Page:The life of Christopher Columbus.djvu/59

Rh heir ceased altogether from paying them during several consecutive years, she made no complaint. Never did she take the pains of reminding him of his duty. It was necessary that he himself should at last remember his obligation. This want of urgency in claiming arrears, the nobility of silence, appears to us to refute positively the charge of extreme poverty.

The want of high birth could not prevent the marriage; for, according to the avowal of all historians, Beatrix Enriquez was of noble rank. Spotorno alone would have it to be otherwise. But, on this point, we oppose to him a witness who was his own accomplice, — even Navarrete himself. In his quality as a Spaniard, Navarrete cannot contest this notorious fact: the nobility of Beatrix Enriquez. He declares her noble, and of the principal house of Cordova. Her rank naturally brought her into notice. Her uterine brother, the honorable Rodrigo de Arana, was renowned at Cordova, and the imperial historiographer calls him "the virtuous gentleman." Her nephew, Don Diego de Arana, accompanied Columbus in his first voyage of discovery, in the quality of inspector-general of the fleet. Ramusio reminds us that he was "a good gentleman of Cordova," and his nobility must have been well known for Columbus to place under his orders two officers of the Crown, in appointing him governor of the fort of Navidad. In the third voyage of the Admiral, a young brother of Doña Beatrix, Pedro de Arana, commanded one of his ships; for, in consequence of their alliance, there were always some Aranas of Cordova with Columbus. After the death of the Admiral, and that of his son, his successor, we still see a Diego de Arana in the mansion of the Vice-