After these events, one more interview took place between King Ferdinand and Philip (July 5th), in

of love for him, and for his good, which is the truth; and also because as a father I wish to see love and agreement between them. Also, if anything should be said about putting the queen my daughter into a fortress, of which there has already been some talk, and they should ask you about my opinion or pleasure in regard to it, you will say that, for the love I bear the king my son, I would never give my voice or consent to it; for I regard it as certain that this is the least befitting thing to do, and, if my opinion and counsel be followed, for no cause in the world should it be done. By love and good treatment he can do more with her than by any other method, and this is a safe way, as well as that which God requires, while the other is full of inconveniences. At the time of my departure I was asked on the part of the king my son to write with my own hand to the queen my daughter, requesting her to take some women into her service [Juana, when coming to Spain, had left her Flemish attendants behind], as he thought very wrong that she should be thus alone: tell the king my son, and the archbishop of Toledo, who spoke to me about this, that I was on the point of writing to her when I learned that she had taken women, and seeing it was done I desisted from writing, both because it was unnecessary and lest the sight of my letter might have some ill effect on her (le pudiera hacer alguna alteracion)." Instructions to Luis Ferrer, Barcelona, July 29th, 1506, Papiers d'État du Cardinal de Granvelle, tom. i.

Bergenroth, citing a single passage from this document, that in which Philip is urged to treat his wife kindly and lovingly and to live in harmony with her, asks if it is "possible to suppose that even a man like Ferdinand would have advised Philip to live with her as a good husband and to gain her affections, if she had been mad?" The meaning of Ferdinand's language will be clear if we remember that the jealousy for which she had undoubted grounds had been represented as an instigating cause of Juana's fits of aberration. Her father intimates that it is in Philip's power, by a proper line of conduct, to ameliorate her condition. But it is clear from the whole tenor of this letter that he was convinced of her incapacity; and this conviction forms his justification both in struggling to retain possession of the government, and, when forced to relinquish it, in resigning it to Philip exclusively.-ED.]

which the former prevailed on his son-in-law to pay such attention to decorum, and exhibit such outward marks of a cordial reconciliation, as, if they did not altogether impose on the public, might at least throw a decent veil over the coming separation.* Even at this last meeting, however, such was the distrust and apprehension entertained of him that the unhappy father was not permitted to see and embrace his daughter before his departure.54

Throughout the whole of these trying scenes, says his biographer, the king maintained that propriety and entire self-possession which comported with the dignity of his station and character, and strikingly contrasted with the conduct of his enemies. However much he may have been touched with the desertion of a people who had enjoyed the blessings of peace and security under his government for more than thirty years, he manifested no outward sign of discontent. On the contrary, he took leave of the assembled grandees with many expressions of regard, noticing kindly their past services to him, and studying to leave such an impression as should efface the recollection of recent differences. 55 The circumspect monarch looked

54 Zurita, Anales, tom. vi. lib. 7, cap. 10.-Mariana, Hist. de España, tom. ii. lib. 28, cap. 21.-Gomez, De Rebus gestis, fol. 64.— Peter Martyr, Opus Epist., epist. 210.

55 Zurita, Anales, tom. vi. lib. 7, cap. 10.—Oviedo, Quincuagenas, MS., bat. I, quinc. 3, dial. 9.

* [In a letter written on the same day, Ferdinand describes this interview as lasting an hour and a half, during which the parties were alone together, and the elder monarch "instructed and counselled" the younger, after which Ximenes was admitted. Col. de Doc. inéd. para la Hist. de España, tom. xiv.-ED.]

forward, no doubt, to the day of his return.

The event did not seem very improbable; and there were other sagacious persons besides himself, who read in the dark signs of the times abundant augury of some speedy revolution.56

56 Zurita, Anales, tom. vi. lib. 7, cap. 10.-See also the melancholy vaticinations of Martyr (Opus Epist., epist. 311), who seems to echo back the sentiments of his friends Tendilla and Talavera.

