such letters the misfortune
is, that the longer they are, and the more of the detail they give, the
less likely are they to be read. Columbus could only write at night; in
the daytime he could not use his hands.

He took care to show Ferdinand that his interests had not been properly
attended to in the islands. He said that Ovando had been careless as
to the king's service, and he was not unwilling to let it be understood
that his own administration had been based on a more intelligent policy
than that of either of the men who followed him.

But he was now an old man. He was unable to go to court in person. He
had not succeeded in that which he had sailed for--a strait opening to
the Southern Sea. He had discovered new gold mines on the continent,
but he had brought home but little treasure. His answers from the court
seemed to him formal and unsatisfactory. At court, the stories of
the Porras brothers were told on the one side, while Diego Mendez and
Carvajal represented Columbus.

In this period of the fading life of Columbus, we have eleven letters
addressed by him to his son. These show that he was in Seville as late
as February, 1505. From the authority of Las Casas, we know that he left
that part of Spain to go to Segovia in the next May, and from that place
he followed the court to Salamanca and Valladolid, although he was so
weak and ill.

He was received, as he had always been, with professions of kindness;
but nothing followed important enough to show that there was anything
genuine in this cordiality. After a few days Columbus begged that some
action might be taken to indemnify him for his losses, and to confirm
the promises which had been made to him before. The king replied that he
was willing to refer all points which had been discussed between them to
an arbitration. Columbus assented, and proposed the Archbishop Diego de
Deza as an arbiter.

The reader must remember that it was he who had assisted Columbus in
early days when the inquiry was made at Salamanca. The king assented
to the arbitration, but proposed that it should include questions
which Columbus would not consider as doubtful. One of these was his
restoration to his office of viceroy.

Now on the subject of his dignities Columbus was tenacious. He regarded
everything else as unimportant in comparison. He would not admit that
there was any question that he was the viceroy of the Indies, and all
this discussion ended in the postponement o