Page:The life of Christopher Columbus.djvu/65

Rh favorites of the prince. At a later period, both of them pass into the service of the Queen. Far from making the least difference unfavorable to the youngest, it was precisely the latter that Isabella named first her page, before she accorded that favor to the oldest. The nomination of Fernando preceded that of his brother Diego by twenty-four hours.

The convention which took place between the Crown of Spain and Columbus, in the plain of Granada, the seventeenth of April, 1492, in establishing the inheritance of his dignities in the person of the^oldest of his sons, shows implicitly that Diego, the child of the first marriage, is not alone. The prologue of the "Journal of Columbus" states that the sovereigns have promised the right of inheritance to the eldest of his sons. The royal decree of the twentieth of May, 1493, which accords royal armorial bearings to Columbus, speaks of his sons. The act of Mayorazgo, or Entailment, evidently implies his state of marriage. For, on the one hand, he foresees the case that he might have other children besides his two sons, whom he names; and, on the other hand, he does not admit the possibility of another conjugal union, since he does not stipulate any reservation or dower for another wife. This latter condition would have been for that purpose indispensable. At this period the great Admiral, worn out, old, and infirm, could not expect an alliance conformable to his rank, without insuring to his future wife considerable advantages.

The free and natural manner in which Columbus speaks of his two children, the unreserved affection of his language in regard to his son in his official correspondence with the sovereigns, show the total absence of everything like constraint of thought, or of precaution in his words.