Alice in Seville

All the Boston schoolmarm wanted, as she entered Seville's great General Archives of the Indies during her vacation trip through Spain, was to look up some facts for an article on Barbados. But that day in 1911, Alice Bache Gould found herself so fascinated that she could not bear to leave. "Day after day," says she, "I went back to the archives and postponed my trip home." Last week, after 41 years, she was still postponing it.

In those 41 years, Alice Gould has made quite a name for herself in her special wonderland, for the Archives contain the world's richest collection of documents about the Spanish exploration of the New World. Ever since 1778, when Charles III ordered that all letters, papers and maps concerned with the colonies be assembled in one place, scholars have been flocking to Seville. But the most tireless researcher of them all--from Washington Irving and Martin Fernandez de Navarrete to Harvard's Samuel Eliot Morison--has been Alice Bache Gould.

Logs & Diaries. Today, at 84, she knows as much about the Archives as anyone alive. Week after week, supported by her ebony cane, she still makes her way from the Hotel Cristina to the hushed chambers of the Casa de la Lonja. There, head bent low, she still pores over the endless viceroys' reports, ships' logs and diaries. But in all the decades she has been in Seville, her chief target has never changed: today, she is the world's leading expert on Columbus' crew.

She set her sights on the target almost the first day she entered the Archives. It was then that she happened to discover a document concerning a man named Pedro de Lepe, one of the most controversial figures aboard the Santa Maria. A longtime Columbus enthusiast, Alice Gould knew that most historians doubted De Lepe ever existed. The document, she felt, furnished absolute proof that he did.

Researcher Gould decided that she would track down every last one of Columbus' followers. Some historians had thought that there were 60 men on the expedition; others said 71; still others said 108. By combing through Columbus' letters, hunting down birth certificates, digging up royal payrolls, Alice Gould finally set the figure at 89. Then she turned to the larger task of writing a monumental book which would contain a biography of each one.

Jewels & Spices. Like any good housekeeper, she managed to tidy up a number of historical mysteries. For one thing, she unearthed copies of the much-debated Columbus "Entail of Property," in which Ferdinand and Isabella gave their Admiral the right to one tenth of all the spices and jewels he might discover. For another, she also did away with an age-old libel on Columbus' men, whom historians had long assumed to be no more than a gang of ex-convicts. Actually, only four were ever near a jail. "Aside from these four," says Alice Gould proudly, "none of my men was ever convicted."

Over the years, Researcher Gould has never wearied of her search. But by last week she had finally reached the last chapter of her big book and was contemplating a special honor that had just been bestowed on her. In a ceremony at the Casa de la Lonja, Minister of Education Ruiz Jimenez pinned the Cross of Isabella the Catholic on her black silk dress. "It was," says Unitarian Gould, cocking her head to one side, "a very nice ceremony. And such a beautiful decoration. But there is only one thing I really want--a little more time to complete my job."

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