Los Angeles herald., 1891-06-23
WAITING ISLAND.

WAlLiN0 lolsAND
tFrom photograph taken from the deck Of a
passing steamer.
iophiles. Librarian Spofford, the grand
old man who presides over the great ma
tional library here, and carries the titles
and something of the contents of a couple
of hundred thousand volumes in his phe-
nomenal brain, tells me that Columbus is
the craze among students, readers and the
literati.
Even the artists are interested in the
great discoverer, and Albert Berstadt,
hear, has just returned from a voyage to
the Bahamas, whittier he went on very
interesting mission-nothing less than
visit to the very spot at which Columbus
first seS foot upon the soil of the western
continent there to make sketches for
great historic painting A noble idea,
surely, and one worthy of this eminent
artist, who for months and ,sionths has
been ransacking libraries and antiquaries'
collections for costumes and accoutre-
ments and ships and paraphernalia of the
times of the great voyager, with which to
embellish as accurately as possible his
forthcoming canvas.
A geographical enthusiast of New York,
Mr.. Townsend-a newspaper man, by the
way-is to give very soon unique banquet,
to be known as 1.-The Waiting Island Din
ner." Hereby hangs tale-a story of
mystery, of doubt, of controversy, of pa
tient investigation, extending over nearly
four centuries. Where did Christopher
Columbus first set foot on the shores of
the western continent? That is the ques-
tion which the historians and geographers
have been all these years trying to an
swer, with the usual result of each man
answering it his own way, and his way
rarely agreeing with any other mans an
swer. OF course every one has known that
Columbus first landed-his 'land fall, !" the
historians and geographers invariably put
it-on the island of San Salvador, in the
Bahamas. We know this, for Columbus
himself said so, and he ought to have
known, for he was the only special CORE
spondent on the spot But the puzzle is,
which one of the several islands did Co
lumbus land upon and name San Salvador,
out of the gratitude of his hearth
For one or two hundred years the world
has supposed it was on the shores of Cat
Island that the admiral first saw the ma
tives of this continent, and was hailed by
them, according to the schoolboy's compo-
sition, with the cheering salutation of
Hello Columbusi We have been expect
ing youp' Washington Irving, who wrote
the most learned and ornate life of Ad
miral Columbus, said Cat Island was San
Salvador, and the great Humboldt. after
months of investigation, indorsed Irving's
conclusion. Then Navarrete, Spanish
photographer, published Columbus jour
nal, and from careful study of that prec-
kous record concluded that San Salvador
was the Grand Turk Island no less than
800 miles from the San Salvador of Irving
and Humboldt. Captain Fox, an Ameri-
can naval officer, published a book in
which he declared that the real San Saliva
dor was Samapa Island, lying about mid
way between Cat and Turk islands. But
the man who actually solved the problem,
who not only advanced a pretty theory but
proved his case so that geographers and
historians and learned men have generally
accepted it as fnal was Captain Becher-
pronounced Beecher-of the British hydro
graphic Office, and Captain Becher says
the 1land fall'' of Columbus was not on Cat
Island, nor Turk Island, nor yet SANTANA,
but on Waiting Island, which lies 80 OF. 100
miles southeast of Cat Island.
So Waiting Island it is, and if your
geography or atlas or wall map tells you
Che old story of Cat Island being the scene