138 Field Columbian Museum. 



XII. 



Letter from Columbus to Diego, his Son. Written at Seville 

 ON the 2IST OF November (probably) 1504. Original in the 

 collection of the Duke of Veragua, Madrid. 



t 



My Dearest Son: 



I received your letter which came by the post. You did well in 

 remaining there, and attempting to remedy certain things and seeing 

 already about your business. My Lord the Bishop of Palencia has 

 always favored me, and wished for my being honored, ever since 1 

 came to Castile. Now is the time to request him to be pleased to 

 look into the many wrongs which have been done to me and to cause 

 my agreement with Their Highnesses and the letters of concession 

 which Their Highnesses granted to me, to be ordered to be complied 

 with, trying also to secure that a proper indemnification for so many 

 injuries be paid to me. He must rest assured that if Their 

 Highnesses do so their dominions and greatness will be increased 

 in an incredible degree. He must not think forty thousand gold 

 dollars too much, as a much greater sum might have been 

 obtained, if Satan had not interfered to prevent my plans from 

 being carried out, because when I was brought from the Indies the 

 labors in which I was already engaged promised to give an amount 

 of gold superior beyond comparison to forty thousand dollars. I can 

 state upon oath, and this I say to you alone, that the injury done to 

 me in the matter of the concessions which Their Highnesses granted me 

 amounts to ten millions per year, which never will be recovered. 

 Now imagine what will be the injury done to Their Highnesses 

 themselves for the share in said concessions which belongs to them. 

 But they do not feel it. I write as one who is at their mercy, and 

 shall make an effort to leave for there. My safe arrival and all the 

 rest is in the hands of Our Lord. His mercy is infinite. Saint 

 Augustine says that what is being done, or is about to be done, is a 

 thing already done before the creation of the world. I have also 

 written to those other gentlemen named in the letter of Diego Men- 

 dez. Commend me to their mercy and inform them of my intended 

 voyage there,, as I said before. Indeed I am afraid of being unable 

 to reach my destination, and be left on the roadside, on account of 

 the cold weather, which is unfavorable in such a great degree to this 

 illness of mine. 



