Letter written by CHRISTOPHER COLUMBUS to DON DIEGO

Letter written by CHRISTOPHER COLUMBUS to DON DIEGO, his Son, December 1,

1504.

"VERY DEAR SON,—Since I received your letter of November 15 I have heard nothing

from you. I wish that you would write me more frequently. I would like to receive a letter

from you each hour. Reason must tell you that now I have no other repose. Many couriers

come each day, and the news is of such a nature and so abundant that on hearing it all my

hair stands on end; it is so contrary to what my soul desires. May it please the Holy

Trinity to give health to the Queen, our Lady, that she may settle what has already been

placed under discussion. I wrote you by another courier Thursday, eight days ago. The

courier must already be on his way back here. I told you in that letter that my departure

was certain, but that the hope of my arrival there, according to experience, was very

uncertain, because my sickness is so bad, and the cold is so well suited to aggravate it,

that I could not well avoid remaining in some inn on the road. The litter and everything

were ready. The weather became so violent that it appeared impossible to every one to

start when it was getting so bad, and that it was better for so well-known a person as

myself to take care of myself and try to regain my health rather than place myself in

danger. I told you in those letters what I now say, that you decided well in remaining

there (at such a time), and that it was right to commence occupying yourself with our

affairs; and reason strongly urges this. It appears to me that a good copy should be made

of the chapter of that letter which their Highnesses wrote me where they say they will

fulfil their promises to me and will place you in possession of everything: and that this

copy should be given to them with another writing telling of my sickness, and that it is

now impossible for me to go and kiss their Royal feet and hands, and that the Indies are

being lost, and are on fire in a thousand places, and that I have received nothing, and am

receiving nothing, from the revenues derived from them, and that no one dares to accept

or demand anything there for me, and I am living upon borrowed funds. I spent the

money which I got there in bringing those people who went with me back to their homes,

for it would be a great burden upon my conscience to have left them there and to have

abandoned them. This must be made known to the Lord Bishop of Palencia, in whose

favour I have so much confidence, and also to the Lord Chamberlain. I believed that

Carbajal and Jeronimo would be there at such a time. Our Lord is there, and He will order

everything as He knows it to be best for us.

"Carbajal reached here yesterday. I wished to send him immediately with this same order,

but he excused himself profusely, saying that his wife was at the point of death. I shall

see that he goes, because he knows a great deal about these affairs. I will also endeavour

to have your brother and your uncle go to kiss the hands of Their Highnesses, and give

them an account of the voyage if my letters are not sufficient. Take good care of your

brother. He has a good disposition, and is no longer a boy. Ten brothers would not be too

many for you. I never found better friends to right or to left than my brothers. We must

strive to obtain the government of the Indies and then the adjustment of the revenues. I

gave you a memorandum which told you what part of them belongs to me. What they

gave to Carbajal was nothing and has turned to nothing. Whoever desires to do so takes

merchandise there, and so the eighth is nothing, because, without contributing the eighth,

I could send to trade there without rendering account or going in company with any one. I

said a great many times in the past that the contribution of the eighth would come to

nothing. The eighth and the rest belongs to me by reason of the concession which their

Highnesses made to me, as set forth in the book of my Privileges, and also the third and

the tenth. Of the tenth I received nothing, except the tenth of what their Highnesses

receive; and it must be the tenth of all the gold and other things which are found and

obtained, in whatever manner it may be, within this Admiralship, and the tenth of all the

merchandise which goes and comes from there, after the expenses are deducted. I have

already said that in the Book of Privileges the reason for this and for the rest which is

before the Tribunal of the Indies here in Seville, is clearly set forth.

"We must strive to obtain a reply to my letter from their Highnesses, and to have them

order that these people be paid. I wrote in regard to this subject four days ago, and sent

the letter by Martin de Gamboa, and you must have seen the letter of Juan Lopez with

your own.

"It is said here that it has been ordered that three or four Bishops of the Indies shall be

sent or created, and that this matter is referred to the Lord Bishop of Palencia. After

having commended me to his Worship, tell him that I believe it will best serve their

Highnesses for me to talk with him before this matter is settled.

"Commend me to Diego Mendez, and show him this letter. My illness permits me to

write only at night, because in the daytime my hands are deprived of strength. I believe

that a son of Francisco Pinelo will carry this letter. Entertain him well, because he does

everything for me that he can, with much love and a cheerful goodwill. The caravel

which broke her mast in starting from Santo Domingo has arrived in the Algarves. She

brings the records of the case of the Porras brothers. Such ugly things and such grievous

cruelty as appear in this matter never were seen. If their Highnesses do not punish it, I do

not know who will dare to go out in their service with people.