But Columbus himself was not yet out of this "wearisome world," and was
troubling his weary brain far too much about its petty details. From his
fourth voyage he had returned much poorer than he ever expected to be at
the end of his sea-going life. The little money he had been able to
collect from his plantation in Espanola had been used to equip the ships
that brought him home, and to pay his sailors; for this was a point on
which he was always most scrupulous. When his ready money was thus used
up, the good monks of Las Cuevas had to provide for his necessities
until finally the banks advanced money on the strength of his claims
against the Crown. After the death of Isabella these claims had small
chance of being considered to his full satisfaction, for Ferdinand
argued that the contract of Granada was, owing to the vast extent of the
new lands, impossible for either the Crown on the one hand or Columbus
on the other to fulfill. That rascally Porras, who had caused so much
trouble during the Jamaica days, was at court, filling everybody's ears
with slanderous stories about the Admiral during the days when the
Admiral himself was wearying Ferdinand with a constant stream of
letters. Every day that he was able to sit up he wrote long appeals for
"his rights" and his property. Not only did he present his claims for
recognition and reward, but he told how badly things had been going in
San Domingo under Ovando; how the comendador was hated by all for his
tyranny and for the favoritism he showed; and how things would soon come
to a sorry pass in the colony unless a better governor were quickly
appointed; and then, poor man, deluded with the idea that he could set
things right, he asked to be reinstated as governor! Good Christopher!
can you not realize that your work is done now, for better or worse? Can
you not let others solve the great problems across the ocean? Can you
not see that you have been greatest of them all, and that nothing more
is required of you? And as for all the dignities and titles and
properties that should be yours, according to the Granada contract, we
know you want them only to pass them on to your boy, Diego; but never
mind him; you are leaving him a name that will grow greater and greater
through the coming ages; a name that is a magnificent inheritance for
any child.
About this time the sick man received a visit which brightened him a
great deal, a visit from the man who, never intending any harm, was
destined to soon assume the greatest honor which the world could have
given Columbus--the honor of naming the newly discovered lands Columbia,
instead of America.
Public-domain text, read in full here on John Shaqi.
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