book 18, chap. 4.

[17] Fernando Colon, Hist. del Almirante, cap. 3.--Novi Orbis Hist., lib. 1, cap. 14.--Herrera, Indias Occidentales, dec. 1, lib. 6, cap. 15.

[18] See the extracts from Columbus's book of Prophecies, (apud Navarrete, Coleccion de Viages, tom, ii., Doc. Dipl., no. 140,) as still existing in the Bibliotheca Colombina at Seville.

[19] See his epistle to the most selfish and sensual of the successors of St. Peter, in Navarrete, Coleccion de Viages, tom, ii., Doc. Dipl., no. 145.

[20] "El oro, bien que segun informacion el sea mucho, no me paresció bien ni servicio de vuestras Altezas de se le tomar por via de robo. La buena orden evitará escándolo y mala fama," etc. Cartas de Colon, apud Navarrete, Coleccion de Viages, tom. i. p. 310.

[21] Columbus left two sons, Fernando and Diego. The former, illegitimate, inherited his father's genius, says a Castilian writer, and the latter, his honors and estates. (Zuñiga, Annales de Sevilla, año 1506.) Fernando, besides other works now lost, left a valuable memoir of his father, often cited in this history. He was a person of rather uncommon literary attainments, and amassed a library, in his extensive travels, of 20,000 volumes, perhaps the largest private collection in Europe at that day. (Ibid., año 1539.) Diego did not succeed to his father's dignities, till he had obtained a judgment in his favor against the crown from the Council of the Indies, an act highly honorable to that tribunal, and showing that the independence of the courts of justice, the greatest bulwark of civil liberty, was well maintained under King Ferdinand. (Navarrete, Coleccion de Viages, tom. ii., Doc. Dipl., nos. 163, 164; tom. iii., Supl. Col. Dipl., no. 69.) The young _admiral_ subsequently married a lady of the great Toledo family, niece of the duke of Alva. (Oviedo, Quincuagenas, MS., bat. 1, quinc. 2, dial. 8.) This alliance with one of the most ancient branches of the haughty aristocracy of Castile, proves the extraordinary consideration, which Columbus must have attained during his own lifetime. A new opposition was made by Charles V. to the succession of Diego's son; and the latter, discouraged by the prospect of this interminable litigation with the crown, prudently consented to commute his claims, too vast and indefinite for any subject to enforce, for specific honors and revenues in Castile. The titles of Duke of Veragua and Marquis of Jamaica, derived from the places visited by the admiral in his last voyage, still distinguish the family, whose proudest title, above all that monarchs can confer, is, to have descended from Columbus. Spotorno, Memorials of Columbus, p. 123.