Still he does not seem to mind; once more, as of old, his gaze is fixed beyond the horizon and his mind is filled with one idea.

They may not think much of him in Spain now, but they will when he comes back; and he can afford to wait.
Completing his preparations without undignified haste he despatched Bartholomew with his four little vessels from Seville to Cadiz, where the Admiral was to join them.

He took farewell of his son Diego and of his brother James; good friendly James, who had done his best in a difficult position, but had seen quite enough of the wild life of the seas and was now settled in Seville studying hard for the Church.

It had always been his ambition, poor James; and, studying hard in Seville, he did in time duly enter the sacred pale and become a priest--by which we may see that if our ambitions are only modest enough we may in time encompass them.
Sometimes I think that James, enveloped in priestly vestments, nodding in the sanctuary, lulled by the muttering murmur of the psalms or dozing through a long credo, may have thought himself back amid the brilliant sunshine and strange perfumes of Espanola; and from a dream of some nymph hiding in the sweet groves of the Vega may have awakened with a sigh to the strident Alleluias of his brother priests.

At any rate, farewell to James, safely seated beneath the Gospel light, and continuing to sit there until, in the year 1515, death interrupts him.