[9] This document exhibits a medley, in which sober narrative and sound reasoning are strangely blended with crazy dreams, doleful lamentation, and wild schemes for the recovery of Jerusalem, the conversion of the Grand Khan, etc. Vagaries like these, which come occasionally like clouds over his soul, to shut out the light of reason, cannot fail to fill the mind of the reader, as they doubtless did those of the sovereigns at the time, with mingled sentiments of wonder and compassion. See Cartas de Colon, apud Navarrete, Coleccion de Viages, tom. i. p. 296.
[10] Ibid., p. 338.
[11] Fernando Colon, Hist. del Almirante, cap. 108.—Herrera, Indias Occidentales, lib. 6, cap. 14.
[12] Navarrete has given the letter, Coleccion de Viages, tom. iii. p. 530.—Herrera, Indias Occidentales, ubi supra.
[13] Zuñiga, Annales de Sevilla, p. 429.—Fernando Colon, Hist. del Almirante, cap. 108.—Bernaldez, Reyes Católicos, MS., cap. 131.— Navarrete, Coleccion de Viages, tom, ii., Doc. Dipl., 158.
[14] Hist. del Almirante, ubi supra.
The following eulogium of Paolo Giovio is a pleasing tribute to the deserts of the great navigator, showing the high estimation in which he was held, abroad as well as at home, by the enlightened of his own day. "Incomparabilis Liguribus honos, eximium Italiae decus, et praefulgidum jubar seculo nostro nasceretur, quod priscorum heroum, Herculis, et Liberi patris famam obscuraret. Quorum memoriam grata olim mortalitas aeternis literarum monumentis coelo consecrarit." Elogia Virorum Illust., lib. 4, p. 123.
[15] Navarrete, Coleccion de Viages, tom. ii., Doc. Dipl., 177.
On the left of the grand altar of this stately edifice, is a bust of Columbus, placed in a niche in the wall, and near it a silver urn, containing all that now remains of the illustrious voyager. See Abbot's "Letters from Cuba," a work of much interest and information, with the requisite allowance for the inaccuracies of a posthumous publication.
[16] The various theories respecting the date of Columbus's birth cover a range of twenty years, from 1436 to 1456. There are sturdy objections to either of the hypotheses; and the historian will find it easier to cut the knot than to unravel it. Comp. Navarrete, Coleccion de Viages, tom. i. Intr., sec. 54.—Muñoz, Hist. del Nuevo-Mundo, lib. 2, sec. 12.—Spotorno, Memorials of Columbus, pp. 12, 25.—Irving, Life of Columbus, vol. iv. book 18, chap. 4.