The grand discovery made by Columbus caused a general transport of joy throughout Europe, and filled the popular mind with sanguine anticipations. He was immediately considered as one marked out by destiny for great achievements. The voyage across the ocean, under his auspices, was no longer looked upon with mistrust or gloomy bodings; it was regarded, on the contrary, as conducting to certain distinction and unbounded riches. The honours heaped on the admiral by his grateful sovereigns, as well as the specimens of gold and rare productions which he had brought from the newly discovered countries, all operated as incentives to the bold and the ambitious, the covetous and the needy. After the court had resolved to furnish the previous expedition, the greatest difficulty had been experienced in equipping three small vessels. That task had been imposed on the port of Palos, a place of some importance in Andalusia; but although sought to be enforced by magisterial authority, yet so many difficulties arose from the disinclination of the people to embark in what they considered a desperate enterprise, that the requisition might perhaps have never been effectually complied with, had it not been for the personal influence of the Pinzons. Martin Alonzo Pinzon, the eldest of the family, was a person of some consideration in this maritime district.