St. Paul daily globe. [volume] (Saint Paul, Minn.) 1884-1896, 1892-10-30
LOVES OF COLUMBUS.
The Women Whose Lives In
fluenced That Of the Great
Navigator.
Coma Felipa, His Wife, and
Dona Beatrix, His Unwise
Adviser.
The Fair Lady Of Cordova
= Was the Bar to His
CanoniZation.
lis Wife Died Before His
Dream of Discovery Was
Realized.

A good friend had Christopher Col
nmbuS in Fray Juan de Perez, prior of
the convent of Santa Maria de Rabida,
AID not the least of his friendly acts
vas when in striving him for his battle
with the forces of an unknown world
&c overlooked, as far as we NAV judge,
the little matter of bona BeatriX En-
riQueZ of Cordova.
Historians have fought very shy of
!}ona BeatriX, and about all We know
of her, says the New York Press. is that
while she did not bear the explorers
name she did bear him a son, Fernando.
hat she belonged to an illustrious but
poverty stricken house of Cordova, and
hat in his last will the discoverer con-
iured his legal son, Diego, child of his
wife Feiipa. whom he fondly loved and
who died before bona BeatriX's time,
to provide for the lady OF Cordova. :,
1t is not probable that Diego did so
i-ut the request of the will is pretty fair
nrOOf that Columbus had done so him
>tlf as long as he was able.
The wording OF the request is strange
md pathetic. and from it we gather that
n his days of poverty, while waiting for
IS idea to penetrate the brain walls of
ferdinand and Isabella, he was indeht-
to DOna BeatriX for something more
han Wifely compromising. 1t imploreS
)iegO ito take care of BeatrX Enri-
lneZ, mother of Don Fernando. my son,
o supply her with all that can enable
.er to live in an honorable manner. she
'eing person of whom I am under
such grave obligations: and to do this TO
elieve my conscience, because it weighs
ntII IL l.
10 state here the reason"
The grave obligations" IN question
nay or may not have been i'm existence
While he awaited In Cordova in 1856 the
..ctlon of the crown upon his PROPOSE
Ions. That he had aught upon his con-
-clence is perhaps due to the fact, re
ated in a letter to bona Juana de la
ORE in 1900, he had left wife and
mild in Portugal, and therefore could
lot do right to Dona Beatrix. Ii the ac-
cunt seems black against him it may
ave somewhat appeased the names of
iona BeatrlX for these four centuries to
now that his relations with her have
ormed. the sole bar TO his canoniZation
Y the Church of Rome.
bona BeatriX prevented his canoniZa-
ION, but bona Felipa's influence and
;.ntecedeDtS undoubtedly encouraged
is predictions for discovery She was
daughter of Dom Bartolomeo Pere-
trello, Portuguese navigator in the
@rVIce OF the learned and enlightened
'rlnce Henry of Portugal. who discOv-
red by chance the Island of Madeira,
nd was governor of the neighboring
>land of Porto Santo. To this island
: oiumbuS Went with his young wife,
thom he married in 1913, having met
ier at the chapel of the Convent of All
alnts. Lisbon, i'll which institution she
Sas at school.
Poring over his brothers maps and
'harts-fGr Bartolomeo Columbus, when
is brother came to visit in Lisbon at
nat time, dealt IN these things--and
:stening TO his mother-in-law's tales of
er husbands discoveries had doubtless
equal effect in firing the strong inn
= Iulatlon OF the sailor. Up TO that time,
Zen he was twenty eight years old, he
%. ueen more intent as bold Genoese
i'.ariner in provoking Venetian galleys
light than in discovering new worlds.
AS truly love affair was this lawful
relation as the dubious connection in
tier years with bona BeatriX. 1t
lded. as love matches do in pathetic
lays and stories, in want, and with the
cath OF the young wife, who was then
young mother-0f Diego Columbus
~ stuiiii al - ooii anu llclI. Ole uleQ III
lisbon. whittier the pair had returned
rom Porto Sahto, and where he who
was to discover the new world sup
Orted his family by making charts of
he old. Cartographv did not pay him
ven i'll port where Prince Henry's
Encouragement of the science of navi-
alton had gone so far as the establish
iient of naval college, and when in
io4 Columbus took his little son and
- out for Spain, Cordoya and ulti-
ilately DOna BeatriX, he was outrun-
ing the constable with process for
ebt. Who the wife was, if there was
I. wife, union with whom prevented his
marriage to bona ReatIiX. has never
seen learned.
Strange, indeed, is the contrast which
she imprCvident marriage and ''im-
roper" after relation of the dIscoverer
resentS to his rare discretion as gov
fnor i'll the new world which he found,
,'ot one OF the Spanish explorers has SO
ear record as he regarding the Of
vnSes TO which men are most prone
hen released from the artificial re-
'raIntS OF civilization. How great was
lat discretion was shown as soon as his
ack was turned upon the fortress of
Natividad on his first voyage home,
'hen his men broke bounds, so that
pom his return the gentle Cacque
:dacanagari would not wear upon his
eek. even as an ornament, the image
tie virgin whom these wild beasts
.jrOfessed to worship.
Having wrought not for Is, 600. COO SOW
reigns, but two, his living representa-
I've, the Duke of Veragnus. draws the
eat pension of $50, 600 a year from the
Vest Indian revenues of the crown on