Evening star. [volume] (Washington, D.C.) 1854-1972, 1898-07-09

Columbus by name sailing on voyage
QUILTED by the Queen of Spain, discovered
America in the year 1872
The question has been raised that CO.
L nbus did not really discover America but
shat he was some five hundred years be-
hind the bold Norsemen, who coasted our
northern shores about the year 1850 But,
waving that bubble. it must be admitted
that Columbus was The first to make the
old world well acquainted with the new,
and to bsstow upon her aborigincs the IL
estima0le privileges of Christian cousola-
tion-as the SPaniards then knew it.
Now, will it be further urged against US
that we are a nation of ingrates. or will it
be said that poetic justice is about to be
done, when it is known that We are Likely
TO acquire the very dust s-nd bones CT the
great discoverer himself? For, assuming
the Spanish account TO be true, thGt is
what We shall accomplish when we take
Havana and cone into Possession of its
ancient cathedral, along with The oth,r
memorials of Cuoa's past. Unless, indeed
Gen. BlaEco follows Cervera's example
and scatters to the winds The sacred dust
lest il be detiled by the Yankee pigs" OF
b. convention is allowed to take il with
hin back to Spain.
Removal From Spain.
1t may, or may not, be generally known
that two cities, Havana and San Domingo.
claim to possess the honored remains of
Columbus. To know how this came about,
We must transport ourselves in imagina-
ton to Spain. the mother country OF
Spanish colonies in South America and the
West Indies. We must imagine ourselves
In the quaint old city of Nalladolil, in the
year 1896, and gathered about the death
bed of the great Genoese. He diad-tnat
Is not disPuted-and was inferred at Val
laeolid; but few years later his remains
were taken TO Seville, and for long time
rested in the Convent of Las Cuevas IN
that city. Here, however, they were net
allowed 20 stay. but in or about the wear
1910, at the request of his sons widow.
bona Maria de Toledo, they were trans
ported to the Island of San Domingo
This was in accordance with the last VII
and testament of Columbus who wished Il,
Secure hnaI sepulture in the Convent OF
Conception de la Vega, which he was in
strumental in founding in me island Of his
great achievements
This convent was long since DESTROYED bv
earthquakes, SO 1t was well he was not
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
G5hce Is not lacking, for the emperor
Charles V issued royal cedula'' for the
removal giving the requisite authority to
Don Luis Colon. Christopher's grandson.
and, besides. there is contemporary testf-
AtCliy- Ia she year I04S, Tor instance, the
archbishop OF the diocese of San Domingo
wrote: The tomb of Don Cristobal Colon.
where are his bones, is much venerated in
Il is cathedral" Concur ent evidence also
shows that they were deposited In the
cathedral, It the right of the high altar.
oereath the pavement of the presbytery
No Record Left.
True. here is not the slightest record
now in the cathedral or in the city Of this
interment. but this is explained by the
fact that hundred years later the CAPITAL
was bombarded and sacked by Sir Francis
Drake, VITO, it is said, destroyed every
thing Of that character he could find All
sign OF the tomb was hidden by covering il