Queen Isabella’s Page
Off to find Kublai Khan, to drink from his golden cups, to eat from his silvern plates, to ride his elephants, to visit in his great palace, and, perhaps, to discover the Earthly Paradise—what more thrilling adventure could a boy want?
So Ferdinand Columbus, Queen Isabella’s page, eager for adventure, set sail with his father Columbus, to cross the Sea of Darkness and explore beyond the emerald islands.
For, while his father, on his former voyage, had been gathering pearls among the Pearl Islands of the New World, the boy Ferdinand, amid the splendour of the Spanish Court, had been waiting upon Queen Isabella.
But now, what a change! Ferdinand was off across the heaving, foaming Sea of Darkness in a small caravel tossed about like a cockleshell on the billows. A tempest with rain, thunder, and lightning arose. It struck Columbus’s wretched caravels. They were buffeted by the wind, their sails were torn, their rigging, cables, and boats were lost. Food was washed overboard. The sailors were terrified, they ran about making religious vows and confessing their sins to each other. Even the boldest was pale with fear.
“But the distress of my son who was with me, grieved me to the soul...” wrote Columbus afterward, “for he was but thirteen years old, and he enduring so much toil for so long a time. Our Lord, however, gave him strength to enable him to encourage the rest. He worked as if he had been eighty years at sea.”
But there was more to trouble plucky Ferdinand than the storm at sea. Columbus, his father, fell sick near to death. There was no one who could direct the ships’ course, but Columbus himself. So he had a little cabin rigged up on deck. Lying there, he gave his orders. Presently, to Ferdinand’s joy, he grew better.
Meanwhile, what was happening to the wicked Bobadilla? That same tempest was doing great things. It was buffeting, lashing, and wrecking a caravel which was taking Bobadilla to Spain. The ship, plunging under the howling, raging, black waters, sank to the bottom of the ocean, taking Bobadilla with it, and the treasure he had stolen from Columbus.
But Columbus’s own caravels won safely through the storm and across the Caribbean Sea. They drew near to an unknown shore—the coast of Central America.
There is not space here in which to tell of the many adventures of Columbus and his men, nor of all the things that Ferdinand saw. There were other storms. At one time, the seas ran high and terrific, foaming like a caldron. The sky burned like a furnace, the lightning played with such fury that the waves were red like blood.
The coast of Central America was thickly peopled with savages. Some of them were richly clothed, and wore ornaments of gold and coral, and carried golden mirrors fastened round their necks. Ferdinand saw other savages in trees living like wild birds, their huts built on sticks placed across from bough to bough. He saw strange beasts, beautiful birds, delicious fruits, brilliant flowers, great apes, and alligators basking in the rivers.
There were fights with natives, a massacre of some of his father’s men, there was starvation and misery. Then Columbus, after having sailed down the coast and back again, turned the ships homeward.
Then came the most terrible adventure of all. The ships were riddled by worms, their sides were rotten, and the water was pouring through them like a sieve. Columbus reached the lonely island of Jamaica, just in time to drive his two remaining ships on the beach, and save them from sinking.
There for many months Ferdinand was marooned with his father and the men. There was more starvation, a mutiny, and adventures with savages. Then came the exciting rescue by two caravels.
Such were the adventures of Queen Isabella’s page. But he went back to Spain without seeing Cathay the Golden and Kublai Khan’s palace.