FIRST ].. \NDFAU,. 



183 



<1 rand Turk Island is almost unworthy 

 id. rnlinii, and Lieut. .1. I?. Murdook, 



( a [laper published in tl l'i 



df th.- 1'nited Statc> Naval Institute" for 

 I. entitled "Tin- Cruise of ('(ilmnluis 

 'tin- Bahama^. 1 I!!','." says of I his island, origi- 

 illy proposed by N'avarretc: " It is hardly |"- 

 ble to imagine that his track is derived from 

 ^ at all." Concerning Marihuana and 

 iniaiia. neithcran-wers to the description given 

 Columbus. Neither has the north-and-smith 

 *\ nor the lagoon. So far as the charts show, 

 it her has the remarkable headland with a har- 

 r with a narrow entrance beside it. Watling 

 land alone seems to comply with the conditions. 

 ecordin^ to the Chicago ""Herald" expedition, 

 Wat ling Island is the Gnanahani of the na- 

 res, the San Salvador of Columbus, the scene 



miles north; seventh. OH! to sea. and then turn- 

 ing back to a capo or point of the coast farther 

 north: eighth, to Uiun Cay; and ninth, to Wat- 

 ling Island." The exact "S[M.| on Watling I gl- 

 and when- Columbus first landed can not be pos- 

 itively determined, but it is safe to assume that 

 he tir.-t anchored off the eastern shore. He was 

 sailing westward at two o'cl<x:k in the morning 

 of Oct. 12. and the two hills one two and the 

 other three miles south of Cut Point would a--t- 

 nally have been the first bits of land to show 

 above the horizon in the moonlight. The loca- 

 tion of the reefs, of the harbor with the narrow 

 entrance, of the piece of land like an island, Co- 

 lurnbus's use of the words "round the island to 

 the south " in order to go to the southwest, the 

 voyage in the boats outside the reefs along the 

 shore to the north-northeastall indicate that he 



MONUMENT ERECTED ON WATLING'g ISLAND IN 1891. 



the most momentous event in history, because 

 is the only island which in itself agrees with 

 discoverer's description, and because it is 

 only island from which the log can be fol- 

 r>wed to the five other islands visited by him. 

 If we were to take the log, with the directions 

 and distances sailed, descriptions of coasts, isl- 

 iinils. and harbors, and trace the track backward 

 from Port Gibura, Cuba, or any of the adjacent 

 anchorages, with no thought of Watling or any 

 of the other proposed landfall islands, a track so 

 traced would run first to Ragged Islands; sec- 

 ond. to the rocky islet or Bird Rock: third, to 

 ortune Island and the shoals; fourth, to the 

 islet a^ain ; fifth, to Cape Verd; sixth, to 

 t-nce Harbor and the east-and-west coast two 



was on the eastern or northeastern side of the 

 island. Here, accordingly, was raised a monu- 

 ment by the expedition to commemorate the 

 first landing of Columbus. The monument, as 

 shown in the engraving, is a rectangular struct- 

 ure, flanked at the corners by eight buttresses, 

 faced with an appropriate tablet of marble with 

 the inscription :" On this spot Christopher Co- 

 lumbus first set foot upon the soil of the New 

 World. Krected by the Chicago Herald.' June 

 15, 1891." In front was a grotto in which was 

 placed a marble globe, on whose surface was 

 traced the outlines of the New World, and the 

 siteof Chicago marked by a silver star. A rough 

 shaft, capped with a block of granite, surmounted 

 the structure. The shaft contained pieces of 



