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HOW THE ADMIRAL SAILED AWAY.
The agreement made between Columbus and the king and queen of Spain was signed on the seventeenth of April, 1492.

But it was four months before he was quite ready to sail away.
He selected the town of Palos as the place to sail from, because there, as you know, Captain Pinzon lived; there, too, he had other acquaintances, so that he supposed it would be easy to get the sailors he needed for his ships.

But in this he was greatly mistaken.
As soon as the papers had been signed that held the queen to her promise, Columbus set off for Palos.

He stopped at the Convent of Rabida to tell the Friar Juan Perez how thankful he was to him for the help the good priest had given him, and how everything now looked promising and successful.
The town of Palos, as you can see from your map of Spain, is situated at the mouth of the river Tinto on a little bay in the southwestern part of Spain, not far from the borders of Portugal.