Note IV-2 — Chapter IV · COLUMBUS ON THE COASTS OF HONDURAS, NICARAGUA, AND COSTA RICA. 1502-1506.

Ferdinand Columbus, or as he is more commonly called Fernando Colon, was an illegitimate son of Christopher Columbus, by a lady of respectable family. He was born at Córdova, and in 1494, after his father became famous, was brought with his elder brother to court, where he was placed as page to Prince Juan. Upon the death of the heir apparent young Fernando served Queen Isabella in the same capacity, thereby securing an excellent education. During this perilous voyage he was an object no less of comfort than of anxiety to his father, now infirm and troubled in spirit, and his conduct throughout merited and received paternal commendation. 'El ha salido y sale de muy buen saber,' writes the fond father, 'bien que él sea niño en dias, no es assi en el entendimiento.' Cartas de Colon, in Navarrete, Col. de Viages, i. 341 and 344. See also Zúñiga, Anales de Sevilla. His manhood fulfilled the promise of his youth. He cultivated literature with considerable success, and became, as Muñoz, Hist. Nuevo Mundo, i. viii., expresses it, 'doctísimo para su siglo, y de grandes pensamientos en materias literarias, segun demostraré á su tiempo.' He travelled extensively in Europe, in the train of Charles V., probably visited Africa and Asia, and is said to have made two voyages to America after his father's death. He formed a collection of over 20,000 printed books and manuscripts, which went to the cathedral of Seville. He neither married, nor left any recognized progeny. He was the author of several works which have not been preserved, the inscription on his tomb mentioning one in four divisions relating partly to the New World and his father's voyages. Antonio de Leon Pinelo, Epitome, 565, 633 and 711, speaks of a work, Apuntamientos sobre la Demarcacion del Maluco, preserved in manuscript at Simancas. The only printed book of Fernando Colon is a history of the admiral, his father. The original title is not known, the manuscript disappearing before its publication in Spanish. Luis Colon, duke of Veraguas, and grandson of the admiral, brought the manuscript to Genoa about 1568, and delivered it to one Fornari, an old man who, according to Barcia, began to print it in Spanish, Italian, and Latin. Others assert that it passed into the hands of Marini, who caused it to be translated into Italian by Alfonso de Ulloa. Spotorno, Codice Diplomatico, 1823, lxiii. Ulloa's translation, badly made from a bad copy—'sans doute d'après un texte assez fautif,' Humboldt, Exam. Crit., i. 13,—was printed in Venice, in 1571, under the title, Historie del Fernando Colombo; Nelle quali s'ha particolare, & vera relatione della vita, & de' fatti dell' Ammiraglio D. Christoforo Colombo, suo padre, etc. It was reprinted in Italian some six or eight times. A French translation was published in 1680-1, and an English translation has gone the rounds, appearing in Churchill's Col. Voy., ii. 480-604; Kerr's Col. Voy., iii. 1-242; and Pinkerton's Col. Voy., xii. 1-155. It was carelessly retranslated from the Italian into Spanish by Andrés Gonzalez de Barcia, and printed in his Historiadores Primitivos de las Indias Occidentales, 3 vols., Madrid, 1749, comprising pp. 1-128, tom. i., of that series, and entitled, La Historia de D. Fernando Colon, en la qual se da Particular, y verdadera relacion de la vida, y hechos de el Almirante D. Christoval Colon, su Padre, etc. This is the edition most commonly used, and to this I refer, although I have before me an Italian copy of the edition of 1709. Fernando Colon had peculiar advantages for writing his father's history. Himself an actor in the events described, he was moreover personally acquainted with his father's friends, and held possession of his father's papers. All agree that he made good use of his opportunity, and that he has given a clear statement of events which even in his own time began to be distorted. If he was silent touching his father's family, country, and birth, we must remember that poverty and obscurity were a disgrace in those days, and that the son Fernando was a Spaniard. Those who should best know the merits of this author pay him the highest tribute. Of his work says Muñoz, Hist. Nuevo Mundo, i. viii., 'Confieso deberle mucho;' and the author Navarrete, Col. de Viages, i. lxx., remarks, 'habló siempre con verdad y exactitud, salvo alguna equivocacion fácil de discernir en buena crítica ... y por tanto pueden aun estas leves faltas ser efecto de la incuria ó poca inteligencia de ambos traductores.' Attempts have been made to deny to Fernando the authorship, but this, if correct, does not materially affect its value, since it is allowed to have been written from his documents and under his supervision. The vicissitudes to which the work has been subjected and the mutilation it has suffered afford grounds for caution not to be disregarded by the historian. Still, the general tenor and details of the narrative, and the literary bent of the reputed author, present in themselves sufficient evidence of its authenticity.

With regard to the use of certain proper names encountered thus far in this history I would say a word. The question presents difficulties in whatsoever aspect viewed. There are Spanish names of places and persons which custom has so anglicized as to give to their use in the original the appearance of affectation—instance Castilla, for Castile; Sevilla, Seville; Fernando and Isabel, Ferdinand and Isabella; Cárlos V., Charles V.; Felipe II., Philip II. On the other hand, in writing in English of Spanish affairs, the attempt to continue indefinitely the anglicizing of Spanish names would be as impossible as absurd. The two chief objects with me have been to adopt the best forms, and to preserve consistency; I do not claim eminent success in either attempt. The result, however, has been the adoption of the following method, if it may be called a method: The prominent places and persons of Spain, whose names are invariably given in their anglicized form in current English literature, I write in the same way; but those same names, as well as all others, appearing in the New World, where no prominent English writers have made them familiar in an English form, I present in the original as written by the best Spanish scholars. Thus the name of the great Genoese I give in its common latinized form, Christopher Columbus, while in the use of those of his less eminent brothers and sons, who soon became almost or altogether Spaniards, I adopt the forms employed by Spaniards.