Editing Christopher Columbus (section)

=== Quest for financial support for a voyage ===
[[File:Columbus offers his services to the King of Portugal - Daniel Nicholas Chodowiecki (cropped).png|thumb|upright=0.75|''Columbus offers his services to the King of Portugal''; [[Daniel Chodowiecki|Chodowiecki]], 17th&nbsp;century]]

By about 1484, Columbus proposed his planned voyage to King [[John II of Portugal]].<ref name="Rickey1992224">{{cite journal |last1=Rickey |first1=V. Frederick |title=How Columbus Encountered America |journal=Mathematics Magazine |date=1992 |volume=65 |issue=4 |page=224 |jstor=2691445 |issn=0025-570X}}</ref> The king submitted Columbus's proposal to his advisors, who rejected it, correctly, on the grounds that Columbus's estimate for a voyage of 2,400&nbsp;nmi was only a quarter of what it should have been.{{sfn|Morison|1991|pp=68–70}} In 1488, Columbus again appealed to the court of Portugal, and John II again granted him an audience. That meeting also proved unsuccessful, in part because not long afterwards [[Bartolomeu Dias]] returned to Portugal with news of his successful rounding of the southern tip of Africa (near the [[Cape of Good Hope]]).<ref name="Pinheiro-Marques2016">{{cite book |last1=Pinheiro-Marques |first1=Alfredo |editor1-last=Bedini |editor1-first=Silvio A. |title=The Christopher Columbus Encyclopedia |year=2016 |publisher=Springer |isbn=978-1-349-12573-9 |page=97 |chapter-url=https://books.google.com/books?id=gmmMCwAAQBAJ&pg=PA97 |chapter=Diogo Cão}}</ref><ref name="SymcoxSullivan2016">{{cite book |last1=Symcox |first1=Geoffrey |last2=Sullivan |first2=Blair |title=Christopher Columbus and the Enterprise of the Indies: A Brief History with Documents |year=2016 |publisher=Springer |isbn=978-1-137-08059-2 |pages=11–12 |url=https://books.google.com/books?id=qVEBDgAAQBAJ&pg=PA11 |quote=in 1488 Columbus returned to Portugal and once again put his project to João II. Again it was rejected. In historical hindsight this looks like a fatally missed opportunity for the Portuguese crown, but the king had good reason not to accept Columbus's project. His panel of experts cast grave doubts on the assumptions behind it, noting that Columbus had underestimated the distance to China. And then in December 1488 Bartolomeu Dias returned from his voyage around the Cape of Good Hope. Certain now that they had found the sea route to India and the east, João II and his advisers had no further interest in what probably seemed to them a hare-brained and risky plan.}}</ref>
[[File:Rabida1.jpg|thumb|[[La Rábida Friary|Monastery of La Rábida]], in which Columbus stayed in the years before his first expedition]]
Columbus sought an audience with the monarchs [[Ferdinand II of Aragon]] and [[Isabella I of Castile]], who had united several kingdoms in the Iberian Peninsula by marrying and now ruled together. On 1 May 1486, permission having been granted, Columbus presented his plans to Queen Isabella, who in turn referred it to a committee. The learned men of Spain, like their counterparts in Portugal, replied that Columbus had grossly underestimated the distance to Asia. They pronounced the idea impractical and advised the Catholic Monarchs to pass on the proposed venture. To keep Columbus from taking his ideas elsewhere, and perhaps to keep their options open, the sovereigns gave him an allowance, totaling about 14,000 {{lang|es|[[maravedis]]}} for the year, or about the annual salary of a sailor.{{Sfn|Dyson|1991|p=84}} In May 1489, the queen sent him another 10,000 {{lang|es|maravedis}}, and the same year the monarchs furnished him with a letter ordering all cities and towns under their dominion to provide him food and lodging at no cost.<ref>Durant, Will ''The Story of Civilization'' vol. vi, "The Reformation". Chapter XIII, p. 260.</ref>

Columbus also dispatched his brother [[Bartholomew Columbus|Bartholomew]] to the court of [[Henry VII of England]] to inquire whether the English Crown might sponsor his expedition, but he was captured by pirates en route, and only arrived in early 1491.{{Sfn|Dyson|1991|pp=86, 92}} By that time, Columbus had retreated to [[La Rábida Friary]], where the Spanish Crown sent him 20,000 ''maravedis'' to buy new clothes and instructions to return to the [[Cortes Generales|Spanish court]] for renewed discussions.{{Sfn|Dyson|1991|p=92}}