0N WATJJNGS ISLAND
.DISCOVERY Or THE SPOT WHERE
COLUM3US LANDED.
fWltor Wollman Telia How tie Explored
the llahanina and Settled tho Cotilro
cry Concerning tlio First Lund Sight
ed by Columbua A Fnaclnatlng and
Inatrnotlv Narrntlr.
(Copyright, I8W.J
In May, 189t, the editor of the Chi-
eftira Herald wired trie At Washington.
"Can you find the spot where Colum
bus discovered America and mark it
(with a memorial?" My reply waa,
-Will try." If it had been a request to
find the north pole or capture a mer
lin aid 1 suppose the answer would have
been the same. . The newspaper corre
spondent ii not surprised at anything.
WALTER WELT.MAN.
The rlan of The Herald was ensv
to understand. For centuries the iden
tity of the island which Columbus first
landed upon had remained unknown.
The quaiisicenteunlal of the discovery
jef the New World was about to bo cel
tebrated in Chicago with a great exposi
tion, and The Herald thought it proper
that the spot at which occurred the most
(tremendon9 event in history should bo
onght out and appropriately marked.
I This was a' queer task, but a fasci
nating one. I went at it in characteristic
American fashion that is, jumped at it.
1 ransacked the Congressional library
knd other libraries. I cabled to London
lor a book which was not to be found in
lAmerica. 1 procured from the hydro
graphies office charts of tho Bahamas
made by onr government and tho Drit
ish admiralty. '
I Night and day study of tho mystery
(f the discovery . qnickly showed thesd
jtacts: In all history there is nothing
that throws light upon the landfall savo
the journal kept by Columbus hiaisulf.
Five islands had been put forward as
the real San Salvador, ajid hundreds of
books and pamphlets written in support
of these theories. Tho correct theory
must be based upon two conditions: The
.island itself must have certain features
.described by Columbus lagoon, reefs,
harbor hard by a headland through
which the sea had cut its way. etc.
and it must lie at certain distances
and in certain directions from five
other islands visited and described by
Columbus. As to the latter condition,
Inspection of the charts showed Wat
ling to be the only one that would fit
the geometrical lines of Columbus' first
Toyage through the Eahamas. If it
contained the physical features which
Columbus had found in his San Salva
dor, then the mystery was solved.
Oddly enough, the learned historians,
geographers and cartographers who had
upported the claims of the rival islands
iad not taken the trouble to visit the
region of which they discoursed. Had
they done so their controversy might
have come to an end long ago.
Early in June our expedition sailed
from New York. We went by Ward
line steamer Santiago to Nassau, the
capital of the Buhamas, having on board
tn addition to Charles Lederer, the fa
mous artist of the Chicago Herald, a
stonemason, a marble globe, a memo
rial tablet, thirty barrels of cement, a
man servant, a photographic outfit and
anndry boxes, barrels, demijohns and
pottles containing the necessaries of life,
k At Nassau we had a narrow escape.
The governor of the Bahamas was to
leave for England within an hour or so
after onr arrival, and without his au
thority we could do nothing. An hour
of hustling, the assistance of the Ameri
can consul and a letter which I had
brought from Sir Julian Pauncofote,
British minister at Washington, and
(Governor Shea gave us a letter com
manding all the local oAk-ir-ls of the B;v
Bamas to place themselves at onr cou
mand. Lucky for us that wo caught
fcindly Governor Shea. The nontenant
governor, who came into power the uiiu
we the governor sailed, was against us.
"Impertinent, presumptuous Yankees!"'
,b exclaimed; "to think they can come
down here and in a fjw weeks ut
tieone of the great mysteries of history!"
U the lieutenant governor had had his
Vay we should have been sent lack to
jHew Yrk qnicker.
Watungs was 200 miles hw.it. W
had decided that if a visit to W;:tlingi
produced the physical evidence neces
sary to establish its claims beyond doubt,
t well and good. If not, we were to ttujy
the other islands in the order of their
theoretical probability. How to get
to Watlings was the queotion. In the
.harbor were sloops, yachts and schoon
ers galore. Ono swelled of her la. t
cargo, Jamaica mm; another of
a third of Ush, a fourth of poultry. TU.
cabins of nil were inrro cWls. "And it
(was the season of tho your whfii :h!:.s
.reigned for days at a xuv.a. The only
'steam vessel in port wa tho s;.-:um.!i:;
tender, a crude craft with a buLtoiu :ia
(flat as a street car, keidlusa r.nd m.t
lovely. Besides she cost a pretty penny.
.But wo bothered tho espouse a::d took
Iter, hove iuto hor our cement u:;d su;
glies, employed some more uiaso:is with
their tools, bought half a ton of precious
toy 4
1
ice. hired "Sandy," tho most famous
pilot of tho Bahamas; borrowed an
American fn$ of the consul, and with
the stars and stripes Hying at masthead
steamed nwav.
