t in order to erect his
still unfinished Renaissance residence The Sala
de los Mocarabes and the Court of Lions were
injured by a powder explosion just a hundred
years after Columbus eyes had first gazed on
them. In Ills Philip V. took for his personal use
the revenues formerly assigned for the preserya
ton of the Alhambra and the famous building fell
into total neglect.
Down below the hilltop. In the city itself dirt
and decay reign where the Moorish nobility had
their palaces. The Spanish Immediately sitter
their conquest, erected some fine buildings prin.
cipally the superb Gothic cathedral buiIt as the
mausoleum of Ferdinand and Isabella But thess
too, are in sad need of preservation.