Three years later Columbus made a voyage to Iceland. It has been suggested that he went there because he had heard sailors’ tales of the news carried to Rome by Gudrid of “Vinland the Good”--the western land discovered by Leif the Lucky. It is said that in Iceland Columbus met a learned bishop with whom he conversed in Latin about Greenland and Vinland. But these northern lands were not the ones sought by Columbus. He wanted to reach the southern coast, to visit the Cathay and Cipango of Marco Polo. Soon after his return from Iceland, it is said that Columbus applied to his native city, Genoa, to fit out an expedition for a voyage of discovery. Meeting refusal there and at Venice, he turned to Portugal. The king of Portugal was not averse to undertaking the expedition but was unwilling to give Columbus the rank and rewards he demanded in case of success. The king secretly sent out an expedition to follow the route indicated by Columbus. But the faint-hearted captain returned after a brief cruise, saying he had seen no signs of land. Indignant at this bad faith, Columbus took his little son Diego and set out in 1484 to present his project to the Spanish sovereigns. His brother Bartolomeo had gone to plead his cause with the king of England. Columbus reached Spain at an unfavorable time. King Ferdinand and Queen Isabella were engaged in a war against the Moors, which occupied their time and emptied their treasury. However, the matter was laid before a council of scholars who decided that the plan was vain and impracticable. Seven years Columbus attended the Spanish court, hoping against hope that a decision would be made in his favor. Weary and disappointed, he at last turned away, in 1491, to lay his project before Charles VIII., King of France. Footsore and dejected, he stopped one evening with his son Diego at the convent of La Rabida to beg a night’s lodging. There he told the prior about the plan on which his heart was set,--his longing to add the rich domains which he was certain lay to the west, to the kingdom of Spain, his desire to win the great Khan and his subjects to the Christian faith and extend the power of the Church. This ambition appealed to the devout prior. At midnight he mounted his mule and rode to the camp to see the queen and persuade her to give Columbus an interview. He was successful and Columbus returned to plead his own cause with the king and queen. The king regarded the project coldly and reminded the queen that war had emptied the royal treasury. “I undertake the enterprise for my own crown of Castile,” exclaimed Isabella, “and will pledge my jewels to raise the necessary funds.”