Daily Kennebec journal. [microfilm reel] (Augusta, Me.) 1870-1975, 1893-07-20
COLUMBUS RELICS.
What Is to Be Seen in the
La Rabida Convent.
Capt. Coneas Of Carasels Greatly
Surprised at Chicago.


caravels, landed at the exposition q weeh
or SO ago great was his surprise to find
here a reproduction OF the famous Convent
Of La Rabida As he drew near the shores
OF the White City and saw the dull grey
walls Of the old pile rising from the rocks
at the waters edge, he says it seemed tc
him as il some magic had bodily lifted the
ancient monastery and set it down here IL
the midst Of the highest manifestations o.
modern civilization. II Captain Concas
| was surprised and delighted with the ex
terror of the convent, what must have
been his amazement when he passed
through the clumsy doors of dark wood
and stood within the gloomy interiors.
There he found instead OF the rigid ascot
icism of monastical life such museum OF
| Columbian relics, pictures and manu-
scripts as no other country in the world
possesses. Not Italy which gave birth te
the discoverer, nor Spain which sent him
on his momentous voyage, has amassed
within its borders collection Of Colum.
biana worthy comparison with that which
these old walls hold. 1t remained foI
America and the exposition given in the
navigator's honor to present under one
roof graphic history of the man and the
event which together filed the greatest
and momentous page in all human rec
ords.
This Convent of Rabida, with its wealth
of relies of the career and voyages of Co
| lumbus, has proved one Of the most at
traetive features of the exposition. All
day long streams of people pour in and
out the low, square doors, and jostle each
other in the narrow PASSAGES where there
are so many things TO rouse their interest
| and their admiration. Foreign visitors
are particularly delighted with it. There
the Duke of Veragua spent half his time
while at the exposition, and there the
Princess Eulalia passed many hours.
! Captain Concas, too, is ent husiastic in his
praise for the happy manner in which this
exceedingly happy idea has been carried
out. Credit for all this must be given
| William Eleroy Curtis, W ho as chief of the
Latin-American department of the exposi-
ton had full charge of its preparation.
| Indeed, the idea itself was his, and with
what energy skill and success he performed
his work the result is ample witness.
| To write the story of the convent is to
write the history of Christopher Columbus
and his voyages to the western world.
Nothing that is known in connection with
the life of that man is absdnt from these
walls. Everything authentic pertaining
to the history of the discovery of America
/ is shown here in one way or another.
Even Captain Andersen, commander Of
the Viking ship. was not disappointed
when he visited the convent the history of
which dates back to the era bf those Morse
men whose supposed ACHIEVEMENTS he has
/ 10. htc = ta,,r 10.
celebrate For with unexpected impair
tiality this museum of the history of dis
covery, though intended principally to
! glorify Columbus. shows by the aid of
graphic art all that is known or believed
! of the discovery of this continent by Left
/ Erikson and his fellow voyagers.
| There is here model Of a Viking ship
such as Erikson is supposed to have used
in his voyage to America, and oft Mr..
Curtis says: at is not improbable that
/ the Norsemeu cruised along the coast of
| North America centuries before Columbus
was born, but their claim to discovery of
the continent rests entirely upon tradition,
poetic legends, and some slight circum-
stantial evidence"
! Since the presence in tln harbor of the
/ Worlds fair, anchored within pistol shot
/ If each other, the three Columbus cara
| vels and the Viking ship from Norway,
I has revived interest in the question
whether or not the Norsemen did discover
/ America in the .cuth century, this part of
/ the Rabida museum will prove of extra
ordinary interest to visitors. Here is
! chart showing the course followed by Erik
/ son in his voyage from Greenland to the
/ coast of Massac husetts. 1t was prepared
under the direction of the late Professor
| f. n. Horsford, of Cambridge, who has
! lone more than any one else to establish
I ,he Morse claim. In brief the storyis that
! Eric the Red, an outlaw, established
colony in Greenland in 9s4. In $50 a vik-
ng named Bjarne, while seeking the
! Greenland colony, was driven by north
! sasterly gales d5 far south as Nantucket
/ IN returning to Norway he sold his ship
| % Lief Erikson, son of Eric the Red, who
set sail with a crew of thirty-ive men and
found the lands which Biarne had de-
,cribed. Lief returned to Greenland in
| he spring, when his brother Thorwald
| COX the ship and went to Vinland (Massa-
/ ,husetts) there remaining three years. He
vas killed by Indians and buried near
! Fall River, with crosses tomark his grave.
I In 1896 there was exumed near Fall
/ River skeleton clad in broken armor,
+ NulIu was liifieit LILO VI put VI
| f.ongfellow's most beautiful poems, Il
Was Viking Old" The remains were
| hought to have been those of an Indian
! Intil Professor Rain, a Scandinavian, pro-
bounced them those of Morse chief and
insisted that the burial place of Thorwald
/ Erikson had been discovered. We find
lere charts of these voyages, more or less
imaginative, and also pictures of the sites
If the villages which the Norsemen are
I aid to have established near Boston. A
picture of the old mill at Newport, r. l.,
mggests one of the strongest links in the
Ilain of evidence welded by the supporters
Il the Morse theory, now, alas, broken; for
While it was claimed the old mill afforded
( proof of the occupation of New England
~ the vikings, subsequent Investigations
lave shown that it was erected by Gov
,rnor Arnold of Rhode Island. for wind
mill some time between 1910 and 1880 and
I s copy of tower Of mill at Chester
on, England, whence Arnold had come to
| America.
There are other pictures, manuscripts
md printed books bearing on the viking
heorF of discovery, among them fac
dmiles of inscriptions on the Dighton
'ock, near Taunton, Mass, said to have
leen carved by the Norsemen. But
hese inscriptions are now helievedto have
)een executed by the Algonquin Indians.
Gr. Curtis shows facsimile Cfan old saga
" manuscript written in Iceland 40 years
,fter the discovery by Erikson, and max
ng allusion to that discovery. 4 picture
is given of the Lief Erikson monument IL
Boston, which also has duplicate in Boa-
ton.
In the old convent we find an alleged
portrait of hublai-Kahn, Emperor ol
Mongols, who is said to have visited
America in the thirteenth century under
the command Of his son. A number ol
books have been printed to show that
America was discovered by the Chinese
and Mongols. who occupied Mexico and
Peru. Notwithstanding all these claims
Or theories it WAS Columbus who made tbs
western world known to Europe and
brought the new continent under tbs
domain OF civilization. 1t is somewhat
remarkable that Mr.. Curtis, in all his Co
lumbian researches, could not find por
trait of the discoverer that is supported b
credible evidence, though he was able tC
find an authentic portrait Of Marco Polo
the famous Venetian traveller, who visited
China and India in 1898 and first made
those countries known to the people o
Europe 1t was Polo's description OF thes'
countries that inspired in Columbus
nearly two hundred years later, a desire t,
sail to Cathay China By the western
route. The copy Of Marco Polo read b.
Columbus and carried with him on hi
/ yox,ac,1s Vras rfrin.ed IN afi,, sf Aptyerr