The Boys' Book of Famous Rulers

by Lydia Hoyt Farmer

“They are thine, O king, since Allah so decrees it. Use thy success with clemency and moderation.”

PATIO DE LOS LEONES (COURT OF LIONS), ALHAMBRA.

He then, not waiting for the words of consolation which the king was about to utter, rode on to offer the same acts of submission and homage to Queen Isabella. In the mean time the Castilian army, winding slowly up the hill and around the walls, entered the city by the gate of Los Molinos. The large silver cross which Ferdinand had ever borne with him in his crusade against the Moors was now elevated upon the Alhambra, while the banners of the conqueror were proudly unfurled from its towers. “It was the signal for the whole army to fall upon its knees in recognition of that providence which had granted them so great a victory. The solemn strains of the Te Deum, performed by the choir of the royal chapel, then swelled majestically over the prostrate host. The Spanish grandees now gathered around Isabella, and kneeling, kissed her hand, in recognition of her sovereignty as queen of Granada.”

Abdallah, however, did not remain as a sad witness of these scenes. With a small band he took his way to the mountains. From one of the rocky eminences he sorrowfully gazed upon the beautiful realms over which his ancestors had reigned for more than seven hundred years. With eyes filled with tears he exclaimed, “Alas! when were woes ever equal to mine!”

Whereupon his mother cruelly replied, “You do well to weep as a woman for what you could not defend like a man!”

Thus “The Last Sigh of the Moor,” and the cruel yet Spartan-like heroism of the Moorish queen-mother, have passed into the romantic annals of history.

While Ferdinand and Isabella were at Santa Fé, Columbus arrived at their camp. We have not space to give here a history of Christopher Columbus. We can but note a few important incidents. The Atlantic Ocean was then unexplored. Columbus, who was employed in the construction of maps and charts, became convinced that countries existed upon the other side of the globe. He was laughed at as an enthusiast, and when he declared that the world was round, one of the sages of the fifteenth century replied, “Can any one be so foolish as to believe that the world is round, and that there are people on the side opposite to ours who walk with their heels upward and their heads hanging down, like flies clinging to the ceiling? that there is a part of the world where trees grow with their branches hanging downwards, and where it rains, hails, and snows upwards?”

The doctrine of Columbus was not only regarded as absurd, but it was thought to be heretical. Columbus, fully convinced of the truth of his ideas, appealed first to the king of Portugal for means to fit out a fleet to start out on a voyage of discovery. Meeting with refusal, he visited the Spanish court in 1487. At this time Ferdinand and Isabella were with the army, encamped before Malaga. The war with the Moors continuing, the Spanish sovereigns declared that they could give the matter no attention until the conclusion of the war. Disheartened, Columbus was about to apply to the king of France, when the prior of the convent of La Rabida, at Palos, who firmly believed in the scheme of Columbus, and who had formerly been confessor to Isabella, wrote to the queen, urging that Spain might not lose so great an opportunity. Isabella was so much impressed by the letter of the worthy prior that she immediately requested that Columbus should come to Santa Fé, where she was then residing, as the Spanish army were still besieging Granada. Columbus arrived there just as the Moorish banner was torn down, and the flag of Spain was unfurled upon the towers of the Alhambra. In the midst of these rejoicings Columbus presented his plans. “I wish,” said he, “for a few ships and a few sailors to traverse between two and three thousand miles of the ocean, thus to point out a new and short route to India, and reveal new nations, majestic in wealth and power. These realms are peopled by immortal beings, for whom Christ has died. It is my mission to search them out, and to carry to them the Gospel of salvation. Wealth will also flow in from this discovery. With this wealth we can raise armies, and rescue the Holy Sepulchre at Jerusalem from the hands of the infidels. I ask only in return that I may be appointed viceroy over the realms I discover, and that I shall receive one-tenth of the profits which may accrue.”