Show WHERE COLUMBUS LANDED question of spot in new world he actually discovered definitely settled by the author famous explorers tomb opened to him ATLANTIC OCEAN 4 Z 1 6 P A N I 1 SAN 1 1 01 I 1 R 7 7 2 N Z As a special favor to the author the dominican government permitted the chest containing the bones bone of columbus to be opened so that lie he might view them as pictured at upper left the map makes it easier to sollow follow the proof of the actual discovery of america as described by mr below it Is shown the tl beach on Wat lings island in the bahamas where columbus first set foot on american soil sell by It RICHARD ICHARD author of the royal road to Ito romance mance etc allowing A WESTERLY gale was LA blowing across the atlantic driving before it the three immortal little cara vels for over two months columbus and his crew had been sailing blindly westward hope was exhausted and from all sides the admiral was beseeched beseeches ched to turn back perhaps he might have had not a sailor on board the pinta at two in the morning seen in the moonlight a line of white surf breaking on a tongue of land landl land but where what land on our modem charts some bahaman bagaman Is land without a doubt the indians celled it Gua columbus renamed it san salvador but which island is san salvador seaman first saw land unfortunately columbus original logbook log book disappeared soon after his death but not before fray las casas a bontem contemporary horary had made faithful copies of parts of it one part being dated october 12 1492 the cleric no man of science failed to pres preserve drye the mathematical reckonings which would have located the island exactly ile he did however extract literally columbus picturesque description of his landfall and that is how we know a stiff wind was blowing toward the west on the night of the discovery and that rodrigo a seaman was the first to see the tongue of land gleaming in the moonlight the same spanish copy of the original record describes san salvador this island is quite large and very level it has a large lake in the center the shape of the is land is that of a be bean in and the vegetation so luxuriant that it is aplean a pleasure to behold it on october 14 after two days ashore columbus also wrote at daybreak I 1 had the boats of the caravels caravell car avels made ready and went along the island in a northeasterly north easterly direction in order to see the villages the inhabitants coming to the shore beseeched beseeches ched us to land there but I 1 was afraid of a reef of rocks which entirely surround the island but within this belt is a harbor of such size that there would be ample room for all the vessels of christendom this is not a great deal of hor information matl but it is all that exists and with it my pilot and I 1 laid our course for the bahamas four days I 1 had spent exploring from the sea and the air and so far not one of the islands had remotely fitted the description given in the logbook log book perhaps columbus who did not hesitate to en his bis C sisco coteries verles was romancing again per haps ha ps there was no lake no harbor except in his imagination there still remained however one more island to be explored W Wat ai lings island the seaward most of all Wat lings liland island was in the news in 1892 when the directors of the columbian exposition accepted accept edit it as san salvador and raised a small monument on the east shore to mark the place where columbus presumably landed an excellent book by rudolf cronau more carefully reasoned and mo more re persuasive than the others I 1 had bad read also lent considerable weight to the possibility lity that might be the right island but when I 1 flew over the expositions monument and down the east coast I 1 saw not one coral reef paralleling the coast as columbus described but three the caravels caravell car avels would not have dared come within a league of this shore day or night and certainly not while a high wind was blowing as the logbook log book recorded successful search but the flight disclosed something else a large lake in the center of the island very large and precisely in the center suddenly alert we climbed higher inthe in the seaplane to feet Wat lings island was visible below in its entirety and it was unmistakably shaped like a bean I 1 looked tor for the encircling belt ot of coral reef it was there surrounding the island with scarcely a breaks break but what about the harbor the coast was without any indentation whatsoever and then I 1 saw the harbor too it was made by the reef swinging tar far out from shore at the northern end and back again leaving a perfectly calm basin a mile wide inside the barrier which acted as a natural breakwater the basin was indeed big enough all the ships of fu afif century christendom san Salva salvador dorl I 1 had m my islando but since it was apparent even from the air that the landing mon ament was wrongly placed I 1 decided to search further and discover if possible the actual spot where