to Columbus of the use of this strange conveyance; but one is glad to
think that he ultimately made his journey in a less grim though more
humble method. But what are we to think of the taste of a man who would
rather travel in a bier, so long as it had been associated with the
splendid obsequies of a cardinal, than in the ordinary litter of
every-day use? It is but the old passion for state and splendour thus
dismally breaking out again.

He speaks of living on borrowed funds and of having devoted all his
resources to the payment of his crew; but that may be taken as an
exaggeration. He may have borrowed, but the man who can borrow easily
from banks cannot be regarded as a poor man. One is nevertheless
grateful for these references, since they commemorate the Admiral's
unfailing loyalty to those who shared his hardships, and his unwearied
efforts to see that they received what was due to them. Pleasant also
are the evidences of warm family affection in those simple words of
brotherly love, and the affecting advice to Diego that he should love his
brother Ferdinand as Christopher loved Bartholomew. It is a pleasant
oasis in this dreary, sordid wailing after thirds and tenths and eighths.
Good Diego Mendez, that honourable gentleman, was evidently also at Court
at this time, honestly striving, we may be sure, to say a good word for
the Admiral.

Some time after this letter was written, and before the writing of the
next, news reached Seville of the death of Queen Isabella. For ten years
her kind heart had been wrung by many sorrows. Her mother had died in
1496; the next year her only son and heir to the crown had followed; and
within yet another year had died her favourite daughter, the Queen of
Portugal. Her other children were all scattered with the exception of
Juana, whose semi-imbecile condition caused her parents an anxiety