"National Heritage"

Locked in the vaults of the Bank of Spain, at Madrid, some 97 aged documents have been moldering into sear yellow crinkles. Not long ago a South American republic was reported to have offered three million pesetas ($420,000) for them. Their owner, the Duke of Veragua, direct descendant of Christopher Columbus, politely declined.

All Spain became alarmed lest the Duke might some day be tempted beyond endurance to sell these documents, the so-called "Archives of Columbus," to a high, higher, highest bidder. Last week the Spanish Academy of History, acting for the Spanish Government, offered to buy them from the Duke for 1,150,000 pesetas ($161,000) "in order that this national heritage may be immemorially conserved to Spain."

The Duke, no miser, graciously accepted. Straightway the documents were brought forth, reclassified, found to contain a priceless series of contemporary royal decrees affecting Columbus, as well as a great portion of the correspondence between the great navigator and Queen Isabella.

Cables announced that when the purchase is completed the documents will be deposited at Seville. In 1927 they will be exhibited publicly at the great International Exposition which is to take place that year in Spain.