A day and a nUjrrit of alternating calm
and storm, through rocky passages and
over dangerous shoals, and we were at
Cat island, which Washington Irving
mndo famous and onr old geogrnphies
solemnly confirmed as the San Salvador
of Columbus. For half a day we steamed
along the coast of Cat Island, and 1 ex
amiued it very carefully. It bears no
resemblance whatever to the island
which Columbus described in his jour
nal. For fifty years it has beeu a San
Salvador under false pretenses.
In the afternoon we reached Watlings.
ralui trees and hazy vistas, thatched
huts and outlying reefs over which the
surf broke lazily marked its shores. A
boat at once put ofT to us. It contained
all the odciaU of tho island the local
magistrate, the port officer, the post
master, the sheriff, the colonel of the
militia and many more all in the per
son of Captain Maxwell Nairn, the only
white resident of the Island, a veritable
Pooh Bah, monarch of a coral isle. His
salary is (200 a year, and he has been
there thirty years.
Captain Nairn became our guide,
counselor, friend and foeman. With
him we explored tho island. A coral
rock it is, a dozen miles long and half
as broad, containing large lagoons of
brackish water, covered with tropical
vegetation, nearly surrounded by reefs.
Eight hundred negroes live here, tilling
altogether probably a score of acres of
land, subsisting principally on fish and
other sea food. They are an honest,
pious, temperate people. Their chief
failing is a predisposition toward piracy,
and woe to the cargo of tho ship that is
wrecked upon their 6hores. This pirat
ical tendency they came naturally by,
for this coral island was once the rendez
vous of infamous Blue Beard, and some
of these poor people are no doubt his
direct descendants. j
But 1 could ceo little in this island
save Christopher Columbus. At every
turn tho great discoverer was suggested.
The salt lagoon appeared to echo back
his name; tho sands of the shore seemed
to bear the impress of his feet; the surf
breaking over the reefs chanted the "Te
Deum" in imitation of Columbus himself.
Tho spirit of Columbus dominates every
thing in Watlings, overshadows every
thing, leaves nothing else to be thought
of or written about.
And no wonder. Hero was even-thing
that Columbus described in his jonrnal
the "large lagoon in the middle of tho
island," the luxuriant verdure, the
"reefs running all round that island,"
the hills near the shore, the "piece of
land like an island, yet which is not an
island, but could easily be made one," as
an admirable sight for a fort; the harbor
lying hard by, iu which "all the ships of
Christendom could lie." All these and
many more of the things which Colum
bna had described we found, and at first
knew instinctively, and later proved to
a mathematical certainty, that this was
the birthplace of the New World.
A little bay, two miles from tho "piece
of land like an island," I chose after
much exploration as the very spot at
which the landing was made. That this
Island was the San Salvador of Colum
bus 1 know; that this pretty bay, with
it3 overhanging headland and shining
beach, was the more particular scene of
the discovery 1 believe. In the nature
of things it cannot be proved, though
there is much in its favor. Near it is a
high hill which Columbus probably first
saw in the moonlight of that fateful
morning. It is the first bit of coast to the
south, free enough from reefs to permit
Baie landing. It is at a point whence Co
lumbus would have rowed "north north
easterly to see the other side of the
island," as he says he did the second
morning after his arrival, on this occa
sion discovering the "piece of land like
an island" and the wonderful harbor "ia
which the water is still as in a well."
On the promontory which lifted its
head above the little bay we erected a
memorial It was constructed of coral
limestone fonnd hard by. Thirty na
tive workmen were employed cutting
roads with their machetes, bringing for
ward materials, mixing mortar and car
rying cement np the hillside. Skillful
boatmen brought supplies from the
steamer through the dangerous coral
reef. The American flag floated from a
staff as we worked, and the monument
grew day by day. The sun beat with
tropical fierceness; our drinking water
was dipped out of the hollows of the rocks,
warm and brackish. But no one fell ill,
and finally the work was finished. It
had been well done. Plenty of cement
bound the stones firmjy together. The
result was beautiful, in the coral lime
stoneare ail the tints of the rainbow,
all the marine forms. ' Land and sea .to
gether had built a memorial to Colum-
iiehai.d v.k::.m:ul to coLvimus.
bus, not the must cspensivo in the
world nor the least artistic. We dedi
cated it with p.Hiyer and addresses.
Magistrate Nairn watches over it week
by wot k. A r.e, -r.t k-tter from him i:i
forms mo that tho natives under Lis
leadership will ivk-U.ue Discovery Day
at the base of tho simple memorial
which bears tin i:uv;-ipl;on in taai blo:
! On t!:: r.nt ;
! ('iiuif Toi iiii'.i Loi.uvh:
j Uolid.
r.,.!.i u t
: TL Uiii-utfo herald
juuu, i.-w. :
Wai.teh Wem.man.
THE MAP COLUMBUS USED.
It Wm rnrely Theoretical unit I'how)
Indlrt Wlicre America Lira.
