XVII. what he was about to do was not of his own free CHAPTER will, but from necessity, to extricate himself from his perilous situation, and shield the country from the impending evils of a civil war. He concluded with asserting, that, so far from relinquishing his claims to the regency, it was his design to enforce them, as well as to rescue his daughter from her captivity, as soon as he was in a condition to do so. 50 Finally, he completed this chain of inconsistencies by addressing a circular letter, dated July 1st, to the different parts of the kingdom, announcing his resignation of the government into the hands of Philip and Joanna, and declaring the act one, which, notwithstanding his own right and power to the contrary, he had previously determined on executing, so soon as his children should set foot in Spain. 51 It is not easy to reconcile this monstrous tissue His motives. of incongruity and dissimulation with any motives of necessity or expediency. Why should he, so soon after preparing to raise the kingdom in his daughter's cause, thus publicly avow her imbecility, and deposit the whole authority in the hands of 50 Zurita, Anales, ubi supra. 51 Idem, ubi supra. Ferdinand's manifesto, as well as the instrument declaring his daughter's incapacity, are given at length by Zurita. The secret protest rests on the unsupported authority of the historian; and surely a better authority cannot easily be found, considering his proximity to the period, his resources as national historiographer, and the extreme caution and candor with which he discriminates between fact and ru- PART II. Second interview. July 5. Philip? Was it to bring odium on the head of the latter, by encouraging him to a measure, which he knew must disgust the Castilians? 52 But Ferdinand by this very act shared the responsibility with him. Was it in the expectation that uncontrolled and undivided power, in the hands of one so rash and improvident, would the more speedily work his ruin? As to his clandestine protest, its design was obviously to afford a plausible pretext at some future time for reasserting his claims to the government, on the ground, that his concessions had been the result of force. But then, why neutralize the operation of this, by the declaration, spontaneously made in his manifesto to the people, that his abdication was not only a free, but most deliberate and premeditated act? He was led to this last avowal, probably, by the desire of covering over the mortification of his defeat; a thin varnish, which could impose on nobody. The whole of the proceedings are of so ambiguous a character as to suggest the inevitable inference, that they flowed from habits of dissimulation too strong to be controlled, even when there was no occasion for its exercise. We occasionally meet with examples of a similar fondness for superfluous manoeuvring in the humbler concerns of private life. After these events, one more interview took place between King Ferdinand and Philip, in which the 52 This motive is charitably imputed to him by Gaillard. (Rivalité, tom. iv. p. 311.) The same writer commends Ferdinand's ha bilité, in extricating himself from his embarrassments by the treaty, "auquel il fit consentir Philippe dans leur entrevue"! p. 310. XVII. former prevailed on his son-in-law to pay such at- CHAPTER tention 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. 53 Ferdinand. Throughout the whole of these trying scenes, Departure of 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. 54 The circumspect monarch looked 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 PART II. read in the dark signs of the times abundant augury of some speedy revolution. 55 Authorities for the account of Philip. The principal authorities for the events in 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's conduct less favorable, on the whole, than Martyr. But neither the Aragonese historian, nor Martyr, nor any contemporary 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 their own selfish purposes. CHAPTER XVIII. COLUMBUS. HIS RETURN TO SPAIN. - HIS DEATH. 1504-1506. Return of Columbus from his Fourth Voyage. His Illness. - Neglected by Ferdinand. His Death. His Person. - And Character. XVIII. WHILE the events were passing, which occupy CHAPTER the beginning of the preceding chapter, Christopher Columbus's Columbus returned from his fourth and last voyage. last voyage. It had been one unbroken series of disappointment and disaster. 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 invited him to strike into its western depths in vain, 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 |