The prior was a man of extensive information.
His attention had been turned in some measure
to geographical and nautical science. He was
greatly interested by the conversation of Columbus,
and struck with the grandeur of his views.
When he found, however, that the voyager was
on the point of abandoning Spain to seek the
patronage of the court of France, the good friar
took the alarm.
He detained Columbus as his guest, and sent
for a scientific friend to converse with him. That
friend was Garcia Fernandez, a physician of
Palos. He was equally struck with the appearance
and conversation of the stranger. Several
conferences took place at the convent, at which
veteran mariners and pilots of Palos were present.
Facts were related by some of these navigators
in support of the theory of Columbus. In a
word, his project was treated with a deference
in the quiet cloisters of La Rabida and among the
seafaring men of Palos which had been sought in
vain among sages and philosophers.
Among the navigators of Palos was one Martin
Alonzo Pinzon, the head of a family of wealth,
members of which were celebrated for their
adventurous expeditions. He was so convinced of the
feasibility of Columbus's plan that he offered to
engage in it with purse and person, and to bear the
expenses of Columbus in an application to court.
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