He insisted that he must have an answer regarding his plans of discovery.

The confessor of the queen, Fernando da Talavera, was commanded to obtain the definite answer of the men of learning.

Alas! it was fatal to Columbus's hopes.

They said that it was not right that great princes should undertake such enterprises on grounds as weak as those which he relied upon.
The sovereigns themselves, however, were more favorable; so was a minority of the council of Salamanca.

And the confessor was instructed to tell him that their expenses in the war forbade them from sending him out as a discoverer, but that, when that was well over, they had hopes that they might commission him.