CHRISTOPHER COLUMBUS 133 4. The " Letters and the Decades of Peter Martyr," written in part contem- poraneously with the discovery of America, and printed in Latin in 1530, and in English in 1555. 5. The " Historia de las Reyes Catolicos," of Andres Bernaldez. 6. The " Life of the Discoverer," by Ferdinand Columbus, first published in 1571 at Venice, in Italian. The last five writers had personal knowledge or intercourse with Columbus, while Las Casas, Oviedo, and Ferdinand had the advantage of residence in America, and intimate knowledge of the aborigines, and of the men and events of the period., Almost every item involved in the checkered and eventful life of Columbus has afforded a fruitful theme for controversy. His birth, even, is disputed, under stress of evidence, as falling anywhere between 1435 and 1447 a discrepancy of twelve years. His birthplace is claimed by more towns than that of Homer, although his own statement, that he was a native of Genoa, has met general con- currence. His knowledge of geography, astronomy, and navigation is asserted and denied with various degrees of pertinacity. His treatment by the sovereigns of Portugal, Castile, and Aragon is so far in question that irreconcilable differ- ences of opinion exist. How much Columbus really owed to the aid of the crown, and how much to private enterprise, in fitting out his expeditions of dis- covery, cannot be definitely ascertained. How far he was hindered by the big- otry, or helped by the enlightenment of powerful ecclesiastics, as at the council of Salamanca, is a theme of perennial controversy. The island where he first landed is so far from being identified, that many books have been written to prove the claims of this, that, or the other gem of the sea to be the true land-fall of Columbus. His treatment of the natives has been made the subject of unsparing denunciation and of undiscriminating eulogy. His conduct toward his own, often mutinous, crews is alternately lauded as humane and generous, or denounced as arrogant and cruel, according to the sym- pathies or the point" of view of the critic. His imprisonment and attempted dis- grace have been made the theme of indignant comment and of extenuating apol- ogy. His moral character and marital relations are subjects of irreconcilable differences of judgment. His deep religious bias, so manifest in nearly all his writings, has been praised as a mark of exalted merit by some writers, and stig matized by others as cant and superstition The last resting-place of his bones, even, is in doubt,- which it required an elaborate investigation by the Royal Academy of History of Madrid to solve in favor of Havana, as against- the ca- thedral of Santo Domingo ; though its report is still controverted, and M. A. Pinart has proved to the satisfaction 'of many that a misprision took place, and that the true remains of Columbus still rest at Santo Domingo. The movement to canonize the great discoverer has been championed with more zeal than dis- cietion by some over-ardent churchmen, while the too-evident human frailties of the proposed candidate for the honors of sainthood have inspired an abundant caution in the councils of the Vatican.
