By way of
punishment, the Crown ordered that Palos should fit out two caravels at
its own expense and lend them to the government for a year whenever the
government should call for them. The royal intention was, no doubt, to
use the boats against Naples and Sicily, which they hoped to conquer
after finishing the Moorish war. But when they decided finally to help
Columbus, they remembered the punishment due Palos, and called upon it
to give the two caravels to "Cristobal Colon, our captain, going into
certain parts of the Ocean Sea on matters pertaining to our service."
Thus while Ferdinand and Isabella meant to punish the little town, they
instead conferred a great honor upon it. Little did Columbus dream, the
day on which he and his boy approached it so empty-handed five years
before, that he was to make it forever famous. Palos to-day is a
miserably poor, humble little place; but its people, especially the
Pinzon family who still live there, are very proud that it was the
starting-point of the momentous voyage of discovery; and hundreds of
tourists visit it who never know that the sovereigns had intended
punishing, instead of glorifying, the port.
In May, 1492, however, when Columbus returned from Granada, the Palos
inhabitants did not see any glory at all! They saw nothing but the heavy
penalty.
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