In August 1492, Christopher Columbus, under the patronage of Isabel I of Castile and Fernando II, set sail from the island of San Sebastián de la Gomera on a trip that was to see him make landfall in the Indies on 12 October. The admiral informed the monarchs in person in Barcelona in April 1493. The discovery was not fully appreciated by his contemporaries. The venture was deemed to an affair of Castile, a kingdom with an Atlantic coastline. Catalan nobles, men of the church and sailors accompanied Columbus on his second and third voyages, but the depletion of Catalonia's finances and population, as well as its position on the Mediterranean, meant that it was unable to play a leading commercial part in the undertaking.