and the tenth.  Of the tenth I received nothing, except the tenth of what their Highnesses receive; and it must be the tenth of all the gold and other things which are found and obtained, in whatever manner it may be, within this Admiralship, and the tenth of all the merchandise which goes and comes from there, after the expenses are deducted.  I have already said that in the Book of Privileges the reason for this and for the rest which is before the Tribunal of the Indies here in Seville, is clearly set forth.

“We must strive to obtain a reply to my letter from their Highnesses, and to have them order that these people be paid.  I wrote in regard to this subject four days ago, and sent the letter by Martin de Gamboa, and you must have seen the letter of Juan Lopez with your own.

“It is said here that it has been ordered that three or four Bishops of the Indies shall be sent or created, and that this matter is referred to the Lord Bishop of Palencia.  After having commended me to his Worship, tell him that I believe it will best serve their Highnesses for me to talk with him before this matter is settled.

“Commend me to Diego Mendez, and show him this letter.  My illness permits me to write only at night, because in the daytime my hands are deprived of strength.  I believe that a son of Francisco Pinelo will carry this letter.  Entertain him well, because he does everything for me that he can, with much love and a cheerful goodwill.  The caravel which broke her mast in starting from Santo Domingo has arrived in the Algarves.  She brings the records of the case of the Porras brothers.  Such ugly things and such grievous cruelty as appear in this matter never were seen.  If their Highnesses do not punish it, I do not know who will dare to go out in their service with people.

“To-day is Monday.  I will endeavour to have your uncle and brother start to-morrow.  Remember to write me very often, and tell Diego Mendez to write at length.  Each day messengers go from here yonder.  May our Lord have you in His Holy keeping.

“Done in Seville, December 1.

“Your father who loves you as himself.

.S.
.S.A.S. 
XMY
Xpo FERENS.”

The gout from which the Admiral suffered made riding impossible to him, and he had arranged to have himself carried to Court on a litter when he was able to move.  There is a grim and dismal significance in the particular litter that had been chosen:  it was no other than the funeral bier which belonged to the Cathedral of Seville and had been built for Cardinal Mendoza.  A minute of the Cathedral Chapter records the granting to Columbus of the use of this strange conveyance; but one is glad to think that he ultimately made his journey in a less grim though more humble method.  But what are we to think of the taste of a man who would rather travel in a bier, so long as it had been associated with the splendid obsequies of a cardinal, than in the ordinary litter of every-day use?  It is but the old passion for state and splendour thus dismally breaking out again.