San Saba County news. [volume] (San Saba, Tex.) 1874-19??, 1892-07-22
coLUMBUs's LOST ANCHOR.
The Oldest Relic in Existence of the
Great Navigator.

The Oldest Relic in Existence of the
Great Navigator.
On the night of the I'd of August,
149s, the little feet of Christopher Co.
lumbus, the discoverer of America, he
being then upon his third voyage, lay
at anchor just off the southwest point
of the Island of Trinidad, off the main
land of South America, which he had
seen that day for the first time.
Being on board of his ship" says
Washington Irving in his history of
the great navigator, late at night
kept awake hy painful illness and an
anxious and watchful spirit. he heard
aterrible roaring from the south, and
beheld the sea heaped up, as it were,
by great ridge or hill, the height of
the ship, covered with foam and rolling
toward him with tremendous uproar.
AS this furious surge approached, rem
dered more terrible in appearance by
the obscurity of night, he trembled for
the safety of his vessels. His own
ship was suddenly lifted up to such
height that he dreaded lest it should
be overturned or cast upon the rocks,
while another of the ships was torn
violently from her anchorage, leaving
her anchor behind her. The crews
were for time in great CONSERVATION,
fearing they should be swallowed up.
but the mountainous surge passed ON,
and gradually subsidized, after violent
contest with the counter-current of the
strait THIS sudden rush of water, it
is supposed was caused by the swell
ing of one Of the rivers which flow into
the Gulf of Para, and which were as yet
unknown to Columbus"
The anchor thus lost on the night of
August ., 149s, nearly 400 years ago,
from one of the ships of Columbus, off
the southwest extremity of the Island
of Trinidad Point Arenal, as Columbus
named the spot vide Irving has re-
Gently been recovered by Senior Argos
tino, the gentleman who now owns the
point OF land in question. 1t has the
rare merit of being the oldest relic ex-
tant of the great navigator and of the
discovery of America.
As would be expected from the age
of this relic, it is an anchor in the
simplest form of expression. The shaft
is round and feet 0 inches IN length.
At the head of the shaft is round ring
nearly foot in diameter to which the
cable was fastened. The flulxes have
a spread of about feet The total
weight is 1, 100 pounds.
This anchor was dug up by Senior
Argostino in his garden from depth
of six feet at the distance of 327 feet
from the nearest beach of the sea. His
first supposihon was that he had
stumbled upon relic of the Phoeni-
clans or of some other of the ancient
nations who have been supposed by
many to have visited the coasts of
America thousands of years ago.
But an examination of local facts
and authorities soon convinced him
that portion of his garden now occu-
pies the very post at which the ships
of Columbus lay at anchor on the night
of August >, 14Os. The land is con
stantlY rising from the sea along the
entire coast, as has been shown by
Humboldt, Findlay and scores of others
who have written upon the subject,
and the rate of this rising is known to
have been quite sufficient to turn in
400 years the anchorage of the great
feet into the garden of a private citi-
zen
There is not a particle of doubt,
therefore, at the end OF the rigid in
quiry that has been made that the an
Choir recently found by Senior Argos
tino is really and truly the lost anchor
of Coiumbus