nto or in
Terrarossa; more likely the latter, since both Christopher and
Bartholomew, as well as their father, were called, and sometimes signed
themselves, Columbus of Terrarossa.[418] In this opinion the most
indefatigable modern investigator, Harrisse, agrees with Las Casas.[419]
Nevertheless, in a solemn legal instrument executed February 22, 1498,
establishing a _mayorazgo_, or right of succession to his estates and
emoluments in the Indies, Columbus expressly declares that he was born
in the city of Genoa: "I enjoin it upon my son, the said Don Diego, or
whoever may inherit the said _mayorazgo_, always to keep and maintain in
the City of Genoa one person of our lineage, because from thence I came
and in it I was born."[420] I do not see how such a definite and
positive statement, occurring in such a document, can be doubted or
explained away. It seems clear that the son was born while the parents
were dwelling either at Terrarossa or at Quinto, but what is to hinder
our supposing that the event might have happened when the mother was in
the city on some errand or visit? The fact that Christopher and his
brother were often styled "of Terrarossa" does not prove that they were
born in that hamlet. A family moving thence to Quinto and to Genoa would
stand in much need of some such distinctive epithet, because the name
Colombo was extremely common in that part of Italy; insomuch that the
modern historian, who prowls among the archives of those towns, must
have a care lest he get hold of the wrong person, and thus open a fresh
and prolific source of confusion. This has happened more than once.

[Footnote 418: Harrisse, tom. i. p. 188; _Vita dell'
Ammiraglio_, cap. xi.]

[Footnote 419: "Fue este varon escogido de nacion genoves, de
algun lugar de la provincia de Genova; cual fuese, donde nacio
o que nombre tuvo el tal lugar, no consta la verdad dello mas
de que se solia llamar antes que llegase al estado que llego,
Cristobal Colombo de Terra-rubia y lo mismo su hermano
Bartolome Colon." Las Casas, _Historia de las Indias_, tom. i.
p. 42; cf. Harrisse, tom. i. pp. 217-222.]

[Footnote 420: "Mando al dicho D. Diego, mi hijo, o a la
persona que heredare el dicho mayorazgo, que tenga y sostenga
siempre en la _Ciudad de Genova_ una persona de nuestro linage
... pues que della sali _y en ella naci_" [italics m