CHARACTER OP COLUMBUS. 397 



glory and vast increase of dominion, it should please the 

 divine Majesty to defeat all by my death.' 



It may be inferred from this simple expression of 

 the feelings of Columbus, that he had the interest of his 

 country, as well as his own honor, at heart ; and there are 

 other abundant proofs both of his patriotism and his loy- 

 alty during the whole course of his life. Nothing, as it 

 has been truly said, can surpass the affecting earnestness 

 of his own declaration to this effect wrung from him, 

 it should be added, by an ingratitude which must have 

 stung him to the soul. < 1 have served their majesties,' 

 says he, ' with as much zeal and diligence as if it had 

 been to gain paradise; and if I have failed in anything, 

 it has been because my knowledge and my powers went 

 no further.' There can be no doubt of the entire truth 

 of this statement, nor of the personal attachment which 

 he cherished for Isabella, and the unbounded confidence 

 he reposed in her magnanimity. ' May it please the 

 Holy Trinity,' he says upon hearing of her last illness, 

 ' to restore our sovereign queen to health : for by her 

 everything will be adjusted which is now in confusion.' 

 At the very moment he was thus writing, his benefactress 

 was a corpse, and he heard of her death soon afterwards. 

 ' Let me remind thee, my dear son Diego,' he writes 

 upon that mournful occasion, 'let me remind thee of 

 what is at present to be done. The principal is to com- 

 mend affectionately, and with great devotion, the soul of 

 the queen, our sovereign, to God. tier life was always 

 catholic and holy, and prompt to all things in His holy 

 service : for which reason we may rest assured that she 

 is received into His glory, and beyond the cares of this 

 rough and weary world. The next thing is, to watch 

 and labor in all things for the service of our sovereign 

 the king, and to endeavor to alleviate his #rief.' Such 

 was his enduring loyalty towards the monarch who was 

 so ungratefully neglecting him expressed, it should be 

 observed, in a confidential and secret letter to his son. 

 That Ferdinand was not ignorant, ultimately at least, of 

 the services which the admiral had rendered him and his 

 country, would appear from the monument which he or- 

 dered to be erected to his memory, and the motto engrav- 

 ed upon it, To CASTILE AND LEON COLUMBUS GAVE 



