The Life and Voyages of Christopher Columbus Part 50

[199]: At present Mammee Bay.

[200]: Hist. del Almirante, ubi sup.

[201]: Hist. del Almirante, cap. 107. Las Casas, Hist. Ind., lib ii. cap.

35.

[202]: Las Casas, Hist. Ind., lib. ii. cap. 35.

[203]: Las Casas, Hist. Ind., lib. ii. cap. 32.

[204]: Some brief notice of the further fortunes of Diego Mendez may be interesting to the reader. When King Ferdinand heard of his faithful services, says Oviedo, he bestowed rewards upon Mendez, and permitted him to bear a canoe in his coat of arms, as a memento of his loyalty. He continued devotedly attached to the admiral, serving him zealously after his return to Spain, and during his last illness. Columbus retained the most grateful and affectionate sense of his fidelity. On his death-bed he promised Mendez that, in reward for his services, he should be appointed princ.i.p.al Alguazil of the island of Hispaniola; an engagement which the admiral's son, Don Diego, who was present, cheerfully undertook to perform. A few years afterwards, when the latter succeeded to the office of his father, Mendez reminded him of the promise, but Don Diego informed him that he had given the office to his uncle Don Bartholomew; he a.s.sured him, however, that he should receive something equivalent. Mendez shrewdly replied, that the equivalent had better be given to Don Bartholomew, and the office to himself, according to agreement. The promise, however, remained unperformed, and Diego Mendez unrewarded. He was afterwards engaged on voyages of discovery in vessels of his own, but met with many vicissitudes, and appears to have died in impoverished circ.u.mstances. His last will, from which these particulars are princ.i.p.ally gathered, was dated in Valladolid, the 19th of June, 1536, by which it is evident he must have been in the prime of life at the time of his voyage with the admiral. In this will he requested that the reward which had been promised to him should be paid to his children, by making his eldest son princ.i.p.al Alguazil for life of the city of San Domingo, and his other son lieutenant to the admiral for the same city. It does not appear whether this request was complied with under the successors of Don Diego.

In another clause of his will, he desired that a large stone should be placed upon his sepulchre, on which should be engraved, "Here lies the honorable Cavalier Diego Mendez, who served greatly the royal crown of Spain, in the conquest of the Indies, with the admiral Don Christopher Columbus, of glorious memory, who made the discovery; and afterwards by himself, with ships at his own cost. He died, &c., &c. Bestow in charity a Paternoster, and an Ave Maria."

He ordered that in the midst of this stone there should be carved an Indian canoe, as given him by the king for armorial bearings in memorial of his voyage from Jamaica to Hispaniola, and above it should be engraved in large letters the word "CANOA." He enjoined upon his heirs to be loyal to the admiral (Don Diego Columbus), and his lady, and gave them much ghostly counsel, mingled with pious benedictions. As an heirloom in his family, he bequeathed his library, consisting of a few volumes, which accompanied him in his wanderings; viz. "The Art of Holy Dying, by Erasmus; A sermon of the same author, in Spanish; The Lingua, and the Colloquies of the same; The History of Josephus; The Moral Philosophy of Aristotle; The Book of the Holy Land; A Book called the Contemplation of the Pa.s.sion of our Savior; A Tract on the Vengeance of the Death of Agamemnon, and several other short treatises." This curious and characteristic testament is in the archives of the Duke of Veragua in Madrid.

[205]: Las Casas, Hist. Ind., lib. ii. cap. 6.

[206]: Las Casas, Hist. Ind., lib. ii. cap. 14, MS.

[207]: Idem, ubi sup.

[208]: Las Casas, Hist. Ind., lib. ii. cap. 9.

[209]: Oviedo, Cronica de las Indias, lib. iii. cap. 12.

[210]: Las Casas, Hist. Ind., lib. ii. cap. 9.

[211]: Charlevoix, Hist. San Domingo, lib. xxiv. p. 235.

[212]: Relacion hecha por Don Diego Mendez. Navarrete, Col., tom. i. p.

314.

[213]: Oviedo, Cronica de las Indias, lib. iii. cap. 12. Las Casas, Hist.

Ind., lib. ii. cap. 9.

[214]: Oviedo, Cronica de las Indias, lib. iii. cap. 12.

[215]: Las Casas, Hist. Ind., lib. ii. cap. 8.

[216]: Las Casas, ubi. sup.

[217]: Las Casas, ubi. sup.

[218]: Las Casas, lib. ii. cap. 17, MS.

[219]: Las Casas, Hist. Ind., lib. ii. cap. 18.

[220]: Las Casas, Hist. Ind., lib. ii. cap. 36.

[221]: Letter of Columbus to his son Diego, Seville, Nov. 21, 1504.

Navarrete, Colec., tom. i.

[222]: Letter of Columbus to his son Diego, dated Seville, 3d Dec., 1504.

Navarrete, tom. i. p. 341.

[223]: Navarrete, Colec., tom. ii. decad. 151, 152.

[224]: Herrera, Hist. Ind., decad. i. lib. v. cap. 12.

[225]: Hist. del Almirante, cap. 108. Las Casas, Hist. Ind., lib. ii.

cap. 36.

[226]: Let. Seville, 13 Dec., 1504. Navarrete, v. i. p. 343.

[227]: The dying command of Isabella has been obeyed. The author of this work has seen her tomb in the royal chapel of the Cathedral of Granada, in which her remains are interred with those of Ferdinand. Their effigies, sculptured in white marble, lie side by side on a magnificent sepulchre.

The altar of the chapel is adorned with bas reliefs representing the conquest and surrender of Granada.

[228]: Elogio de la Reina Catolica por D. Diego Clemencin. Ill.u.s.tration 19.

[229]: Letter to his son Diego, Dec. 3,1504.

[230]: Letter of December 21,1504. Navarrete, torn. i. p. 346.

[231]: Las Casas, Hist. Ind., lib. ii. cap. 37. Herrera, Hist. Ind., decad.

i. lib. vi. cap. 13.

[232]: Las Casas, Hist. Ind, lib. ii. cap. 37, MS.

[233]: Navarrete, Colec., tom. i.

[234]: Diego, the son of the admiral, notes in his own testament this bequest of his father, and says, that he was charged by him to pay Beatrix Enriquez 10,000 maravedis a year, which for some time he had faithfully performed; but as he believes that for three or four years previous to her death he had neglected to do so, he orders that the deficiency shall be ascertained and paid to her heirs. Memorial ajustado sobre la propriedad del mayorazgo que foudo D. Christ. Colon, -- 245.

[235]: Cura de los Palacios, cap. 121.

[236]: Las Casas, Hist. Ind., lib. ii. cap. 38. Hist, del Almirante, cap.

108.

[237]: D. Humboldt. Examen Critique.

[238]: Cladera, Investigaciones historias, p. 43.

[239]: Navarrete, Colec., tom. ii. p. 365.

[240]: Herrera, Hist. Ind., decad. ii. lib. vii. cap. 4.

[241]: Extracts from the minutes of the process taken by the historian Munoz, MS.

[242]: Further mention will be found of this lawsuit in the article relative to Amerigo Vespucci.