In this period of the fading life of Columbus, we have eleven letters addressed by him to his son.  These show that he was in Seville as late as February, 1505.  From the authority of Las Casas, we know that he left that part of Spain to go to Segovia in the next May, and from that place he followed the court to Salamanca and Valladolid, although he was so weak and ill.

He was received, as he had always been, with professions of kindness; but nothing followed important enough to show that there was anything genuine in this cordiality.  After a few days Columbus begged that some action might be taken to indemnify him for his losses, and to confirm the promises which had been made to him before.  The king replied that he was willing to refer all points which had been discussed between them to an arbitration.  Columbus assented, and proposed the Archbishop Diego de Deza as an arbiter.

The reader must remember that it was he who had assisted Columbus in early days when the inquiry was made at Salamanca.  The king assented to the arbitration, but proposed that it should include questions which Columbus would not consider as doubtful.  One of these was his restoration to his office of viceroy.

Now on the subject of his dignities Columbus was tenacious.  He regarded everything else as unimportant in comparison.  He would not admit that there was any question that he was the viceroy of the Indies, and all this discussion ended in the postponement of all consideration of his claims till, after his death, it was too late for them to be considered.

All the documents, when read with the interest which we take in his character and fortunes, are indeed pathetic; but they did not seem so to the king, if indeed they ever met his eye.

In despair of obtaining justice for himself, Columbus asked that his son Diego might be sent to Hispaniola in his place.  The king would promise nothing, but seems to have attempted to make Columbus exchange the privileges which he enjoyed by the royal promise for a seignory in a little town in the kingdom of Leon, which is named not improperly “The Counts’ Carrion.”

It is interesting to see that one of the persons whom he employed, in pressing his claim at the court and in the management of his affairs, was Vespucci, the Florentine merchant, who in early life had been known as Alberigo, but had now taken the name of Americo.

The king was still engaged in the affairs of the islands.  He appointed bishops to take charge of the churches in the colonies, but Columbus was not so much as consulted as to the persons who should be sent.  When Philip arrived from Flanders, with his wife Juana, who was the heir of Isabella’s fortunes and crown, Columbus wished to pay his court to them, but was too weak to do so in person.

There is a manly letter, written with dignity and pathos, in which he presses his claims upon them.  He commissioned his brother, the Adelantado, to take this letter, and with it he went to wait upon the young couple.  They received him most cordially, and gave flattering hopes that they would attend favorably to the suit.  But this was too late for Columbus himself.  Immediately after he had sent his brother away, his illness increased in violence.