roperty; and
then, on the twelfth of September, 1504, sailed for Spain.

Scarcely had the ship left harbor when she was dismasted in a squall. He
was obliged to cross to another ship, under command of his brother,
the Adelantado. She also was unfortunate. Her mainmast was sprung in a
storm, and she could not go on until the mast was shortened.

In another gale the foremast was sprung, and it was only on the seventh
of November that the shattered and storm-pursued vessel arrived at San
Lucar. Columbus himself had been suffering, through the voyage, from
gout and his other maladies. The voyage was, indeed, a harsh experience
for a sick man, almost seventy years old.

He went at once to Seville, to find such rest as he might, for body and
mind.

CHAPTER XIII. -- TWO SAD YEARS

--ISABELLA'S DEATH--COLUMBUS AT SEVILLE--HIS ILLNESS--LETTERS TO
THE KING--JOURNEYS TO SEGOVIA, SALAMANCA, AND VALLADOLID--HIS SUIT
THERE--PHILIP AND JUANA--COLUMBUS EXECUTES HIS WILL--DIES--HIS BURIAL
AND THE REMOVAL OF HIS BODY--HIS PORTRAITS--HIS CHARACTER.

Columbus had been absent from Spain two years and six months. He
returned broken in health, and the remaining two years of his life are
only the sad history of his effort to relieve his name from dishonor and
to leave to his sons a fair opportunity to carry forward his work in the
world.

Isabella, alas, died on the twenty-sixth day of November, only a short
time after his arrival. Ferdinand, at the least, was cold and hard
toward him, and Ferdinand was now engaged in many affairs other than
those of discovery. He was satisfied that Columbus did not know how to
bring gold home from the colonies, and the promises of the last voyage,
that they should strike the East, had not been fulfilled.

Isabella had testified her kindly memory of Columbus, even while he was
in exile at Jamaica, by making him one of the body-guard of her oldest
son, an honorary appointment which carried with it a handsome annual
salary. After the return to Spain of Diego Mendez, the loyal friend who
had cared for his interests so well in San Domingo, she had raised him
to noble rank.

It is clear, therefore, that among her last thoughts came in the wish
to do justice to him whom she had served so well. She had well done her
duty which had been given her to do. She had never forgotten the new
world to which it was her good fortune to send the discoverer, and in
her death that discoverer lost his best friend.