Maps based on ascertained fitets are a
modern Idea. Prior to the ago of tho
discovery in which Columbus is the
most illustrious figure, known facts were
not thought absolutely needful in the
drawing of maps. Mans wcro plenty
facta for them were nsed as far as they
would go; after the facts were exhaust
ed, geographical theories answered as
Well.
Thus Ptolemy, in the map which
served buroiw for a dozen centuries,
sketched the lunds alxwt the Mediterra
nean with at least a recogulznble degree
of correctness. But when he reached
the limits of the explored regions he did
not hesitate to finish his map; he 'Imply
put beyond the known frontiers what he
thought ought to he there. He believed
that beyond the visited portions of the
earth were only vast doeerta or Impen
etrable swamps, ne had no Idea of
open oceans beyond the known lands.
Ptolemy, however, understood and rep
resented the sphericity of the earth.
What is still more curious, he cstimnttd
the earth's circumference astonishinnlv
near the truth. He made it only 3,300
miles too little.
But after Ptolemv, about 6.10 A. D.,
a geographer of the church arose whose
name was Cosmas. He scorned the
blasphemons idea that the earth was
round. He laid ont the whole universe
in about the shape of a "Saratoga trunk,"
to follow the figure of Professor John
Fiske.
But discoverers had been pushing east
ward across Asia, Some monks sent
out as missionaries, in about 12"0 A. D..
learned from Chinese whom they fell in
with that on the eastern shore of China
was a vast ocean.
The ideas of Ptolemy about tho spher
icity of the earth were beginning to bo
held again. It was therefore not a
great leap to think that perhaps the
ocean on the east of China and the ocean
on the west of Spain were the same
ocean. Roger Bacon thought so, saying
he fancied the distance from Spain to
Asia was not so very great. Columbus
thought so too. He never dreamed a
continent lay between. He nrgued that
he had only to sail westward and he
would soon come to tho eastern co;it of
China or Japan, or, as he called them,
Chafan and Zipangu.
Columbus was aided by tho map work
of Toscanelli. This distinguished as
tronomer, who drew his map about 1470,
calculated the circumference of the
earth prodigiously near the truth he
made it only 124 miles too great This
accuracy for that day is 6imply amaz
ing. Toscanelli, however, was all in
dreamland about Asia; he elongated
Asia till it covered the whole Pacific
ocean. Then he' pictured open ocean,
beginning at about the longitude of
California and extending east to Europe.
Columbus pored over this map and
carried it with him on his voyage as the
nearest thing to a chart which was ob
tainable. Nevertheless Columbus had
a theory of his own about the width of
the Atlantic ocean and about the cir
cumference of the earth. Columbus be
lieved that Toscanelli's figure of the
earth's circumference was nil too large;
so instead of about tho true circumfer
ence Columbus went back and accepted
Ptolemy's estimate, and thus made it
8,800 miles too little. He calculated
that to reach the wonderful Island of
Zipangu, or Japan, he would have to
sail only about 2,500 miles from the
Canaries, In other words, he put Japan
a little nearer Europe than the West
Indies, Columbus squeezed the earth
np till he made its circumference just
too small for America. Yet the conti
nent that his theory made impossible
was to be his immortal glory.
It was very lucky, however, that Co
lumbus thus jumped America in his
reckoning, and that Toscanelli had
stretched Asia across to California, For
had Columbus known that the real dis
tance from the Canarie to Japan was
12,000 miles he of course would never
have dreamed of undertaking that voy
age; America would have waited for
her discoverer till she revealed her pres
ence by some accident.
Here are two exceedingly interesting
facts: Columbus sailed westward with
a scientific purpose, in a scientific spirit,
simply in order to demonstrate the
sphericity of the earth as a practical
means of reaching. China, and in process
of that demonstration he ran against an
nnlooked for continent Mark Twain
truthfully declares that Coimbus could
hot help discovering America; he only
had to sail on till he bumped. Yet, though
the finding of America was purely an ac
cident, the whole voyage was more of a
f cientifio undertaking than if Columbus
lad fancied a new continent was to be
found. H.".d he gone to seek a eontinent
he would have gone onlyon su'clfa knight
errant quet as had beencomraou enough
during the ignorant Middle Ages. It
would have taken no more bravery and
been no more significant than a thou
sand chivalrous and foolhardy quests
after nothing by the knights of Christen
dom. His voyage was significant because it
was undertaken in the interest of science
the new scienceof Europe. Columbus
was the first man who had cared or
dared venture ont through what had
been called tho Sea of Darkness to dem
onstrate a properly arrived at scientific
theory. This constitutes the renl glory
of Columbus over Leif Ericson, who may
have viaited America, bat who was too
much a barbarian to appreciate its sig
nificance. Tho other interesting fact is, that un
less Columbus had made the ludicrous
error iu his science ho would never have
made his extraordinary venture.
Francis Bellamy.
Lydia E. Pinkham's
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LYDIA E. PINKHAM MED.CO..LVN,iUt.
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