Authentic Letters of Columbus. 109 



remained at La Rabida, in charge of the monks, while his father was 

 following the court during the eight long years that passed before 

 he finally received his instructions to make the memorable voyage, 

 although there is no evidence except a tradition among the Francis- 

 can fathers that he was educated at the convent. 



The next we hear of him is his appointment as a page to Prince 

 Juan, the son and heir of Ferdinand and Isabella, shortly before the 

 departure of Columbus on his first voyage. After the death of the 

 young prince Diego remained at the court, first as a page to Isabella, 

 and then as a courtier, leading a useless and dissolute life. 



In his will Columbus made Diego his sole heir, but imposed 

 upon him many pious injunctions and obligations. To most, if not 

 all of them, however, Diego was totally indifferent, and although while 

 he was in the train of Ferdinand he did little or nothing to secure the 

 rights of his father or relieve his distress, within twelve days after 

 the death of the admiral we find Diego importuning the king for the 

 official recognition of himself and the pecuniary dues for which Colum- 

 bus had so long and persistently appealed. Ferdinand permitted him 

 to bring a suit in the courts to establish the claims of the Columbus 

 family against the crown of Spain, and it was decided in favor of 

 Diego, but not until after his marriage to Dofia Maria de Toledo, a 

 cousin of the king, and a member of the most influential family at 

 court, was the verdict satisfied, and even then only partially. 



Columbus had a profound fondness for Diego, and wrote him 

 long and affectionate letters while he was absent on his several voy- 

 ages, but the frivolities of court life seemed^to have absorbed the at- 

 tention of the young man, and we find hisfather frequently complaining 

 of a lack of affection for himself, as well as for his brother Fernando. 



There is a great deal of pathos in the letters of Columbus to his 

 son, but the latter, engaged by the allurements and dissipations of 

 the court, paid little attention to his poor old father, who, broken in 

 health and spirits, was passing the last unhappy years of his life un- 

 der the shelter of the friendly monastery at Seville. "I should like 

 to have letters from you every day," he writes in December, 1504, 

 " Your father loves you more than himself." Columbus refers to 

 him as "My dearest son, Diego, by whom it pleases me to hear 

 that His Highness is well served." Again he reproaches Diego for 

 his indifference to his uncle Bartholomew, and says: "I beg you to pay 

 to your uncle that respect which is due to him." Again he says: "How 

 grieved I feel when I see that everybody here receives letters and 

 that I who have so many of my people there do not receive any." In 

 April, 1502, he says: " Since your letter of the 15th of Novem- 



