Evening star., 1898-11-12

as they came into the world: their forms
are graceful, their features good their
hair Is coarse as that of a horses tail cut
short in front and worn long behind They
are dark. like the Canary Islanders and
paint themselves in various colors. They
do not carry arms. and have no knowledge
OF them. for when | showed them our
swords they took them by the edges and
through ignorance cut themselves"
lew years later II was favorite pas
time OF the Spanish conquerors and settlers
TO see who of them could most neatly
decapitate those same Indians with their
swords, after trying i'm vain to split their
artificially thickened skulls! AT dawn OF
saturday, october IL, he continues in his
journal, many Of the men came to the
ships in canoes made out of the trunks OF
trees. each of one piece and wonderfully
bulIt some containing forty men and 9TH
ers but single one. They paddle with "a
peel, like that of a baker, and make great
speed, and If a canoa capsiZes all swim
about and bail out the water with Gala
bashes. L examined them closely to see II
there was any gold amongst them. noticing
that some of them wore small pieces IN
their noses: and by signs / was able to
understand that by going to the south or
by going around the island to the south
ward, j would find q king who had great
gold vessels and also native gold in sbun-
dance. At this moment it is dark and all
nave gone ashore in their canoas j have
determined to lose no time but to
wait tn tomorrow evening and then sail for
the southwest to try II | can find
the Island of Cipango."
Room for Doubt
Continuing on. Columbus sailed, i'm a
roundabout way, for the Island of Cuba.
reachlng its north coast at a point near the
present port of Gfbarra, thence coasting
10 CAPE Malsi crossing the channel TO
Haiti, where lie lost his flagship on a reef
In the harbor of Cape Haitien, built fort
and left some forty OF his men, and after
reaching the Bay of Samana returned TO
Spaln-to such glory awaiting him as the
world now knows.
Now, were this merely a sentimental
Journey, the writer would halt right here
and allow the impression to prevail that
Columbus and the Maria Teresa landed at
one and the same spot. But the inexorable
truth must in the end come out, and that
is, that there is yet some doubt as to the
exact landfall Of Columbus. That he first
made land in the Bahamas and about mid
way OF the chain, is absolutely certain; but
Herent investigators place that historic
spot on different islands, the two extremes
being some 301 miles apart. OF late, how
ever, though Washington Irving and Hum
boldt came to the conclusion that the true
landfall was on Cat Island, at Columbus
Point, yet later investigators have most
generally determined il to be on the north
east shore of Watlings Island, which lies
about fifty miles to the eastward of the
Point
Irving's conclusions We're unauestioned
until little more than forty years ago,
when work by Capt cher of the Brit
ish navy appeared, entitled, The Landfsu
of Columbus" and later the exhaus sive
work of Capt. G. V. Fox of our own l.avy.
Bechar advocated Watlings, and Capt.
Fox the Island of Samana, or Atwood Cay.
as the first landfall of Columbus; the for
mer being supported by Lieut.. Murdoch of
thu United States navy, who began his in
vestigations at the coast of Cuba and fol-
lowed the track of Columbus back to the
island first sighted, which he determined
was Watlings.
Later explorers, among them Walter
Wellman, the arctic traveller, and tha
writer, have thoroughly examined the