ABOUT A WEEK after Christmas I rode through the outskirts of the royal encampment at Santa Fe.
The court was making ready for the official royal entry into Granada as the city’s ruler, Sultan Boabdil, had agreed to surrender the city on the second of January. Queen Isabella and King Ferdinand had given orders that following this there would be a glorious triumphal procession to signify that the Reconquista was complete. The Moors were vanquished and the country was united under Spanish rule.
Outside the walls the nobility and clergy were gathering in tents and temporary accommodation. Wooden storage units and supplies and equipment clustered around this new village that Queen Isabella had ordered built out of the solid rock in order that the army could continue the siege through the winter. It took me most of the day to find news of Christopher Columbus. No one I spoke to knew where he was; many didn’t recognize his name. Perhaps he wasn’t as well known at court as he’d claimed. Then it occurred to me to seek out the court astronomer, and sure enough, Columbus was lodged there and I found him seated in this man’s quarters, deep in conversation with a group of important-looking men.
‘Saulo!’ He greeted me eagerly. ‘The business that you had to attend to has obviously brought you profit.’ He indicated my new clothes. I didn’t reply. He was not to know of my unfinished business, or of the deed I was here to perform. He waved to me to stand beside his chair while he continued his conversation with these men, who were advisers to the queen and king.
‘I can do this, I promise you,’ Columbus was assuring them. ‘If you give me the funding then this coming year, fourteen ninety-two, will be the one when I prove that my calculations are correct. I will find the passage west before any other man.’
‘To finance such an expedition would cost a great deal of money.’
This comment came from a man dressed in the garb of a notary. It was known that the monarchs guarded their purses against the ruinous cost of the war.
‘True, but the rewards would far outweigh the costs. And we strive to succeed not only for wealth. Queen Isabella vowed that all Spain would be Christian. This would be her opportunity to evangelize previously unknown territory.’
‘A bountiful harvest of souls for God,’ one of the monks agreed. He wore the habit of the Franciscans, the order which had befriended Columbus.
For a moment I thought of embarking on this dangerous and ambitious expedition. To slough off my cares for an adventure in a new place. What islands we might discover on the way! What fabulous peoples to meet, what exotic tastes to sample, what sights to see: animals and plants that no European had ever set eyes on before. For me it was not so much the glory that might come with these discoveries; rather it was the excitement of exploration that enchanted me, as I saw it did Columbus. His stance altered when he talked of his plans and dreams. His eyes glistened as he described what might be, the endless possibilities of new lands, the wonderment of knowing all God’s creation. He saw it as a duty to get to know the furthest extremities of our universe. This was why the Franciscans were drawn to his side, for they followed the rule of the man of Assisi who’d marvelled at and respected every living thing. I understood that, for Christopher Columbus, it was almost as if finding the new route to bring spices out of the East, away from the control of the Ottoman Empire, were a secondary purpose. Something he’d thought of to please his backers and coax them to invest in his project.
‘The prestige alone would be immense,’ Columbus continued. ‘To be the first country to have ventured so far; to be the nation that proves that the world is round . . .’
‘Round . . .? How . . .?’ another of his listeners asked. ‘Circular? A disc? A dome?’
‘A globe,’ said Columbus. He plunged his hand into a bag lying at his feet, and with a theatrical flourish brought out the large wooden ball on which was painted the known countries of the Earth. ‘Like this!’
‘Ahh!’ His audience gave a satisfyingly appreciative gasp. They moved closer to study it.
‘If you can go round west to east and east to west, there must still be a flat surface at the top and bottom,’ one of the priests observed.
‘I don’t believe so,’ Columbus said gravely. ‘I believe the world to be round in its entirety – completely, like a ball.’
The priest leaned forward and asked, ‘Then where is the location of Heaven and Hell?’
There ensued a lively debate among the clergy present as to whether the ideas of Christopher Columbus could be accommodated in theological terms. I saw that, although there were doubters, he had managed over the years to gather a group of loyal and intelligent supporters. But this particular priest was not to be silenced. He picked up the wooden ball and examined it. ‘What did you call this?’
‘A globe, Father Besian,’ replied Christopher Columbus. ‘It represents the world on which we live.’
‘A globe,’ Father Besian repeated. He indicated the manner in which the countries curved around its surface. ‘If we live upon a curved surface, then how,’ he demanded triumphantly, ‘does one not fall off?’
The court astronomer spoke up. ‘We believe a force exists that keeps us bound to Earth.’
‘The will of the Almighty,’ Father Besian intoned.
There was a silence. And then the Franciscan friar smiled at Father Besian. ‘What else could it be?’
When the court advisers had left, Columbus went over to the table by the window, where one of his maps was laid out. He placed the tips of his index and middle finger on Spain. Then he walked them across the flat surface until they reached the end of the table where the parchment met the wooden board. Columbus made one more step with his forefinger extended so that it hung in mid air, and then allowed his hand to drop over the side of the table.
‘Do you believe that is the fate that awaits me, Saulo?’
I stared at the floor and then my eyes returned to the map. ‘No, I do not,’ I replied. ‘I think there will be great peril in getting there, and even more in getting home. But . . . just think – suppose a man went out westwards and did not return across the Ocean Sea, but came sailing home from the East.’
‘Exactly!’ Columbus voice resonated with excitement. ‘To voyage round the whole world, and return bringing gifts! From the East! Like the Magi, bearing gold and frankincense! Mysterious, exotic and wonderful! Laden down with silver, spices and silks from Cathay!’
‘That is a land I’d like to see.’
‘Then you must come with me, Saulo.’ He seized my hands in his own. ‘Come with me! Be part of the adventure!’