the others, that they may be given to his Highness during Holy Week
for pardon. If the pardon is granted, it is well, and if not, look
for some other manner of obtaining it. May our Lord have you in His
Holy keeping. Done in Seville, February 25, 1505. I wrote you and
sent it by Amerigo Vespucci. See that he sends you the letter
unless you have already received it.

"Your father.
Xpo FERENS.//"


This is the last letter of Columbus known to us otherwise an entirely
unimportant document, dealing with the most transient affairs. With it
we gladly bring to an end this exposure of a greedy and querulous period,
which speaks so eloquently for itself that the less we say and comment on
it the better.

In the month of May the Admiral was well enough at last to undertake the
journey to Segovia. He travelled on a mule, and was accompanied by his
brother Bartholomew and his son Ferdinand. When he reached the Court he
found the King civil and outwardly attentive to his recitals, but
apparently content with a show of civility and outward attention.
Columbus was becoming really a nuisance; that is the melancholy truth.
The King had his own affairs to attend to; he was already meditating a
second marriage, and thinking of the young bride he was to bring home to
the vacant place of Isabella; and the very iteration of Columbus's
complaints and demands had made them lose all significance for the King.
He waved them aside with polite and empty promises, as people do the
demands of importunate children; and finally, to appease the Admiral and
to get rid of the intolerable nuisance of his applications, he referred