Ferdinand and Isabella did not dismiss him abruptly.

On the contrary, it is said, they listened kindly; and the conference ended by their referring the business to the Queen's Confessor, Fra Hernando de Talavera, who was afterwards Archbishop of Granada.

This important functionary summoned a junta of cosmographers (not a promising assemblage!) to consult about the affair, and this junta was convened at Salamanca, in the summer of the year 1487.

Here was a step gained; the cosmographers were to consider his scheme, and not merely to consider whether it was worth taking into consideration.

But it was impossible for the jury to be unprejudiced.