TWO SAD YEARS--ISABELLA'S DEATH--COLUMBUS ATSEVILLE --HIS ILLNESS--LETTERS TO THE KING--JOURNEYSTO SEGOVIA, SALAMANCA, AND VALLADOLID--HIS SUITTHERE--PHILIP AND JUANA--COLUMBUS EXECUTES HISWILL--DIES--HIS BURIAL AND THE REMOVAL OF HIS BODY-HIS PORTRAITS--HIS CHARACTER.

　　Columbus had been absent from Spain two years and six months. Hereturned broken in health, and the remaining two years of his life are onlythe sad history of his effort to relieve his name from dishonor and to leaveto his sons a fair opportunity to carry forward his work in the world.

　　Isabella, alas, died on the twenty-sixth day of November, only a shorttime after his arrival. Ferdinand, at the least, was cold and hard towardhim, and Ferdinand was now engaged in many affairs other than those ofdiscovery. He was satisfied that Columbus did not know how to bring goldhome from the colonies, and the promises of the last voyage, that theyshould strike the East, had not been fulfilled.

　　Isabella had testified her kindly memory of Columbus, even while hewas in exile at Jamaica, by making him one of the body-guard of heroldest son, an honorary appointment which carried with it a handsomeannual salary. After the return to Spain of Diego Mendez, the loyal friendwho had cared for his interests so well in San Domingo, she had raisedhim to noble rank.

　　It is clear, therefore, that among her last thoughts came in the wish todo justice to him whom she had served so well. She had well done herduty which had been given her to do. She had never forgotten the newworld to which it was her good fortune to send the discoverer, and in herdeath that discoverer lost his best friend.

　　On his arrival in Seville, where one might say he had a right to resthimself and do nothing else, Columbus engaged at once in efforts to seethat the seamen who had accompanied him in this last adventure should beproperly paid. Many of these men had been disloyal to him and unfaithfulto their sovereign, but Columbus, with his own magnanimity, represented eagerly at court that they had endured great peril, that they brought greatnews, and that the king ought to repay them all that they had earned.

　　He says, in a letter to his son written at this period, "I have not a roofover my head in Castile. I have no place to eat nor to sleep excepting atavern, and there I am often too poor to pay my scot." This passage hasbeen quoted as if he were living as a beggar at this time, and the world hasbeen asked to believe that a man who had a tenth of the revenue of theIndies due to him in some fashion, was actually living from hand to mouthfrom day to day. But this is a mere absurdity of exaggeration.

　　Undoubtedly, he was frequently pressed for ready money. He says tohis son, in another letter, "I only live by borrowing." Still he had goodcredit with the Genoese bankers established in Andalusia. In writing to hisson he begs him to economize, but at the same time he acknowledges thereceipt of bills of exchange and considerable sums of money.

　　In the month of December, there is a single transaction in Hispaniolawhich amounts to five thousand dollars of our money. We must not,therefore, take literally his statement that he was too poor to pay for anight's lodging. On the other hand, it is observed in the correspondencethat, on the fifteenth of April, 1505, the king ordered that everythingwhich belonged to Columbus on account of his ten per cent should becarried to the royal treasury as a security for certain debts contracted bythe Admiral.

　　The king had also given an order to the royal agent in Hispaniola thateverything which he owned there should be sold. All these details havebeen carefully brought together by Mr. Harrisse, who says truly that wecannot understand the last order.

　　When at last the official proceedings relating to the affairs in Jamaicaarrived in Europe, Columbus made an effort to go to court. A litter wasprovided for him, and all the preparations for his journey made. But hewas obliged once more by his weakness to give up this plan, and he couldonly write letters pressing his claim. Of such letters the misfortune is, thatthe longer they are, and the more of the detail they give, the less likely arethey to be read. Columbus could only write at night; in the daytime hecould not use his hands.

　　He took care to show Ferdinand that his interests had not beenproperly attended to in the islands. He said that Ovando had been carelessas to the king's service, and he was not unwilling to let it be understoodthat his own administration had been based on a more intelligent policythan that of either of the men who followed him.

