l affairs, the promise to Columbus was again
remembered, and his position was considered in detail. An order was made
(April 23rd, 1497), restoring to the Admiral the original privileges
bestowed upon him at Santa Fe. He was offered a large tract of land in
Espanola, with the title of Duke; but much as he hankered after titular
honours, he was for once prudent enough to refuse this gift. His reason
was that it would only further damage his influence, and give apparent
justification to those enemies who said that the whole enterprise had
been undertaken merely in his own interests; and it is possible also that
his many painful associations with Espanola, and the bloodshed and
horrors that he had witnessed there, had aroused in his superstitious
mind a distaste for possessions and titles in that devastated Paradise.
Instead, he accepted a measure of relief from the obligations incurred by
his eighth share in the many unprofitable expeditions that had been sent
out during the last three years, agreeing for the next three years to
receive an eighth share of the gross income, and a tenth of the net
profits, without contributing anything to the cost. His appointment of
Bartholomew to the office of Adelantado, which had annoyed Ferdinand, was
now confirmed; the universal license which had been granted to Spanish
subjects to settle in the new lands was revoked in so far as it infringed
the Admiral's privileges; and he was granted a force of 330 officers,
soldiers, and artificers to be at his personal disposal in the
prosecution of his next voyage.

The death of Prince Juan in October 1497 once more distracted the
attention of the Court from all but personal matters; and Columbus
employed the time of waiting in drafting a testamentary document in which
he was permitted to create an entail on his title and estates in favour
of his two sons and their heirs for ever. This did not represent his
complete or final testament, for he added codicils at various times,
the latest being executed the day before his death. The document is
worth studying; it reveals something of the laborious, painstaking mind
reaching out down the rivers and streams of the future that were to flow
from the fountain of his own greatness; it reveals also his triple
conception of the obligations of human life in this world--the
cultivation and retention of temporal dignity, the performance of pious
and charitable acts, and the recognition of duty to one's f