People cannot be continually excited about a thing which they have not seen, and there were events much nearer home that absorbed the public interest.

There was the trouble with France, the contemplated alliance of the Crown Prince with Margaret of Austria, and of the Spanish Princess Juana with Philip of Austria; and there were the designs of Ferdinand upon the kingdom of Naples, which was in his eyes a much more desirable and valuable prize than any group of unknown islands beyond the ocean.
Columbus did his very best to work up enthusiasm again.

He repeated the performance that had been such a success after his first voyage--the kind of circus procession in which the natives were marched in column surrounded by specimens of the wealth of the Indies.

But somehow it did not work so well this time.

Where there had formerly been acclamations and crowds pressing forward to view the savages and their ornaments, there were now apathy and a dearth of spectators.