THE Wairarapa Age MORNING DAILY. FRIDAY, MAY 25, 1906.

Wairarapa Age, Volume XXVIX, Issue 8149, 25 May 1906, Page 4

THE Wairarapa Age MORNING DAILY. FRIDAY, MAY 25, 1906.

•it was 40C years ago last Monday since Oolumbus died. The disooverer of the New World died in Valladolid, in a house which is still shown to tourists, and his last words are said to have been, "Into Thy hands, O Lord, I oommit my spirit." A small circle of relatives and friends mourned his death, and "the tale of his departure," says a historian of our day, "oame like a sough of wind to a few others who had seen no way to alleviate a misery that merited their sympathy." But "the King could have but found it a relief from the indiscretion of his early promises. The world at large thought no more of the mournful procession which bore that way worn "tody to the grave than it did

of any poor creature journeying on bis bier to the potter's field." lu 1193 learned men oried for joy over Columbus' discoveries; in 1506 a chronicler like Peter Martyr who wrote five long letters full of gossip and news from Valladolid juet at the time of the discoverer's death, and who had frequently written about him in former years, made no mention of his death. Ihe histoty of the remains of Columbus is tinged with doubt. They were removed to Seville, where they lay till about 1541, when they were removed to the Cathedral of Santo Domingo, in the Island of Espaniola, it being supposed that Oolumbua had expreaaed a wish to rest there. But it was not till 1676 that any record was made of the interment. When in 1795 the Santo Domingo end of the island was transferred to France, the Spanish authorities removed what they held to be Columbus' remains to Havana, but nearly a century later the Bishop of San Domingo and his adherents claimed that the remains were still in the cathedral, and that it was the body of his son Diego which had been removed. When Cuba went out of Srain's hands the supposad remains were removed to Seville where they now rest in h specially-constructed mausoleum. There is little doubt that there are descendants of Columbus to-day, but the male lino terminated with the third generation and the estates and titles passed by marriage to a scion of the House of Bragonza. A historian writing some years ago, stated that the last in the line of succession to the title and estates was born in 1878, and, curiously enough, had Basque blood in his veins. "The blood of Columbus, the Genoese, now mingles with that of the hardiest raoe of navigators of Western Europe, and of whom it may be expected that if ever earlier oonraot of Europe with the New World is proved, these Basques will be found forerunners of Columbus."