Read the letter to Lopez and then give it to him.

If you write me, send the letters to Luis de Soria that he may send them wherever I am, because if I go in a litter, I believe it will be by La Plata .-- [The old Roman road from Merida to Salamanca.]--May our Lord have you in His holy keeping.

Your uncle has been very sick and is now, from trouble with his jaws and his teeth.
"Done in Seville, November 28.
"Your father who loves you more than himself.
.S.
.S.A.S.
XMY Xpo FERENS." Bartholomew Columbus and Ferdinand were remaining with Christopher at Seville; Bartholomew probably very nearly as ill as the Admiral, although we do not hear so many complaints about it.

At any rate Diego, being ay Court, was the great mainstay of his father; and you can see the sick man sitting there alone with his grievances, and looking to the next generation for help in getting them redressed.

Diego, it is to be feared, did not receive these letters with so much patience and attention as he might have shown, nor did he write back to his invalid father with the fulness and regularity which the old man craved.