Page:History of the Reign of Ferdinand and Isabella the Catholic Vol. III.djvu/271

245 HIS DEATH. 24.5 to expand his whole soul, and raised it above the chapter petty shifts and artifices, bj which great ends are L- sometimes sought to be compassed. There are some men, in whom rare virtues have been closely allied, if not to jDOsitive vice, to degrading weak- ness. Columbus's character presented no such hu- miliating incongruity. Whether we contemplate it in its public or private relations, in all its features it wears the same noble aspect. It was in perfect harmony with the grandeur of his plans, and their results, more stupendous than those which Heaven has permitted any other mortal to achieve. ^^ 21 Columbus left two sons, Fer- nando and Diego. The former, il- legitimate, inherited his father's genius, says a Castilian writer, and the latter, his honors and estates. (Zufiiga, Annales de Sevilla, ailo 1506.) Fernando, besides other works now lost, left a valuable me- moir of his father, often cited in this history. He was a person of rather uncommon literary attainments, and amassed a library, in his extensive travels, of 20,000 volumes, perhaps the largest private collection in Eu- rope at thatday. (Ibid., afio 1539.) Diego did not succeed to his fa- ther"s dignities, till he had obtained a judgment in his favor against the crown from the council of the In- dies, an act highly honorable to that tribunal, and showing that the independence of the courts of jus- tice, the greatest bulwark of civil liberty, was well maintained under King Ferdinand. (Navarrete, Co- leccion de Viages, torn, ii., Doc. Dip], nos. 163, 164 ; tom. iii.. Supl. Col. Dipl. no. 69.) The young admiral subsequently married a lady of the great Toledo family, niece of the duke of Alva. (Ovi- edo, Quincuagenas, MS., bat. 1, quinc. 2, dial. 8.) This alliance with one of the most ancient branch- es of the haughty aristocracy of Castile, proves the extraordina- ry consideration, which Columbus must have attained during his own lifetime. A new opposition was made by Charles V. to the succes- sion of Diego's son ; and the lat- ter, discouraged by the prospect of this interminable litigation with the crown, prudently consented to com- mute his claims, too vast and in- definite for any subject to enforce, for specific honors and revenues in Castile. The titles of Duke of Veragua and Marquis of Jamaica, derived from the places visited by the admiral in his last voyage, still distinguish the family, whose proudest title, above all that mon archs can confer, is, to have de- scended from Columbus. Spotor- no. Memorials of Columbus, p. 123.