St. Paul daily globe. [volume] (Saint Paul, Minn.) 1884-1896, 1892-01-01
COLUMBUS LANDING.
President Adams, Of Cornell.
Discusses Some Recent
Discoveries.
Interesting Results Of Ex-
plopations Made by a Ger
man Scientist. se
The Great Explorers Mortal
Remains Still Resting at
San Domingo. II
Hopeful Outlook Reported for
the Work Of University
Extension. 5b

WASHINGTON. Dec. 3i.-At the last
days session Of the American Histori-
cal society President q. K. Adams, OF
Cornell university, read very inter
esting paper On ''Some Recent Dlscov-
cries Concerning Columbus" Volumes
have been written Oh the subject OF the
first landing place of Columbus in the
new world, and the final resting place Of
the explorer. Prof. Adams is of the
opinion that these questions have been
definitely settled by the recent inyesti-
cations of the German explorer Ru-
dOlph CrODen. who went about year
ago to the Bahamas for the purpose of
studying, first the location of the land
fall. and second. the vexed question as
to the present location of the remains OF
the diScoyerer.
President Adams paper reviewed the
work of Mr.. Cronen, and gave the first
information OF the result of Mr.. Gro
mems labor. Mr.. Cronen, he said, APP
peared to have had exceptional facili-
ties, having had letters from the German
government which opened to him every
opportunity of carrying on his inveSti-
cations as he desired. He studied the
question of the landfall in the light of
the original s
Journal of Columbus,
and of his own comparison of the island
with the desert ptions of that journal
and of other original authorities. His
conclusion is that the first landing was
on Watling'S island, at Or near Graham's
harbor, oh the west side of the island.
His reasons. President Adams said, were
summarized as follows:
No other island corresponds so well
with the original description in point of
description and form, and there is no
harbor OH the east side, but good one
on the west side. On the 18th of Octo-
Der Columbus says they had the rough
est sea they had encountered during the
whole voyage. He also says that be-
tween shutdown of that day and o'clock
on the following morning they sailed at
the rate OF twelVeS miles an hour, max
ing ninety miles. The wind must have
been east.
On the 18th of January last Cronen, in
the presence of the archbishop and a
number of civil officials, as we'll as con-
suls of foreign governments at San De-
mingO, opened the casket believed by
local authorities to contain the remains
of Columbus. These had been sealed
up the time the vault containing them
was discovered in 1877. MIR. Cronen
photographed all &c
The Inscriptions
with great care. They are found to
differ very considerably from the repre-
sensations previously published, and in
the opinion of the author, are incon-
testably genuine.
The whole of the argument. Mr.. Ad-
aortv fr>ff0
uatiOn of the vault containing these re-
mains indicates that it was constructed
before that which contained the re-
mains taken to Havana in ,l795. The
remains of ColumbuSIwe taken from
Spain to San Domingo about 1911, where
as the remains of his son and grandson
were not transported till the beginning
of the seventeenth century. 1t seems
improbable that the leaden box contain
ing the remains of Columbus would
have no mark by which it could be iden-
tilted. The box eXhumed and taken to
Havana III 1895 contained no inscription
whatever. The box discovered in the
onger vault, opened in 1877, contains
five inscriptions, one on the sides and
ends of the box externally, one on the
outside OF the cover, one on the inside
of the cover, and two on the sides of a
silver plate found in the coffin. CrOnan
believes that the
Charges of Fraud
brought by Spanish officials against the
authorities of San Domingo cannot for
moment be admitted. He says the III
scriptions themselves, when carefully
studied, show that they are old: that
the processes of oxidization which have
evidently gone on since the Inscriptions
were made preclude the POSSIBLE
ity of their being modern; that
the charge of fraud made against the
archbishop and others. in the absence of
direct proof, is overwhelmingly I'M
probable; that no one OF those who
have brought the charge of fraud has
ever inspected the coffin or its remains.
The only basis Of conjecture of
fraud Is the imperfect and
incorrect inscriptions heretofore
published and, finally, careful and
independent questioning of several of
those who had participated in the ex-
hnInation in 1877. resulted in substan-
tlal agreement as TO all the important
details of the transaction. Cronen
thinks, Notwithstanding the Spanish
claim, the proof should be regarded as
complete that the remains of Columbus
are Sill at San D0ninpn