　　But he was now an old man. He was unable to go to court in person.

　　He had not succeeded in that which he had sailed for--a strait opening tothe Southern Sea. He had discovered new gold mines on the continent, buthe had brought home but little treasure. His answers from the courtseemed to him formal and unsatisfactory. At court, the stories of the Porrasbrothers were told on the one side, while Diego Mendez and Carvajalrepresented Columbus.

　　In this period of the fading life of Columbus, we have eleven lettersaddressed by him to his son. These show that he was in Seville as late asFebruary, 1505. From the authority of Las Casas, we know that he left thatpart of Spain to go to Segovia in the next May, and from that place hefollowed the court to Salamanca and Valladolid, although he was so weakand ill.

　　He was received, as he had always been, with professions of kindness;but nothing followed important enough to show that there was anythinggenuine in this cordiality. After a few days Columbus begged that someaction might be taken to indemnify him for his losses, and to confirm thepromises which had been made to him before. The king replied that hewas willing to refer all points which had been discussed between them toan arbitration. Columbus assented, and proposed the Archbishop Diego deDeza as an arbiter.

　　The reader must remember that it was he who had assisted Columbusin early days when the inquiry was made at Salamanca. The king assentedto the arbitration, but proposed that it should include questions whichColumbus would not consider as doubtful. One of these was hisrestoration to his office of viceroy.

　　Now on the subject of his dignities Columbus was tenacious. Heregarded everything else as unimportant in comparison. He would notadmit that there was any question that he was the viceroy of the Indies, and all this discussion ended in the postponement of all consideration ofhis claims till, after his death, it was too late for them to be considered.

　　All the documents, when read with the interest which we take in hischaracter and fortunes, are indeed pathetic; but they did not seem so to theking, if indeed they ever met his eye.

　　In despair of obtaining justice for himself, Columbus asked that hisson Diego might be sent to Hispaniola in his place. The king wouldpromise nothing, but seems to have attempted to make Columbusexchange the privileges which he enjoyed by the royal promise for aseignory in a little town in the kingdom of Leon, which is named notimproperly "The Counts' Carrion."It is interesting to see that one of the persons whom he employed, inpressing his claim at the court and in the management of his affairs, wasVespucci, the Florentine merchant, who in early life had been known asAlberigo, but had now taken the name of Americo.

　　The king was still engaged in the affairs of the islands. He appointedbishops to take charge of the churches in the colonies, but Columbus wasnot so much as consulted as to the persons who should be sent. WhenPhilip arrived from Flanders, with his wife Juana, who was the heir ofIsabella's fortunes and crown, Columbus wished to pay his court to them,but was too weak to do so in person.

　　There is a manly letter, written with dignity and pathos, in which hepresses his claims upon them. He commissioned his brother, theAdelantado, to take this letter, and with it he went to wait upon the youngcouple. They received him most cordially, and gave flattering hopes thatthey would attend favorably to the suit. But this was too late for Columbushimself. Immediately after he had sent his brother away, his illnessincreased in violence.

　　The time for petitions and for answers to petitions had come to an end.

　　His health failed steadily, and in the month of May he knew that he wasapproaching his death. The king and the court had gone to Villafranca deValcacar.

　　On the nineteenth of May Columbus executed his will, which had beenprepared at Segovia a year before. In this will he directs his son and his successors, acting as administrators, always to maintain "in the city ofGenoa, some person of our line, who shall have a house and a wife in thatplace, who shall receive a sufficient income to live honorably, as beingone of our relatives, having foot and root in the said city, as a native; sincehe will be able to receive from this city aid in favor of the things of hisservice; because from that city I came forth and in that city I was born."This clause became the subject of much litigation as the century went on.

　　Another clause which was much contested was his direction to his sonDiego to take care of Beatriz Enriquez, the mother of Fernando. Diego isinstructed to provide for her an honorable subsistence "as being a personto whom I have great obligation. What I do in this matter is to relieve myconscience, for this weighs much upon my mind. The reason of this cannotbe written here."The history of the litigation which followed upon this wi............