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Epilogue

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Columbus, of course, went to Spain where Ferdinand and Isabella appointed the Talavera Commission to consider the project. A number of hearings were held but no report was made until 1491; it expressed this conclusion:

This Committee judged his promises and offers were impossible and vain and worthy of rejection; that it was not a proper object for their royal authority to favor an affair that rested on such weak foundations and which appeared uncertain and impossible to any educated person, however little learning he might have.¹

The sovereigns neither approved nor rejected this report and told Columbus that his proposals might again be brought to their attention when the war with Granada had come to an end. In the meantime, a second committee of experts was appointed. Columbus appeared before it and, in January 1492, was told that his project was "absolutely and definitely rejected." Columbus was persistent, however, and through sources close to the queen he managed to convince her that his project was a good risk. The voyage "to The Indies" began, and here we are.

In reference to the stated aims of the Indies project, the Talavera Commission's appraisal was correct. But even the most learned and enlightened men can seldom anticipate great discoveries in new fields of endeavor. Like that earlier marine commission, we have tried to give full weight to realistic appraisals and practicality. Because we know of the impact of the unexpected, from Columbus to computers, we have also tried to balance practicality with an optimistic and wide-open view of the future and allow room for the unforeseen. If we have erred, we hope we have erred on the side of optimism, for ultimately that may prove to be no error at all.