The morning news. [volume] (Savannah, Ga.) 1887-1900, 1898-07-16
MATTER OF DOUBT.
....sTroN As TO WHERE THE
,oNES OF COLUMBUS NOW LIE.


cities Claim the HOnOr-Efforts
,,.,t Have Been Made to Solve the
,,..ter,-We May Yet Get Them.
FROM the Washington Star.
has rfsu suggested that this country
80. ,,ograteful. to say the least, mas
IL is now warning against the
nation that was instrumental in
,-...,,, il 10 the view of Europe and
-.. the civilizing influences Of the old
..7 that is. one of her mariners, Chris
...,s, columbus by name, sailing on a
-. outGtted by the Queen of Spain,
need America in the year 1892.
rts question has been raised that Co
,..,,,,s did not really discover America,
49,, ,es, he was some five hundred years
,.b.o5 rbe bold Vorsemen, who coasted
,,-tbern shores about the year 1000
r,- 73iving that quioble, it must be ad-
-..a7 hat Columbus was the first TO
-. ,,s ola world well acquainted with
49,. oso and to bestow upon her aborigi-
nss rbs nestimable privileges of Christian
-.,,s,.s-ion-as the SDaniards then knew
f.
Nav viii it be further urged against us
.t,t we are a nation Of ingrates, or will it
said rbat poetic justice is about to be
,.,s ,7en it is known that we are likely
n ACQUIRE the very dust and bones of the
ersat 5.scoverer himself? For, assuming
The spanish account to be true, that is
what we shall accomplish when we take
Havana and come into possession of its
ancient cathedral, along with the other
memorials of Cuba's past. Unless, indeed,
con Bianco follows Cervera's example,
and scatters to the winds the sacred dust
iezr ii be dedled by the Yankee pigs or
bv convention is allowed to take it with
him back TO Spain.
II nav or may not, be generally known
that two cities. Havana and San Domingo,
claim 10 possess the honored remains of
Columbus To know how this came about,
ne must transport ourselves in imagin-
aHon 10 Spain. the "nothsr country of
Srauish colonies in South America and the
West Indies We must imagine ourselves
IN the quaint old city of Valladolid, in the
wear 1906 and gathered about the death
he'd OF the great Genoese. He died-that
Is not disputed-and was inferred at Val
lsdoUd. but a few years later the remains
were taken to Seville, and for a long time
rested in the convent of Las Cuevas, in
that city Here however, they We're not
allowed 10 stay, but in or about the year
$40 al The request of his sons widow.
D5na Maria de Toledo, they were trans
ported to the island of San Domingo.
This was in accordance with the last will
and testament of Columbus, who wished to
secure final sepulture in the convent of
Concepcion de la Vega, which he was in
strumentaI in founding in the island of his
great achievements.
This convent was long since destroyed by
earthquakes, so it was well he was rot
taken there, but to the cathedral OF the
capital then just approaching completion.
There is no record eXtant of this removal
across the Atlantic, but corroborative evil
dence is not lacking, for the emperor
Charles Y issued a royal cedula' for the
removal, giving the requisite authority 10
Don Luis Colon, Christophers grandson,
and besides, there is contemporary test-
mony. In the year 1549 for instance, the
archbishop of the diocese of San Domingo
wrote THE tomb of Don Christobal Colon,
where are his bones is much venerated in
this cathedral" Concurrent evidence also
show that they were deposited in the
cathedral a the right of the high altar,
beneath the pavement of the presbytery.
True there is not the slightest record
nov in the cathedral or in the city of this
interment, but this is explained by the
fact that 100 years later the capital was
bombarded and sacked by Sir Francis
Drake who. it is said. destroyed every
thing of that character he could find. All
sign Of the lamb was hidden by covering
it with earth from fear that the English
yandas'-whO were the Yankee pigs
Of that tme-should desecrate the remains
Of the man who had brought so much
glory TO Spain. Thus all direct evidence
was finally lost and for more than 200
years thereafter the history of this event
was preserved solely by local tradition.
Now We come TO another chapter in this
strange story. In 1888, when San Domin-
go was coded to France, Spain nobly re-
solved that the ashes of Columbus should
not rest beneath an alien flag, and so sent
an admiral of her navy to remove them,
accompanied by a lineal descendant of
taeT great admiral of the ocean sea" the
DUKE Of Nerasua, grandfather of the gen.
ueman whom we so highly honored at our
last exposition. Guided solely by the ira
Gton that these remains lay al the right
OF tue nigh altar they found and opened
d vault beneath the pave of the presby-
ery, on the gospel side" of the altar
"hcn was about a yard in depth and
Dreadth Within this vault they found
some leaden plates, fragments of bones
anu Gust which were revereutly gathered
"AlA u du0lCIIGu Win EOuCn CeIG-
"oiS aboard their man-of-war. the San
loIeIzo, then lying In the harbor. The
rL11lous relics We're taken TO Havana and
.e again with pomp and ceremony,
ralLle1 to the cathedral and placed in a
ne opened for that purpose in the wall
1 az me right of the presbytery. A marble
a''' was affixed, after the niche was
le1. bearing the grandiloquent inscrip-
ou ,eslauns, 90 restos imagen del
s r%',e Colon, which so many have seen,
fo su winch has been so often Transcribed,
Nv Years ago.
c,sil duolner chapter: The Spanish Off
srT 10 "hom had been delegated this high
F,5 honorable duty sincerely thought they
f,.,4I reformed it satisfactorily. They had
jas1 vault containing fragments of a
n vase such as Columbus was placed
il co1,a come ms last voyage from Spain, and
over ',aiL" i human dust and bones; more
is6stl5 was approximately in the SPOT des-
iTisr'.5 by tradition as that where he was
tte, H. blt they had not found-and
traS. ol1 not claim they had found-any
sbog..,o an inscription or other evidence
tho r.r5 j. ond doubt that these were