The principal authorities for the events of this chapter, as the reader may remark, are Martyr and Zurita. The former, not merely a spectator, but actor in them, had undoubtedly the most intimate opportunities of observation. He seems to have been sufficiently impartial, too, and prompt to do justice to what was really good in Philip's character; although that of his royal master was of course calculated to impress the deepest respect on a person of Martyr's uncommon penetration and sagacity. The Aragonese chronicler, however, though removed to a somewhat further distance as to time, was from that circumstance placed in a point of view more favorable for embracing the whole field of action than if he had taken part and jostled in the crowd as one of it. He has accordingly given much wider scope to his survey, exhibiting full details of the alleged grievances, pretensions, and policy of the opposite party, and, although condemning them himself without reserve, has conveyed impressions of Ferdinand' conduct less favorable, on the whole, than Martyr.

But neither the Aragonese historian, nor Martyr, nor any con temporary writer, native or foreign, whom I have consulted, countenances the extremely unfavorable portrait which Dr. Robertson has given of Ferdinand in his transactions with Philip. It is difficult to account for the bias which this eminent historian's mind has received in this matter, unless it be that he has taken his impressions from the popular notions entertained of the character of the parties, rather than from the circumstances of the particular case under review; a mode of proceeding extremely objectionable in the present instance, where Philip, however good his natural qualities, was obviously a mere tool in the hands of corrupt and artful men, working exclusively for theit own selfish purposes.

CHAPTER XVIII.

COLUMBUS.-HIS RETURN TO SPAIN. HIS DEATH.

1504-1506.

Return of Columbus from his Fourth Voyage.-His Illness.-Neg lected by Ferdinand.-His Death.-His Person and Character.

WHILE the events were passing which occupy the beginning of the preceding chapter, Christopher Columbus returned from his fourth and last voyage. It had been one unbroken series of disappointments and disasters. After quitting Hispaniola, and being driven by storms nearly to the island of Cuba, he traversed the gulf of Honduras, and coasted along the margin of the golden region which had so long flitted before his fancy. The natives in vain invited him to strike into its western depths, and he pressed forward to the south, now solely occupied with the grand object of discovering a passage into the Indian Ocean. At length, after having with great difficulty advanced somewhat beyond the point of Nombre de Dios, he was compelled, by the fury of the elements and the murmurs of his men, to abandon the enterprise and retrace his steps. He was subsequently defeated in an attempt to establish a colony on terra firma, by the ferocity of the natives; was wrecked on the island of Jamaica, where he was permitted to linger more than

a year, through the malice of Ovando, the new gov ernor of St. Domingo; and finally, having re-embarked with his shattered crew in a vessel freighted at his own expense, was driven by a succession of terrible tempests across the ocean, until, on the 7th of November, 1504, he anchored in the little port of St. Lucar, twelve leagues from Seville.'

In this quiet haven, Columbus hoped to find the repose his broken constitution and wounded spirit so much needed, and to obtain a speedy restitution of his honors and emoluments from the hand of Isabella. But here he was to experience his bitterest disappointment. At the time of his arrival, the queen was on her death-bed; and in a very few days Columbus received the afflicting intelligence that the friend on whose steady support he had so confidently relied was no more. It was a heavy blow to his hopes, for "he had always experienced favor and protection from her," says his son Ferdinand, "while the king had not only been indifferent, but positively unfriendly, to his interests."'* We may readily credit that a man of the cold and prudent character of the Spanish mon

Martyr, De Rebus Oceanicis, dec. 3, lib. 4.-Benzoni, Novi Orbis Hist., lib. 1, cap. 14.-Fernando Colon, Hist. del Almirante, cap. 88108.-Herrera, Indias occidentales, dec. 1, lib. 5, cap. 2-12; lib. 6, cap. 1-13.-Navarrete, Coleccion de Viages, tom. i. pp. 282–325.— The best authorities for the fourth voyage are the relations of Mendez and Porras, both engaged in it, and, above all, the admiral's own letter to the sovereigns from Jamaica. They are all collected in the first volume of Navarrete. (Ubi supr.) Whatever cloud may be thrown over the early part of Columbus's career, there is abundant light on every step of his path after the commencement of his great enterprise.

2 Hist. del Almirante, cap. 108.