no Field Columbian Museum. 



ber I have heard nothinj^- from you. I wish that you would write to 

 me very often. I should like to receive a letter from you every 

 hour. Reason must tell you that I could not have a better source of 

 relief from my afflictions. Many are the messengers who reach here 

 every day, and the information they bring is such as to make my 

 hairs stand on end." Again he says: " I am astonished at not re- 

 ceiving any letter from you above all others, and this astonishment 

 is shared by all who are acquainted with me. Everybody else here 

 has letters, but I, entitled more than all to expect them, receive none," 



The confidence Columbus placed in his son Fernando is quite as 

 conspicuous as his lack of faith in Diego, for he writes, saying: "To 

 make your efforts (that is, Diego's attempt to secure justice for his 

 father, from the king and queen) more efficient I have decided to 

 send to you your brother, who, although a child in days, is not a 

 child in miderstanding." Again he writes: "Take good care of 

 your brother. He has a very good dispositon, and is no longer a 

 boy. If you had ten brothers their number would not be too large. 

 I have never found better friends under all circumstances than my 

 brothers." 



It appears that Diego did not treat his half brother with very 

 much respect or affection, for we find his father admonishing him 

 again: "Treat your brother as an elder brother should treat the 

 younger. You have no other brother, and the Lord must be blessed 

 for having made him such a good one. He has proved and continues 

 to be a person of very clear head." 



Now and then in his letters Columbus gives a bit of family gos- 

 sip and on November 28, 1504, he writes Diego: "Your imcle has 

 been very sick and is still suffering a good deal with tooth-ache and 

 some trouble with his jaws." 



In December, 1504, he writes: "Don Fernando left here with 

 150 ducats, to be expended at his discretion. He will have to use 

 some part of that money, but he will give you whatever he can. He 

 also carries with him a letter of credit upon some of your merchants 

 there. You must be careful in this matter, because I have already 

 had some trouble with the governor. Everybody told me that 

 I had there some eleven or twelve thousand castellanos, and the 

 result was that I had only four thousand. He wanted to charge me 

 with many things which I was not bound to pay, and I, trusting on 

 the promises made by Their Highnesses, that restitution of every- 

 thing should be ordered to be made to me, decided to allow him to 

 go on with his charges. I was in hopes that some day I could call 



