io6 Field Coli^mbian Musk.um. 



thoroughly and in all things to serve well the King, our Lord, and 

 prevent him from being displeased. His Highness is the head of all 

 Christendom. Remember the proverb that says that when the head 

 aehes all the members ache also. Therefore all good Christians 

 must pray for the preservation of his health and for his being 

 granted a long life." 



In December, 1504, he writes to Diego: "I am living on what 

 money I can borrow. The money I got tliere (in the Indies) was 

 spent in bringing back to their homes the people who had gone with 

 me, for it would have been a grave sin for me to leave them there 

 unprotected. But Our Lord lives and he will fix everj^thing as he 

 knows to be the best for us." 



In a letter to Diego, written from Seville on the 21st of Novem- 

 ber, the same year, he says: "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." 



" It is true that I served Their Highnesses with as much, or greater 

 diligence and love as I might have displayed in trying to gain Para- 

 dise. If I failed to do something it was due either to the impossi- 

 bility of the thing itself, or to its being entirely beyond my know- 

 ledge and my power. God, Our Lord, requires in such cases only 



the will." 



In the same letter he refers to the fact that the brothers Porres, 

 who mutinied and made him so much trouble when his vessel was 

 wrecked at Jamaica, had been set free "by those who have charge of 

 all the business of the Indies," and he observes: "I will not won- 

 der if Our Lord punishes some one for this." 



The recommendations of Columbus, to the sovereigns, concerning 

 the management of affairs in the American colonies are sensible and 

 practicable, although as an executive officer he proved a great fail- 

 ure. His preaching was better than his practice. In a letter writ- 

 ten to Ferdinand and Isabella, in September, 1493, he says: 



"And in order to secure the better and prompter settlement of 

 the said islands, I should suggest furthermore that the privilege of 

 getting gold be granted exclusively to those who have acquired a 

 domicile and built a dwelling-house in the town of their residence, 

 so as to persuade them all to live close to each other and be better 

 protected; 



' ' And further, that, whereas the extreme anxiety of the colonists 

 to gather gold may induce them to neglect all other business and 

 occupations, it seems to me that prohibition should be made to them 

 to engage in the search of gold during some season of the year only 

 so as to give all other business, profitable to the island, an oppor- 

 tunity to be established and carried on." 



