He is Falsely Accused and Sent from San Domingo to Spain in Chains

When, after the arrival of the caravel at Cadiz, Isabella heard of the cruel treatment of Columbus, she was very indignant, and sent an order for his immediate restoration to liberty. The sovereigns wrote a letter to him couched in terms of affection and gratitude, expressing their grief because of his sufferings, and inviting him to the court. The people, too, were very indignant, and were loud in their denunciations of the treatment of such a benefactor of their country. When he arrived at Granada, in December, 1498, he was cordially received by the monarchs, who, disavowing the doings of Bobadilla as contrary to their instructions, promised that he should be dismissed from office. But the Spanish, nobles, jealous of Columbus because he was evidently a royal favorite, persuaded the king, who was dissatisfied with the apparent unproductiveness of the admiral's discoveries, not to reinstate him in the vice-royalty. Another was appointed in the place of Bobadilla. After experiencing neglect, and alternate hope and disappointment, for almost four years, whilst others were reaping the harvest of his seed-time, the admiral was entrusted with the command of a small expedition to find a passage through "the sea" now known as the Gulf of Mexico, into the Indian Ocean. He sailed with four caravels and one hundred and fifty men, early in May, 1502, and after much suffering, returned to Cadiz in November, 1504, sick and dejected. Nineteen days after his arrival, the good Queen Isabella died. "She was one of the purest spirits that ever ruled over the destinies of a nation," says Mr. Irving. With her died the hopes of the admiral, for he knew how cold and calculating was the disposition of the king. That ungrateful monarch, after torturing the discoverer with the cold politeness and evasive promises for which he was noted, rejected the legal and equitable claims of Columbus to the dignities and emoluments of vice-royalty which had been secured to him by royal contract; and this great and good man, then about seventy years of age, who had given more real honor and glory to Spain than had the whole line of her kings or the families of her nobles, was allowed to pass the remnant of his days in comparative poverty and obscurity. "I have," Columbus once wrote, "no place to repair to excepting an inn, and often with nothing to pay for my sustenance." At length, when he was utterly prostrated, and hopeless of justice, death came to his relief at Valladolid on the 20th day of May, 1506, as he was uttering the words, "Lord, into thy hands I commit my spirit." His remains were put into the convent of San Francisco, where, for seven years, no stone or inscription marked the place of his burial. Then the ashamed king, when the navigator's bones were removed to a monastery in Seville, ordered a marble tomb to be placed over them with the inscription:

"To Castile and Leon, Columbus gave a New World." He "asked for bread" and he gave him "a stone." More indelibly than on brass or marble, is the truth of that inscription engraved on the memory of mankind.

Columbus died with full faith that although princes might neglect him and wicked men might defraud him, God and eternal justice would vindicate his honor and his fame, and that the world would pay to him the just homage due for his services. He also died in the belief that he had discovered Farther India, and not an unknown continent; and such was the belief of all navigators and scientific men at that time.

In the year 1536, the remains of Columbus and of his son Diego, were taken to Hispaniola, and interred in the Cathedral at San Domingo. There they remained two hundred and sixty years, when, in 1796, they were conveyed with great pomp to Havana, in Cuba, where they now repose. A few years ago, a magnificent monument to the memory of Columbus, was erected in his native city of Genoa, in the centre of one of its public squares, where it is surrounded by flowers and shrubbery. It is composed of Carrara marble, and is about forty feet in height. On four panels between four pedestals are represented, in relief sculpture, four great events in his life, namely, his Conference with the Council at Salamanca; the Landing in America; Presenting the Indians to Queen Isabella, and the Admiral in Chains. Upon each pedestal is a figure personifying respectively Navigation, History, Astronomy and Wisdom. On a round shaft which rises between these figures are sculptured in high relief the prows of ancient vessels. This shaft is surmounted by a slightly colossal statue of Columbus, resting his left hand on an anchor, whilst with his right hand he presents a naked Indian maiden, sitting modestly at his feet, holding in her hand a small cross upon which she is gazing intently, her head adorned with the plumage of birds. This figure represents America; and the faith of Columbus that the New World would receive the religion of Jesus Christ is indicated by the symbol of the Atonement.