As if to make amends for the neglect he had experienced whilst on earth his remains were interred with great pomp in the convent of St. Francis at Seville. They were removed three times after that, and now rest in the cathedral of the Havannah at Cuba. He made by his will his son Diego his heir, and ordered that one of his family should always reside at Genoa, which shows that he preserved an affectionate remembrance of his native city until the last days of his life.
His son Fernando tells us that he had a long face, a bright complexion, an aquiline nose, and lively eyes of clear grey, which seemed to enforce obedience. His hair was fair in his youth, but began to turn white when he was only thirty years of age, which made him look much older than he really was. He was very frugal, and dressed with great simplicity. Although naturally hasty in temper he treated all persons around him with extreme gentleness and kindness, and was always ready to succour those who were in trouble or need. He was sincerely religious, and never omitted to praise and to pray to God during his voyages either morning or night. In calm weather and in stormy the voices of the mariners chanting their matins and vespers rose from the lonely sea. Sunday to him was always a day of rest, and he would never set sail on that day if he could avoid doing so.
This chapter ought not to end without the relation of the well-known story of Columbus and the egg. One day, after his triumphal return from his first voyage, he was dining at the table of the Grand Cardinal of Spain, and one of the grandees present asked him if he did not think others could have found out the way to the new shore as well as himself. Upon this Columbus took an egg, and asked each person present to make it stand on the table. Not one being able to do so, Columbus took the egg, and, breaking one end of it, made it stand upright. Then he said that if one showed the way it was easy enough for others to follow in his steps, just as the company assembled could each make the egg stand on the table now that he had shown them how to do it.
FOOTNOTES:
[12] A caravel was a small light bark, more fitted to sail on a river than to cross the stormy seas.
[13] Salvador, Spanish for Saviour.
[14] A copper coin of Spain, thirty-four of which are worth one real.
[15] Navidad, Spanish for Nativity.
[16] Trinidad, Spanish for Trinity.