[9] Columbus, in his letter to Prince John's nurse, dated 1500, makes the following ample acknowledgment of the queen's early protection of him. "En todos hobo incredulidad, y a la Reina mi Señora dio Nuestro Señor el espiritu de inteligencia y esfuerzo grande, y la hizo de todo heredera como a cara y muy amada hija." "Su Alteza lo aprobaba al contrario, y lo sostuvo fasta que pudo." Navarrete, Coleccion de Viages, tom. i. p. 266.
[10] See the letters to Columbus, dated May 14th, 1493, August, 1494, apud Navarrete, Coleccion de Viages, tom. ii. pp. 66, 154, et mult. al.
[11] The salaries alone, annually disbursed by the crown to persons resident in the colony, amounted to six million maravedies. Muñoz, Hist. del Nuevo-Mundo, lib. 5, sec. 33.
[12] Idem, lib. 6, sec. 2.—Fernando Colon, Hist. del Almirante, cap. 64. —Herrera, Indias Occidentales, lib. 3, cap. 1.
[13] Such, for example, was the grant of an immense tract of land in Hispaniola, with the title of count or duke, as the admiral might prefer. Muñoz, Hist. del Nuevo-Mundo, lib. 6, sec. 17.
[14] The instrument establishing the mayorazgo, or perpetual entail of Columbus's estates, contains an injunction, that "his heirs shall never use any other signature than that of 'the Admiral, el Almirante, whatever other titles and honors may belong to them." That title indicated his peculiar achievements, and it was an honest pride which led him by this simple expedient to perpetuate the remembrance of them in his posterity. See the original document, apud Navarrete, Coleccion de Viages, tom. ii. pp. 221-235.
[15] Muñoz, Hist. del Nuevo-Mundo, lib. 6, sec. 20.—Fernando Colon, Hist. del Almirante, cap. 64.—Zuñiga, Annales de Sevilla, año 1496.
[16] Peter Martyr, De Rebus Oceanicis, dec. 1, lib. e.—Navarrete, Coleccion de Viages, tom. ii., Doc. Dipl., nos. 116, 120.—Tercer Viage de Colon, apud Navarrete, tom. i. p. 245.—Benzoni, Novi Orbis Hist., lib. 1, cap. 10, ll.—Herrera, Indias Occidentales, dec. 1, lib. 3, cap. 10, ll.— Muñoz, Hist. del Nuevo-Mundo, lib. 6, sec. 19.
[17] Gomara, Hist. de las Indias, cap. 20.—Benzoni, Novi Orbis Hist., lib. 1, cap. 10, ll.—Garibay, Compendio, tom. ii. lib. 19, cap. 7.— Fernando Colon, Hist. del Almirante, cap. 73-82.—Peter Martyr, De Rebus Oceanicis, dec. 1, lib. 5.—Herrera, Indias Occidentales, dec. 1, lib. 3, cap. 16.—Muñoz, Hist. del Nuevo-Mundo, lib. 6, sec. 40-42.
[18] Garibay, Compendio, tom. ii. lib. 19, cap. 7.—Peter Martyr, De Rebus Oceanicis, dec. 1, lib. 7.—Gomara, Hist. de las Indias, cap. 23.— Benzoni, Novi Orbis Hist., cap. 11.