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286 A Short History of The World EARLY ITALIAN ENGRAVING OF A SAILING SHIP {In the British Museu7n) mercy of a fine night and the stars to determine the direction in which they were sailing, and the Normans, Catalo- nians, and Geno- ese and Portu- guese had already pushed out into the Atlantic as far as the Canary Isles, Madeira, and the Azores. Yet Columbus found many diffi- culties before he could get ships to put his idea to the test. He went from one European Court to another. Finally at Granada, just won from the Moors, he secured the patronage of Ferdinand and Isabella, and was able to set out across the un- known ocean in three small ships. After a voyage of two months and nine days he came to a land which he believed to be India, but