Show A COLUMBUS to tho oldest reminder of tho dla dia of ameria Amo in an anchor that wn cacil by tha min lt 14 boua four aco pound tu in mouth america Amert na on tho the night of tho second of august I 1 gs tile the little fleet of christopher co bubus luru buH the discoverer of america bo beindit then upon his third voyage lay at anchor just off tiie tho southwest it point of the island of trinidad tiff off tho the mainland of south amerise Ameri sn zit which ho had sem s on that day for tho first time iteming on board of Us hia ship waya washington irving in his history of tho the great navigator late at night kept awake by painful illness and an anxious an I 1 w watchful spirit p irit lie he heard a terri terrible blo roaring from tho south and beheld the sort sea heaped up as it were wem into a great didgo bridga or hill the height of tho ship coveted with foam and rolling toward him with a tremendous uproar As this Ms camou surge approached rend chod more inore terrible in appearance by the obscurity of the night ho he trembled for tho the safety of his vessels uia ilia own ship was waft suddenly I 1 lifted if ted up touch to such a height that ho he dreaded drea deif lest it should bo be overturned overturn od or cast upon the boeka while another of tho ship w wm was m torn violently from tier her anchorage leaving her anchor behind her tho crews were for a time in great consternation fearing they should bo be swallowed up but the mountainous passed on and gradually subsided after a violent contest with tho counter current of the strait tha rush of water it is sur supposed posed V caused by the swelling of one of the rivers which flow into tho the gulf of para and which were as yet unknown to columbus the anchor thus lost on tho night of august 2 1498 1408 nearly amr hundred years ago from one of the ships of CA columbus oft off the southwest extremity of the island of trinidad point arenal aa columbus named tho the spots spot vide irving has recently boon been recovered by senor argostino the gentleman who now owns tho the point of land in question it has the rare merit of being tho oldest relic extant of tho the great nayl navigator gator and of the discovery of america As would be expected from tho the ago ol of this relic it ia 13 an anchor in tho simplest form of expression the shaft is 6 round and eight feet nine inches tn in length at the head of the shaft is a round ring nearly a foot in diameter to which tho th zable sable was fastened the tha flukes flakes havo a spread of about five feet tho total weight is eleven hundred pounds this anchor was lug dug up by argostino in his garden from a depth of six feet at the dis distance Lance of three hundred and twenty seven feet from tho nearest beach of the sea ilia first supposition was that lio lie had stumbled upon a rollo rella of the phoenicians Phoenicia ns or of some other of the ancient nations who have been supposed by many to havo have visited tho coasts of america thousands of year yeam ago but an examination of local fact and authorities soon wu convinced vinced him that a portion of his garden now occupies occupy the very post at which the ships of columbus lay at anchor on the night ol 01 august 2 1498 1408 tho the land iana i is constantly rising from tho sea rica along this entire coast a as has boon been shown by Ilum humboldt boldt findlay and scores of others who havo written upon this subject and the rato rate of this rising is known to have been quite sufficient to turn in four hundred years the anchorage of the great fleet into tho the garden of a private citizen there is not a particle of doubt therefore at tho the end of the rigid inquiry that has been made that the anchor recently found by sanor Ark argostino astino is really and truly the lost anchor of columbus columbu 3 |