Page:The life of Christopher Columbus.djvu/33

Rh already undertaken his "Collection of Voyages." The proof of this is seen by their writings. All of them go to exonerate Columbus from the accusations which malevolence continued to spread against him since his death. Nevertheless, the views of the Spanish historians were powerless to reform public opinion: First, because their works, being too learned, were not destined to become popular; next, because none of these works were published in a complete state of finish; lastly and particularly, because the greater part of them remained in manuscripts. The second son of Columbus, Don Fernando, who wrote the biography of his father, did not terminate his work until 1536, and left it in manuscript. The virtuous Bartholomew Las Casas commenced his too late, and finished it only in fifty-three years after the death of Christopher Columbus. He left it in manuscript. Opinion remained, then, under the influence of the most unjust prejudices. The calumny Columbus had experienced since his triumph at the return of his first voyage, unappeased by his death, became implacable against his name, sat on his tomb, and defamed his memory.

In the midst of this almost general injustice, the Roman Pontificate alone preserved the thought of the apostolic grandeur of Columbus.

Successively three Popes had honored with their confidence this herald of the Cross. The Holy See never failed in its regard for him. The Sacred College remained faithful to this noble sympathy. Already, during his lifetime, when his glory encountered so many detractors in that Spain which he had made the greatest nation in the world, at Rome the Holy Father and the Cardinals honored his immortal labors. The only writing of this great man that was published during his lifetime was printed at Rome, in 1493, by Aliander de Cosco, in the house of Eucharius Argentinus.