Page:The life of Christopher Columbus.djvu/63

Rh silence on his passions, — passions that were subdued less by age and by poverty, than crushed under the weight of that immense thought that contained one-half of the globe.

We shall relate, in its place, under what circumstances Columbus married Doña Beatrix Enriquez. Here we limit ourselves solely to establishing the fact. His union with her was legitimate, and he did not suffer himself to be mastered by anything to the detriment of any of his duties.

The Royal Historiographer of Spain, Antonio de Herrera, whose impartial sagacity and accuracy are unanimously recognized, has removed every doubt in regard to the second marriage of Columbus. These are his words: "After the death of this first wife, he espoused a second, named Beatrix Enriquez, of the city of Cordova, by whom he had Fernando, a virtuous gentleman, well versed in the science of sound learning.

Navarrete objects that up to this time the registry of the marriage has not been found, and cannot be produced. But neither has the registry of his baptism been found: does it hence follow that he was not baptized? It is hard to explain how the charge of an adulterous connection could be admitted against the evidence of facts, and the judgment of the most common good sense. How could a scandalous commerce have been tolerated by the virtuous family of Doña Beatrix. Would not the vengeance of this noble house have constrained the seducer to make reparation for the stain cast on their honor? What! would it be Cordova that Columbus would have chosen to raise his first-born son in? Would he have charged his mistress, an adulteress, with superintending his education? Would he have sent him by the worthy ecclesiastic, Father Martin Sanchez? And the Queen, — so rigid in regard to manners, — would she have given as pages to her only son, the