The early records of the Santo Domingo cathedral were burnt at the
time of Drake's invasion in 1586, and those since that year have been
so damaged by the ravages of tropical insects that little is left of
them. They make little and only passing reference to the tomb of
Columbus, and mention no monument or inscription whatever. Juan de
Castellanos, in his book "Varones Ilustres de Indias," printed in
1589, recites a Latin epitaph which he says appeared near the place
where lay the body of Columbus in Seville, but pretty Latin epitaphs
were Castellanos' weakness, and it is to be feared that this one, like
others which he dedicated to American explorers, was nothing more than
a figment of his poetic imagination. Two writers, Coleti and Alcedo,
who almost two centuries later mentioned the same epitaph as marking
the grave in Santo Domingo, must have copied from Castellanos.
Undoubtedly there was at first some inscription to mark the tomb, but
in the course of the years any slabs with inscriptions were permitted
to disappear entirely from the graves of Columbus, his son and
grandson, and the very existence of their remains in the cathedral
became a matter of tradition.
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