The time for petitions and for answers to petitions had come to an end.  His health failed steadily, and in the month of May he knew that he was approaching his death.  The king and the court had gone to Villafranca de Valcacar.

On the nineteenth of May Columbus executed his will, which had been prepared at Segovia a year before.  In this will he directs his son and his successors, acting as administrators, always to maintain “in the city of Genoa, some person of our line, who shall have a house and a wife in that place, who shall receive a sufficient income to live honorably, as being one of our relatives, having foot and root in the said city, as a native; since he will be able to receive from this city aid in favor of the things of his service; because from that city I came forth and in that city I was born.”  This clause became the subject of much litigation as the century went on.

Another clause which was much contested was his direction to his son Diego to take care of Beatriz Enriquez, the mother of Fernando.  Diego is instructed to provide for her an honorable subsistence “as being a person to whom I have great obligation.  What I do in this matter is to relieve my conscience, for this weighs much upon my mind.  The reason of this cannot be written here.”

The history of the litigation which followed upon this will and upon other documents which bear upon the fortunes of Columbus is curious, but scarcely interesting.  The present representative of Columbus is Don Cristobal Colon de la Cerda, Duke of Veragua and of La Vega, a grandee of Spain of the first class, Marquis of Jamaica, Admiral and Seneschal Major of the Indies, who lives at Madrid.

Two days after the authentication of the will he died, on the twenty first of May, 1506, which was the day of Ascension.  His last words were those of his Saviour, expressed in the language of the Latin Testament, “In manus tuas, Pater, commendo spiritum meum,”—­“Father, into thy hands I commend my spirit.”  The absence of the court from Valladolid took with it, perhaps, the historians and annalists.  For this or for some other reason, there is no mention whatever of Columbus’s funeral in any of the documents of the time.

The body was laid in the convent of San Francisco at Valladolid.  Such at least is the supposition of Navarrete, who has collected the original documents relating to Columbus.  He supposes that the funeral services were conducted in the church of the parish of Santa Maria de la Antigua.  From the church of Saint Francis, not many months after, the body was removed to Seville.  A new chapel had lately been built there, called Santa Maria de las Cuevas.  In this chapel was the body of Columbus entombed.  In a curious discussion of the subject, which has occupied much more space than it is worth, it is supposed that this was in the year 1513, but Mr. Harrisse has proved that this date is not accurate.

For at least twenty-eight years, the body was permitted to remain under the vaults of this chapel.  Then a petition was sent to Charles V, for leave to carry the coffin and the body to San Domingo, that it might be buried in the larger chapel of the cathedral of that city.  To this the emperor consented, in a decree signed June 2, 1537.  It is not known how soon the removal to San Domingo was really made, but it took place before many years.