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HISTORY OF THE SEA. 



same year, the vault was opened, and the fragments which were 

 found — those of a leaden coffin, mingled with bones and dust 

 returned to dust — were carefully collected. They were carried 

 on board the brigantine Discovery, which transported them to 

 the frigate San Lorenzo, by which they were taken to Havana, 

 where, in the presence of the Governor-General of Cuba and 

 in the midst of imposing ceremonies, they were consigned to 

 their fourth and final resting-place. 



It will not be altogether out of place to group together here 

 the numerous and remarkable instances of the world's injustice 

 and ingratitude towards Columbus. We have said that he died 

 in penury at Valladolid. A publication, issued periodically in 

 that city from 1333 to 1539, chronicling every event of local 

 interest — births, marriages, deaths, fires, executions, appoint- 

 ments, church ceremonies— did not mention, or in any way al- 

 lude to, the death of Columbus. Pierre Martyr, a poet of 

 Lombardy, once his intimate friend, and who had said, at the 

 time of his first voyage, that by singing of his discoveries he 

 would descend to immortality with him, seemed to think, later 

 in life, that he should peril his chances of immortality were he 

 to sing of his death, for his muse held her peace. In 1507, a 

 collection of voyages was published by Fracanzo de Montalbodo, 

 in which no mention was made of Columbus' fourth voyage, and 

 in which Columbus himself was alluded to as still alive. In 

 1508, a Latin translation of this work was published, in the 

 preface to which Columbus was mentioned as still living in 

 honor at the court of Spain. Another famous work of the 

 time attributes the discovery of the New World, not to the 

 calculations and science of a man, but to the accidental wander- 

 ings of a tempest-driven caravel. Not ten years after the death 

 of Columbus, the chaplain of one of the kings of Italy, in a 

 work upon "Memorable Events in Spain," stated that a New 

 World had been discovered in the West by one Peter Colum- 

 bus. And, in the same taste and spirit, a German doctor, in 



