ew of his leading characters. To magnify the virtues and to
minimize the faults of their heroes has always been the besetting sin of
biographers. The pomp and picturesque circumstance of the Spanish court,
the splendid administrative abilities of Ferdinand, the beauty,
amiability, and devoted piety of Isabella, are depicted in glowing
colors, but the crimes and cruelties which they sanctioned, while
condemned upon one page, are softly extenuated upon others. Columbus
appears as a romantic figure in history, the glory of whose successful
discovery atones for his many failings.

Of the original sources of information about Columbus the most important
are:

1. The great collection of original documents printed in Spanish by
Navarrete, in 1825-37, in five volumes, and partly reprinted in a French
translation in 1828. These contain the precious letters of Columbus,
many of which have been translated and recently published in English.

2. The "Historia general de las Indias," of Oviedo, first published in
1535.

3. The "Historia de las Indias," of the Spanish Bishop Las Casas,
composed in 1527 to 1561, which remained in manuscript until 1875, when
it was printed from the original Spanish.

4. The "Letters and the Decades of Peter Martyr," written in part
contemporaneously with the discovery of America, and printed in Latin in
1530, and in English in 1555.

5. The "Historia de las Reyes Catolicos," of Andres Bernaldez.

6. The "Life of the Discoverer," by Ferdinand Columbus, first published
in 1571 at Venice, in Italian.

The last five writers had personal knowledge or intercourse with
Columbus, while Las Casas, Oviedo, and Ferdinand had the advantage of
residence in America, and intimate knowledge of the aborigines, and of
the men and events of the period.

Almost every item involved in the checkered and eventful life of
Columbus has afforded a fruitful theme for controversy. His birth, even,
is disputed, under stress of evidence, as falling anywhere between 1435
and 1447--a discrepancy of twelve years. His birthplace is claimed by
more towns than that of Homer, although his own statement, that he was a
native of Genoa, has met general concurrence. His knowledge of
geography, astronomy, and navigation is asserted and denied with various
degrees of pertinacity. His treatment by the sovereigns of Portugal,
Castile, and Aragon is so far in question that irreconcilable
differences of opinion exist. How much Columbus re