"At Lisboa's court they told their dread escape, And from her raging tempests named the Cape. 'Thou southmost point,' the joyful king exclaimed, 'CAPE OF GOOD HOPE be thou forever named!'" Successful and triumphant as was this voyage of Diaz, it eventually tended to injure the interests of Portugal, inasmuch as it withdrew the regards of King John from other and important plans of discovery, and rendered him inattentive to the efforts of rival powers upon the ocean. It caused him, amid the intoxication of the moment, to refuse the services and reject the science of one who now offered to conduct the vessels of Portugal to the Indies by an untried route. It caused him, as we shall soon have occasion to narrate, to turn a deaf ear to the proposals of Columbus, who had humbly brought to Lisbon the mighty scheme with which he had been contemptuously repulsed from Genoa. We have arrived at the Great Era in Navigation,--the age of Columbus, da Gama, and Magellan. [Illustration: CHRISTOPHER COLUMBUS.] CHAPTER XIV. BIRTH OF CHRISTOPHER COLUMBUS--HIS EARLY LIFE AND EDUCATION--HIS FIRST VOYAGE--HIS MARRIAGE--HIS MARITIME CONTEMPLATIONS--HE MAKES PROPOSALS TO THE SENATE OF GENOA, THE COURT OF VENICE, AND THE KING OF PORTUGAL--THE DUPLICITY OF THE LATTER--COLUMBUS VISITS SPAIN--JUAN DE MARCHENA--COLUMBUS REPAIRS TO CORDOVA--HIS SECOND MARRIAGE--HIS LETTER TO THE KING--THE JUNTO OF SALAMANCA--COLUMBUS RESOLVES TO SHAKE THE DUST OF SPAIN FROM HIS FEET--MARCHENA'S LETTER TO ISABELLA--THE QUEEN GIVES AUDIENCE TO COLUMBUS--THE CONDITIONS STIPULATED BY THE LATTER--ISABELLA ACCEPTS THE ENTERPRISE, WHILE FERDINAND REMAINS ALOOF.