DON FERNANDO met me at the door. “He is wandering--he thinks he is in
Cordova with my mother.” He came from that and said he would get up and
go to mass. Persuaded to lie quiet, he talked of his will, drawn before
his third voyage, and said that he would have it read to him, and make a
codicil.
This will. It ran at length through preamble and body.
“In the name of the most Holy Trinity who revealed it
to me that I could sail westward across Ocean-Sea--
“As it pleased God, in the year one thousand, four hundred
and ninety-two, I discovered the Continent of the Indies
and many islands. I returned to Cadiz to their Majesties
who allowed my going a second voyage, and in this God gave
me victory over the island of Hispaniola, which covers six
hundred leagues, and I conquered it and made it tributary;
and I discovered many islands dwelled in by Caribals or
eaters of men’s flesh, and also Jamaica which I named
Santiago, and three hundred and thirty leagues of Continent
from south to west--”
He recited his rights, dignities, tithes, emoluments,--
“whereto I have the sacred word of the Sovereigns.” Then came the
heirship. All upon Don Diego and the heirs of his body, with lavish
provision for the younger son, “having great qualities and most dear to
me,” and for the brothers, but more especially the Adelantado. Followed
gifts to friends and companions, and then far-flung benefactions.
Son and son’s son must give, year following year, a tenth of revenue
from the Indies to the help of needy men.
“In the city of Genoa in Italy is to be maintained a man and his wife of
the line of our family of which he is to be the root in that city, from
whence all good may derive unto her, for I was born there and came from
thence.”
The taking of the Sepulchre. Into the Bank of Saint George in Genoa,
“that noble and potent city” was to be put what moneys could be saved
and collected for the purpose, “and one day God will bring the purpose
about.”
His heirs must support the Crown of Spain, “seeing that these
Sovereigns, next to God, are responsible for my achieving the property,
though true it is that I came into this country to invite them to the
enterprise, and that a long while passed before they allowed me to
execute it, but this should not surprise us as it was an undertaking of
which all the world was ignorant and no one had any faith in it.” And if
schism arose in Christendom, his heirs must to their uttermost support
His Holiness the Pope, and give all and die, if need be, defending
the Church of God. And, where it was possible and not contrary to the
service and the claims of the Sovereigns of Spain, “let them give aid
and service to that noble city of Genoa from which we all spring.”
Such and such moneys, accruing, were to be applied to making fit
marriages for the daughters of the line.
And let Don Diego his son build in the island of Hispaniola a church
and call it Santa Maria de la Concepcion, a church and a hospital and
a chapel where masses might be said for the good of the soul of
Christopherus Columbus. “Doubtless God will be pleased to give us
revenue enough for this and all purposes.” And let them maintain in the
island of Hispaniola four good teachers of theology to convert to the
One Faith the inhabitants of the Indies, “to which end no expense should
be thought too considerable.”
Many other things he provided for. He cared for that Dona Beatrix who
had given him Fernando. Where he had met kindness, there he gave as best
he might. Among other small bequests was a silver mark to a poor Jew who
had done him service, who lived at the gate of the Ghetto in Lisbon. He
gave to many, and closed his will and signed it with his signet letters
and below these, EL ALMIRANTE.
After this there came a second leap of the flame. Queen Juana was with
her husband, King Phillip, in Laredo,--Queen of Castile as had been the
good Queen her mother. The Admiral, utterly revering the Queen who was
gone, wrote to the daughter Queen a stately letter of high comfort and
offer and promise of service. He would have the Adelantado, no less a
man, bear this to Laredo. Don Bartholomew spoke aside to Juan Lepe. “If
I do as he wished, I do not know if I will see him again.”
“I do not know,” I answered. “But his heart is set on...”
“Then I will go,” he said. “And many’s the time I have thought, ‘I shall
never see him again’, and still we met.”
For several days after this I thought that after all he might recover.
Perhaps even sail again on earthly discoveries. Then, in a night, came
the unmistakable stroke upon the door.
He sank, and knew now that he was putting off the body. Fray Juan Perez
stayed beside him. His sons and his brother Diego waited with reddened
eyes. It was full May, and the bland wind strayed in and out of window
and fluttered his many papers upon the great table. It was toward
evening of Ascension Day. His son Fernando threw himself on the bed,
weeping. The Admiral’s great hand fell upon the youth’s head. He looked
to the window and said clearly, “A light--yonder is a light!” and after
a moment, “_In manus tuas Domine coinmendo spiritum meum_.”
The sea by Palos and June in Andalusia. Juan Lepe, staying at La Rabida,
walked along the sands and saw Life like a mighty, breathing picture. He
stood by the sea and the ripples broke at his feet, and he felt and knew
the Master of Life, there where feeling and knowing pass into Being.
He walked a mile beside Ocean-Sea, then sat down beneath ridged
sand with the wind singing over. It sang, _Where now, Jayme de
Marchena--where now--where now_?
I sat still. Spain rose behind me, Spain and Europe. Before me, out of
sea, lifted the New Lands. There fell a moment of great calm and quiet.
Then, fleeting, like a spirit, passed before me the Indian Guarin who
had saved me after La Navidad. I saw his dark eyes, then he went. Still
space without color or line or form, and outside, dreamily, dreamily,
the ocean sounding below La Rabida. Then, in the clear field rose
Bartolome de Las Casas. A quiet, singing voice ran through Jayme de
Marchena, and he knew that he would return to Hispaniola and link his
life with that younger life which apparently had work to do in the
Indies.