COLUMBIAN HISTORICAL EXPOSITION AT MADRID. 43 



either case, neither the Votos nor the Corobicies have left any traces of the character 

 of their culture. 



Among the objects from the Guetares is an instrument of wood for making fire 

 according to the system employed in Mexico, a cord or line for fishing, and various 

 ocherous earths used in painting the body, a custom which Fernandez de Oviedo men 

 tions as common among the Chontales of Nicaragua, near neighbors of the Votos. 



DEPARTMENT OF THE ISLAND OF CUBA. 



The objects sent to the exhibition from the Island of Cuba were 

 principally economic in character, including an admirably arranged 

 and extensive series illustrating the mineralogy and metallic wealth 

 of the island and reflecting credit upon the school of mines in Havana 

 which had forwarded it. 



There was also a line case manufactured from the choice woods of 

 the island, containing documents relating to the transportation of the 

 bones of Christopher Columbus from the cathedral of Santo Domingo 

 to that of Havana, in the year 1796. Its contents have a high histor 

 ical value and by^nany are considered conclusive upon this much 

 debated question. A second volume, handsomely bound, contained a 

 number of photographs of various views and buildings in Havana and 

 objects relating to Christopher Columbus, among them one of his por 

 trait presented to the city of Havana by his descendant in the seventh 

 degree. It is claimed to be the most genuine of any known. 



No collections of archreolgical specimens, illustrating the industries 

 of the indigenous inhabitants of the island, were included in the exhibit. 



DEPARTMENT OF THE DOMINICAN EEPUBLIC. 



The material in the department of the exhibition occupied by the 

 Dominican Kepublic in the island of Santo Domingo, or Haiti, had refer 

 ence partly to the early establishment of the Spanish power in that 

 island and partly to the condition of its primitive inhabitants as shown 

 by their remains. The first of these consisted mainly of paintings and 

 engravings of notable buildings and places upon the island which had 

 been the scenes of various transactions relating to the first settlement. 



The early writers have left us considerable information about the 

 state in which the inhabitants found themselves on the arrival of the 

 Spaniards. This was not dissimilar to that of the tribes of northern 

 South America, with whom they were closely affiliated in language and 

 blood. The picture thus drawn by the earliest European visitors is 

 borne out by the remains which have from time to time been collected. 

 Those in the present exhibition include small idols of stone, clay, and 

 wood, also points for lances or arrowheads of the same material, figures 

 and utensils in pottery, and collars of stone, supposed to have been 

 used on ceremonial occasions. Among the engravings is one of the 

 celebrated circular construction of upright stones designed according 



