- Historic Sites Columbus’ La Navidad The Fate of the New
World’s First Spanish Settlement April/May 1978 | Volume 29,
Issue 3 However, Columbus’ version of the meeting is at variance
with credible evidence from other sources. Rather than the
restrained exchange of amenities implied in the journal, a
furious altercation apparently ensued. And the bitter quarrel
was concerned not only with the Pinta ’s six-week absence from
the fleet. The quarrel figured later in testimony in the Pleitos
de Colón , the litigation initiated by Columbus’ older son,
Diego, to compel restoration to the Columbus heirs of the title
and authority of viceroy of the New World colonies, which in
1500 were revoked by the sovereigns. Francisco Medel, magistrate
of the town of Huelva, talked to Martín Pinzón as he lay dying
in the little monastery of La Rábida near his hometown of Palos.
Thus Medel’s deposition in the Pleitos amounted to a deathbed
statement from one of the principal actors in the drama. Medel
testified that, according to