More than once it seemed
that the ship must founder, but by some miracle it kept afloat, and
on March 15, 1493, sailed again into the port of Palos. The great
navigator was received with triumphal honors by Ferdinand and Isabella,
and invited to sit in their presence while he told the wonderful story
of his discoveries.
Wonderful indeed! Yet what a dizziness would have seized that audience
could they have guessed the truth! Could they have guessed that the
proud kingdom of Spain was but an insignificant patch compared with the
vast continent Columbus had discovered and upon which a score of nations
were to dwell.
The life-work of the great navigator practically ended on the day he
told his story to the court of Spain, for, though he led three other
expeditions across the ocean, the discoveries they made were of no great
importance. Not a trace did he find of that golden country, which he
sought so eagerly, and at last, broken in health and fortune, in
disfavor at court, stripped of the rewards and dignities which had been
promised him, he died in a little house at Valladolid on the twentieth
of May, 1506. He believed to the last that it was the Indies he had
discovered, never dreaming that he had given a new continent to the
world.
Yet is his fame secure, for the task which he accomplished was unique,
never to be repeated.
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