i68 Field Columbian Museum. 



XXII. 



Letter from Columbus to his son Diego. Dated January i8th, 

 1505. Original in the collection of the Duke of Veragua, 

 Madrid. 



t 



My Dearest Son: 



I wrote to you a long letter which I forwarded by a messenger 

 who will reach you to-day. I sent you also a letter for the Lord 

 Chamberlain. I intended to inclose in it a copy of that chapter of 

 the letter of Their Highnesses in which they promised to order you 

 to be put in possession of everything; but I forgot to make the copy. 

 Zamora, the postman, came. I read your letter, and also those of 

 your uncle, your brother, and Carbajal. I was very happy to know 

 that they had safel}^ arrived, because I had experienced great anxiety 

 in that respect. Diego Mendez will leave here, in three or four days, 

 and will take the draft with him. He will carry also a full statement 

 of everything. I shall write to Juan Velazquez, whose friendship 

 and services I desire to obtain. I believe that he is a very honorable 

 gentleman. Tell the Bishop of Palencia, if he has arrived there, or 

 if not when he arrives, that I have been very much pleased with his 

 prosperity, and that if I go there I will stop where he is, even if he is 

 unwilling, and that we both have to come back to our first brotherly 

 love for each other, which he will have no power to refuse, because 

 my services to him will force him to grant it. The copy of my letter 

 to our holy friend the Father was sent to you, as I said, in order that 

 you might show it to the Bishop of Palencia, if he was there, or to 

 the Archbishop of Seville, for fear that the King might have no time 

 to look into this matter. I have told you that the petition to Their 

 Highnesses must be for the fulfillment of what they wrote to me 

 about the possession and of all the other promises which were then 

 made; and I said that it was important to show him the chapter afore- 

 said of their letters. I recommended further that all of this should 

 be done without delay, as it is advisable, for innumerable reasons, to 

 act in this matter speedil}^ Let His Highness be persuaded that no 

 matter how much he gives me it will be always in the proportion of 

 one to one hundred when compared with the increase of his dominions 

 and revenue, and furthermore, that what has been already done is 

 nothing in comparison with what is to be done in the future. The 



