Authentic Letters of Columbus 145 



XIV. 



Letter from Columbus to his son Diego, Written at Seville 

 on the 1st day of december, 1504, original in the collec- 

 TION OF THE Duke of Veragua, Madrid 



t 



My dearest son : 



Subsequent to your letter of the 15th of November, I have heard 

 nothing- from you. I wish you would write to me very often. I 

 should like to see a letter from you every hour. Reason must tell 

 you that now I could not have a better relief. Many are the mes- 

 sengers that reach here every day, and the information they bring 

 is such as to make my hair stand on end, seeing how things are going 

 so much against my wishes. May the Holy Trinity be pleased to give 

 health to the Queen, Our Lady, that she may settle and affirm what 

 has been built. Last Thursday I wrote to you by a messenger, 

 who, I suppose, is now on his way back to this place, I told you in that 

 letter that my departure from here was a sure thing, but that my safe 

 arrival there was^ on the contrary, and judging from experience, ex- 

 tremely uncertain. The ailment which afflicts me is so bad, and the 

 cold weather aggravates it so much, that it is very possible for me 

 to be left on the road in some of the inns. The stretchers and all 

 other things were ready. But the weather became so formidable 

 that nobody could think of traveling, and all said that it was better 

 for a person so well known as I am to attend to my health and not to 

 run such great risks. I told you also in that letter, as I now say 

 again, that it was a good thing* for you to stay where you are, 

 specially at this time, and that it was advisable for us to begin to 

 look into our affairs. Reason advises us to do so. It seems to me 

 that a good copy must be made of that chapter of the letter which 

 Their Highnesses wrote to me, in which they promise to fuUfill their 

 engagements with me and give possession of everything to you, .... 

 and that said copy must be delivered to Their Highnesses, together 

 with a statement in writing, explaining my sickness and the impossi- 

 bility in which I am now to go and kiss their royal hands and feet, 

 and saying also that the Indies are going to ruin, and are as if they 

 were on fire one very side ; that I have received nothing of the revenue 

 which I should get from there; that no person dare make any de- 



