LA RÁBIDA and the house of Martín Alonso Pinzón were for a
time the headquarters of the now famous and victorious man.
Though some estrangement remained between the Admiral and
his impatient second, particularly owing to the settlement of the
Villa de la Navidad, there was no open break between them.
Pinzón, moreover, was gravely ill, a circumstance which would
no doubt make Colón refrain from driving home any advantage,
real or imaginary, which he might have. It seems certain that
he stayed in Pinzón's house.( 1 )

Martín Alonso had written to the King and Queen from Bayona,
as it was his right--and even his duty--to do. He can hardly have
wished to claim for himself the discovery of the Indies, because
there are at least two documents to prove that he acknowledged
the Admiral's claim before knowing that the Niña had been saved
from the waves.( 2 ) His letter must have reached the King and
Queen after that which Colón had sent them from Lisbon,
amongst other reasons because in those days Lisbon had better
roads and more facilities for sending a messenger than a small
fishing-harbour in far-off Galicia. The sovereigns acknowledged
his letter and bid him come to see them. But he died on March
20th and was buried in the monastery of La Rábida. With his
death, Colón remained the only figure on the stage of the dis-
covery. Vicente Yáñez Pinzón, Juan de la Cosa, were still to
make their names; Colón's name was now safe: he was by now
The Very Magnificent Lord Don Cristóbal Colón.

But in his character, fear was too predominant to allow caution
ever to go to sleep. Colón was an "early-riser" in all that con-
cerned self-defence and foresight. He knew how crucial the
appearance of things is in this world of men. Presentation is half
the battle of conviction. In our modern world, Colón would have
made a superb Minister of Propaganda. As soon as the stay in
the Azores had secured him some respite from the storm which
had pursued him in mid-ocean, he wrote letters to the King and
Queen. These letters are lost. They announced his discovery
and put it, of course, under the light which he thought most

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