fouled that it was impossible to see an object three feet 

 away. Any underwater exploration was out of the ques- 

 tion. 



Disappointed, he was forced to give up any further 

 attempt to locate the Santa Maria. Instead, he took Reef 

 Diver to examine the coast between Limonade Bord de 

 Mer and the mouth of the Grande Riviere. Somewhere on 

 this shore, he was sure, Columbus had unloaded the sal- 

 vage from the Santa Maria, for it was the only section of 

 coast where mangrove did not grow right to the water's 

 edge. 



He made two landings, one at the town and one just 

 east of the delta at the mouth of the river. Each time, he 

 found that the bank shelved so steeply that it was possible 

 to drop the bow anchor a hundred feet ojffshore and then 

 ease Reef Diver back on the line until another anchor 

 could be carried ashore and sunk in the sand. There were 

 native fishing boats secured in similar fashion in both 

 places. 



Upon going ashore he found that the Grande Riviere 

 was deep enough to be navigable except for the delta at 

 the mouth, which could be crossed in a shallow-draft boat 

 only at high tide. The low, muddy ground which was 

 formed by the river's deposit extended for perhaps a 

 quarter to a half mile inland before a change in the char- 

 acter of trees and vegetation indicated solid ground. 



It was up this river that St.-Mery had recorded the 

 finding of the anchor now at Port-au-Prince. Could it have 

 been the same anchor which Dr. Chanca, Columbus's 

 physician on his second voyage, had reported seeing near 

 a cluster of rude Indian shacks on the shore as he accom- 

 panied Columbus from the burned and destroyed Navi- 

 dad? "... an anchor belonging to the ship which the 

 Admiral had lost here on the previous voyage," he had 

 written. St.-Mery had conjectured that the anchor wliich 



226 Sea Diver 



