. The storied West Indies . e spot called La Navidad;and, further, to collect some relics of the wreck andfort. It may seem almost incredible, perhaps, thatone should be able to recover anything of importancefrom a wreck that took place more than four hun-dred years ago; but it was my good fortune to findwhat, beyond any reasonable doubt, was an anchorfrom the Santa Maria, which had been sent ashorewith other wreckage and left at Guarico. We haveit on the authority of Columbus himself, that every-thing portable on the ship was taken off by thefriendly Indians and landed at the Indian village,e
. The storied West Indies . e spot called La Navidad;and, further, to collect some relics of the wreck andfort. It may seem almost incredible, perhaps, thatone should be able to recover anything of importancefrom a wreck that took place more than four hun-dred years ago; but it was my good fortune to findwhat, beyond any reasonable doubt, was an anchorfrom the Santa Maria, which had been sent ashorewith other wreckage and left at Guarico. We haveit on the authority of Columbus himself, that every-thing portable on the ship was taken off by thefriendly Indians and landed at the Indian village,even to the last nail and bolt of the stranded ancient anchor, then, was found by me, identi-fied, and later sent to the Columbian Exposition,where, in the monastery of La Rabida, it wasplaced on exhibition—one of the most precious relicsof the many contained in that interesting reproduc-tion of the famous structure. I allude to this discovery merely to link theremote past with the present, and to make as vivid. A portrait of Columbus. FRUITS OF THE FIRST VOYAGE 51 as possible the events of the time we are investigat-ing. I wish it were possible for me to declare thatI had found some living descendant of those gentle,generous people who so royally entertained the per-fidious Spaniards; but to-day, alas! not one those guileless Indians danced and sang,spread rural feasts, and played their innocent games,to-day a people of darker hue, whose ancestors werebrought here as slaves from Africa, and who arescarcely more civilized than those Indians whom theyhave supplanted, hold possession of the soil. A few days after the fort was finished, or on the4th of January, 1493, the diminutive Nina set sailfrom Guarico, leaving the simple natives staringafter her, and in the fort itself and on the shore theforty Spaniards who were to await there the returnof Columbus, in accordance with his promise. Hernext halt was at the base of a high, tent-shaped moun-tain, whi
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