Authentic Letters of Columbus. 163 



XX. 



Letter from Columbus to his son Diego. From Seville, Decem- 

 ber 29TH, 1504. Original in the collection of the Duke of 

 Veragua. 



t 



My Very Dear Son : 



I wrote to you at great length, and sent my letter by Don 

 Fernando who left here twenty-three days ago, in company with the 

 Adelantado and Carbajal — and from none of you have I ever heard 

 since. Sixteen days ago I wrote to you another letter, which I sent 

 by Zamora, inclosing a letter of credit for the merchants there, 

 endorsed by Francisco de Rivarol, ordering them to give you the 

 money )'ou might ask for. Subsequently, about eight days ago, I 

 wrote to you again by another postman and inclosed another letter of 

 credit, endorsed by Francisco Soria, and I addressed my communi- 

 cation in care of Pansaleon and Augustin, the Italians, who were 

 requested to deliver it to you. I also inclosed a copy of a letter 

 which I wrote to our holy friend the Father on the affairs of the In- 

 dies, to prevent him from complaining against me. And I sent this 

 copy to you in order that either His Highness, or the Bishop of 

 Palencia, may read it, and to avoid misrepresentations. 



The pay of the people who went with me has been delayed; 

 and I have had to provide for them as far as I could. They are poor, 

 and moved by their anxiety to make a living decided to go there. 

 They have been promised here to be dealt with as much favor as 

 possible, and this is simply justice, — though there are some among 

 them more deserving of punishment than of reward. I say this in 

 reference to the runaways. I gave these people a letter for the 

 Bishop of Palencia. Try to read it, and to cause your uncle, your 

 brother, and Carbajal to read it also, so as to enable you all to aid the 

 bearers in securing success for the petitions they are going to make 

 to His Highness. You yourself must help them all that you can, as 

 it is just, besides being a work of mercy. No people ever earned 

 their money with so much danger and fatigue, as these have done, — 

 and none other have rendered such a great service as they have. 

 They say that Camacho and Master Bernal are anxious to go there. 

 They are two of those creatures for whom God does not make many 

 miracles. If they go, it will be to do harm rather than good. But they 

 can do little, because truth shall alwaj's prevail, as it happened when 

 so much turmoil was raised upon false statements at La Espanola. 

 This Master Bernal was the one who started the treasonable move- 

 ment. He was arrested, and charged with many crimes, for each 



