Page:History of the Reign of Ferdinand and Isabella the Catholic Vol. III.djvu/261

235 CHAPTER XVIII. COLUMBUS. — HIS RETURN TO SPAIN. — HIS DEATH. 1504—1506. Return of Columbus from his Fourth Voyage. — His Illness. — Neg- lected by Ferdinand. — His Death. — His Person. — And Character. While the events were passing, which occupy chapter the beginning of the preceding chapter, Christopher — 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 es- tablish a colony on terra firma, by the ferocity of