columbus stepped ashore in the new world the east coast facing spain was obviously out of the question for its unbroken phalanx of reefs makes it unapproachable from the sea columbus would not have ventured such a hazard in a rowboat much less a sailing ship however on the west coast right beside besida the hamlet of cockburn there is a beautiful beach which boats can reach through a wide break in the coral wall columbus as lie he reports in his logbook log book haying having seen the moonlit tongue of land lay to until daylight and with the prevailing east wind must have drifted past the northern tip of the reef and d then during the morning he sailed south and finding the breach in the barrier steered through and dropped anchor before the unobstructed beach and it was here on the leeward the sate safe side of the island that he went ashore my seaplane descending to within 30 feet of the sea easily spotted a th the e low coral cay that rodrigo had first seen at the northern tip we followed columbus course down the west coast into the opening in the reef landed on the lagoon inside and came to a stop on the very same same spot I 1 suspect where the santa maria droppel her sails exploration of harbor what schoolboy has not seen the painting of columbus embarking disembarking dis on the beach with his sword aloft his hag flag unfurled and the indians staring at him in wonder I 1 should have liked as a dramatic a an n arrival but instead ol of a spanish admiral and his capt captains ains all dressed in purple velvet tw two a grimy aviators came ashore dress dressed ed in cotton coveralls and un furling nothing more royal than a couple of pongee mufflers with which we were removing the spattered oil irom from our eyes the negro indians however the inhabitants are entirely negro and number no more than 75 were suf astonished for ours was the first flying ship ever to visit the island and the first most of 0 them had ever seen the grave of Col columbus but another question now rose to plague me where Is the great discoverer burled buried columbus died in 1506 1500 in the tha spanish city of valladolid his repeated request when he felt death approaching was that his body be burled buried in Hl Hi the rich and beautiful island ho he had discovered on his first voyage to this new world crossroads cross roads therefore columbus remains we were re transferred in 1540 the leaden casket when it arrived from spain with proper berema ceremony in the newly built cathedral on the gospel side of the altar at the same time the body of diego columbus the son was transferred to santo domingo and placed beside that of his father both graves were marked with marble slabs which remained there to identity identify them for a hundred and fifteen years then in 1655 the english attacked santo domingo and the church authorities thorit ties les to protect tha grave from desecration destroyed tho the marble slabs and obliterated everything which might reveal the location of the bodies nor were new slabs ever put in place perhaps that might be the situation even today had not spain in 1795 been forced to cede Hl Hi to france unwilling to surrender the body of their great national h hero ero the spaniards decided to remove the columbus casket to cuba they dug into the cathedral floor below the altar just where tradition said the grave lay coming to to a lead casket they reverentially removed it to the ibe cathedral in ha vana and sealed lt it in a vault in the tha presbytery wall opening the casket after that the santo domingo ca thedral bereft of its glory was allowed to tall fall into such decay that by 1877 it had to be completely rebuilt delving below the stone floor before the altar the workmen came upon an ancient lead casket just like the te one removed to havana in 1795 on the ud lid were inscribed the tha abbreviations D do de la A per ate which rudolf cronau the great authority on columbus has translated as de la amer america ica primer almirante that is discoverer of america ri first arst admiral on three sides of the box were engraved one to each side the letters C C A which could stand tor cristoval Crl stoval colon almirante realizing that this find was probably of extraordinary importance the bishop of the diocese invited all the dignitaries of dominican state and church as well as the foreign for eign consuls to witness the opening of the casket when the lid was raised it revealed on its under side a third inscription illare y eado varon cristoval Criz toval colon which could only be interpreted as ilustre Ulu y enclar eildo varon don cristobal colon illustrious and famous baron chris copher columbus there could be no doubt whose bones these were crumbling in the tha bottom of the box it was not cot october 12 when I 1 reached santo domingo to visit the tha 0 old I 1 d cathedral nevertheless a friendly church official granted me an extraordinary favor by opening the bronze chest and permitting me to examine the casket privately and at length a beu bell syndicate service |