The Wichita daily eagle. [volume] (Wichita, Kan.) 1890-1906, 1891-06-18
MAILING ISLAND

From photograph taken from the deck of q
passing steamer.
liopbiles. 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 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 Bierstadt, ]
hear, has just returned from voyage to
! the Bahamas, whittier he went on very
interesting mission-nothing less than a
visit to the very spot at which Columbus
first set foot upon the soil of the western
continent, there to make sketches for a
great historic painting. A noble idea,
surely, and one worthy of this eminent
artist, who for months and months 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
embeilish 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 a unique banquet,
to be known as "Tbe Waiting Island Din
ner." Hereby hangs a 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 continents That is the oues-
ton which the historians and geographers
have been all these years trying to an
with ha uol 1f
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
ton 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 heart?
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, Columbus! 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, Endorsed Irving's
conclusion. Then Navarrete, a Spanish
photographer, published Columbus jour
nal and from a careful study of that prec-
lous record concluded that San Salvador
WAS the Grand Turk Island, no less than
300 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 SANTANA Island, lying about mid
way between Cat and Turk islands But
the man who actually solved the problem,
who not only advanced pretty theory but
proved his case so that geographers and
historians and learned men have generally
accepted it as final, was Captain Becher-
pronounced Bcecher-of the British hydro
graphic office, and Captain Becher saws
the land fall" of Columbus was not on Cat
Island, nor Turk Island, nor yet SANTANA,
but on Waiting Island, which lies 50 or 100
miles southeast of Cat Island.
So Waiting Island it is, and if YOUR
or atlas or wall map tells YOU
the old story of Cat Island being the scene