y Bajo, now Limbe point; and Dos Hermanos, for the twin 

 peaks we could see ahead. 



By this time we had picked out Cap Haitien, which 

 was our goal, far in the distance. It appeared just as Co- 

 lumbus had described it, a mountain "which juts into the 

 sea and which from a distance, owing to a ravine which 

 there is on the land side, seems to be an island apart. He 

 named it Monte Caribata — it is very lovely and full of trees, 

 a vivid green." 



Ed and Captain Weems were as thrilled as I, as we 

 traced the identical course which the Santa Maria had 

 sailed in the last eventful days before her destruction. Be- 

 cause Columbus's ships were forced to sail against the 

 wind, it took him until sunset of the second day before 

 "he entered a harbor which was between the island of San 

 Tomas and Cabo Caribata." 



Although Sea Diver was well out at sea, in order to 

 avoid striking any of the reefs which our chart indicated 

 nearer shore, we could still make out Rat island, which 

 Columbus had called La Amiga. It marked the entrance 

 to Puerto de la Mar de San Tomas, present-day Acul bay, 

 one of tlie prettiest and most protected anchorages in the 

 world. Columbus had written a very painstaking account 

 of how to reach it through the dangerous outer reefs. He 

 claimed that "now this surpassed all, and in it all the ships 

 of the world could lie and be secure, with the oldest cable 

 on board a ship it would be held fast." 



We could see only a small portion of the harbor, for 

 it lay in the shelter of Cap Haitien. Behind it, many miles 

 to the south, we identified the square-crested mountain- 

 top which is the Citadel, that tremendous fortress three 

 thousand feet in the sky, built by the black Emperor Henri 

 Christophe early in the nineteenth century. 



It was from this landlocked harbor of San Tomas, 



Search for the Santa Maria 165 



