e of six weeks),
that his portrait might have been painted; although it was not then a
Spanish notion, by any means. Neither Boabdil nor Gonzalvo de Cordova,
whose exploits were certainly much more admired by the Spaniards than
those of Columbus, were honored in that form during their lifetime. Even
the portraits of Ferdinand and Isabella, although attributed to Antonio
del Rincon, are only fancy pictures of the close of the sixteenth
century.

The popularity of Columbus was short-lived because he led the Spanish
nation to believe that gold was plentiful and easily obtained in Cuba
and Hispaniola, whilst the Spaniards who, seduced by his enthusiastic
descriptions, crossed the Atlantic in search of wealth, found nothing
but sufferings and poverty. Those who managed to return home arrived in
Spain absolutely destitute. They were noblemen, who clamored at the
court and all over the country, charging "the stranger" with having
deceived them. (Historia de los Reyes Catolicos, cap. lxxxv, f. 188; Las
Casas, lib. i, cap. cxxii, vol. ii, p. 176; Andres Bernaldez, cap.
cxxxi, vol. ii, p. 77.) It was not under such circumstances that
Spaniards would have caused his portrait to be painted. The oldest
effigy of Columbus known (a rough wood-cut in _Jovius_, illustrium
virorum vitae, Florentiae, 1549, folio), was made at least forty years
after his death, and in Italy, where he never returned after leaving it
as a poor and unknown artizan. Let it be enough for us to know that he
was above the medium height, robust, with sandy hair, a face elongated,
flushed and freckled, vivid light gray eyes, the nose shaped like the
beak of an eagle, and that he always was dressed like a monk.
(Bernaldez, Oviedo, Las Casas, and the author of the Libretto, all
eye-witnesses.)--H. Harrisse's "Columbus, and the Bank of St. George, in
Genoa."]

[Footnote 27: What strikes the paleographer, when studying the
handwriting of Christopher Columbus, is the boldness of the penmanship.
You can see at a glance that he was a very rapid caligrapher, and one
accustomed to write a great deal. This certainly was his reputation. The
numberless memoirs, petitions, and letters which flew from his pen gave
even rise to jokes and bywords. Francesillo de Zuniga, Charles V.'s
jester, in one of his jocular epistles exclaims: "I hope to God that
Gutierrez will always have all the paper he wants, for he writes more
than Ptolemy and than Columbus, the discoverer of the Indies