The daily exchange. [volume] (Baltimore, Md.) 1858-1861, 1860-11-09
From ". 0. Picayune, Nov 3.
REMOVAL OF THE REMAINS OF COLUM-


1t is stated from Havana that the re-
mains of Christopher Columbus, the Discover
er of the New World, are again to be re-
moved to a new and splendid cemetery to be
opened near that city: They are to be deposited in
a silver urn, upon which will be inscribed in letters
of gold, the most remarkable events of his great
enterprise. A bronze statue is also to be erected
them, representing the great dscOverer in the
attitude of revealing the grand mission of his Won
derful life
Columbus died Ascension day, the goth of May,
1906, in about the seventieth year of his age. His
obsequies were celebrated with great pomp at Val
ladolid, and his body deposited in the convent of
San Francisco. Thence, nine years after, in the
year 1913, it removed to the Carthusian monas-
terry of Seville, where was likewise deposited the
body of his son Diego. Twenty-three years after,
in the year 1886, the bodies of both the Admiral
and his son were removed, with appropriate pomp
and ceremonies, to the world he had disco cred,
and inferred in the principal chapel of the city of
San Domingo, Hispaniola. There they remained un-
disturbed for the period of 259 years.
In the year 1895, however, at the close of the
war between France and Spain, all the Spanish
possessions in the island of Hispaniola were ceded
to France, whereupon a request was preferred to
the French Governor to have remains OF Columbus
removed to Cuba. The request was granted and
on the goth of December, 1895, the vault in the Ca
thedral of San Domingo was, for the first time in
nearly three hundred years, opened. "Within,"
says the record of the event, were found the frag
ments of a eaden coffin, number of bones, and
quantity of mould, evidently the remains of a hu-
man body. These were carefully collected and put
into case of gIded lead, about half an ell in
length and breadth, and third in height, secured
by iron lock, the key of which was delivered to
the Archbishop. The case was enclosed in a coffin,
covered with black velvet, and ornamented with
lace and fringe of gold.'
After appropriate funeral ceremonies the body
was taken on board the ship San Lorenzo and taken
to Havana, where it arrived on the 18th of Janu-
ary, 1886. 1t received in the most solemn
manner, with all the honors given to a sovereign.
"On arriving at the mole, the remains were met by
generals and military staff. The coffin was then
conveyed between files Of sodiery, which lined the
streets to the obeIisk, in the Place dArmes, where
it was received in a hearse prepared for the pur-
pose. Here the remains were formally delivered
to the Governor ana Captain General of the Island,
the key given up to him, the coffin opened and ex-
amned and the safe transportation of its contents
authenticated"
The ceremony concluded, the solemn rites for the
dead we're performed by the Archbishop, and the
remains of the great discoverer again deposi.
ted in the wall, the right side of the grand altar
of the Cathedral of Havana, where they have ever
since remained the object of reverence to all visit.
ors of the Island.
Nothing can be said against any honors that NAV
be done, on occasion of opening a new cemetery in
Havana, to the memory of one so illustrious The
erection of a statue would certainly be very ap-
propriate. But why again disturb the bones of
the great discoverer? They now rest in conse-
Grated place, building whose walls have only be-
come hrmer as they grew gray with years, and
which proof, so tar as any edifce can be proof
against the elements, gives every guarantee OF
protection; and why should the mortal remains OF
the great Admiral be not aowsd, then, to rest at
last in peace?