Monuments to Christopher Columbus are regularly vandalized throughout the Americas, but Spain remains faithful to his memory. Last week, I visited Seville Cathedral, where his supposed remains are carried shoulder-high by massive statues representing the kings of Castile, Leon, Navarre, and Aragon.

I say “supposed remains” because the old rogue traveled almost as much in death as in life, being interred first in Valladolid, then in Seville, then in Hispaniola, then in Cuba, and finally, when the United States ousted Spain from its last colony in 1898, in Seville again, leading to some dispute over where his bones actually lie.