20 SMITHSONIAN MISCELLANEOUS COLLECTIONS VOL. I48 



several yards. This first opening in the reefs is If miles wide 20 

 and easy to see. This lagoon between reefs, with a deep pool of 

 about 30 feet of water, is navigable almost to the beach. There is 

 room inside for a 50-foot boat 2T to swing and anchor close to shore. 

 If it is reasonable to assume that a seaman would anchor at the 

 first opportunity after being out to sea for 33 days, then this — cer- 

 tainly — would be the spot. 28 



In the abridged edition of the original Journal, Las Casas wrote : 

 "Once ashore they saw very green trees, many streams, and fruits of 

 different kinds. . . . Presently there gathered many people of the 

 island." After Columbus had taken possession of the island, which 

 was called in the Indians' tongue Gitanahani for the King and Queen 

 of Spain, he explored the island. Mastic trees 24 feet tall, lignum 

 vitae, gumelemi, genipap, wild guava, wild fig, papaya, sugar apples, 

 sapadilla, pricklypear, and others grew on the ridge ; fringing the 

 shoreline he must have seen dense plants of seagrapes and extremely 

 green, high bushes of the green and the black cocoplum. These and 

 more are native to this island and are here in abundance today. What 

 a joyous sight these must have been to Columbus and his men on 

 their arrival in this New World ! In October, fresh-water ponds are 

 within walking distance of where he could have landed, and from 

 the settlement nearby lakes can be seen. 



Before the writer compares the exact words of the Admiral with 

 today's topography, in order to identify his landfall, the mystery of 

 the light will be clarified. 



20 Admiral Morison follows Mr. Massey as to this anchorage, and after a 

 thorough investigation, in and out of the water, the writer is completely con- 

 vinced. 



27 Dr. Cortez F. Enloe, Jr., Yachting, Dec. 1960, p. 114. 



28 Three monuments, where Columbus was supposed to have landed, grace 

 San Salvador's shore : One was erected on the northeast side by the Chicago 

 Herald in June 1891 (although most books will say that the date reads June IS, 

 1891, there is no "15" on the monument; probably copied from the first mistake, 

 when a dispatch announcing that "the expedition had discovered the landing spot 

 of Chris Columbo on Watling Island, and a monument . . . had been dedi- 

 cated at 4 p.m. that day, June 15). Three pages in a Memo to City Desk re 

 Chris Columbo were sent to the writer on September 15, 1955, in which is the 

 following : "To determine the exact spot where Columbus landed, the group 

 approached the island inland 'from the same direction as Columbus did . . . 

 east bearing a little south.' They landed on the east side and said here's the 

 place and started building the monument." The second monument was a slab of 

 cement erected by the Heloise in 1951, but no reason for this has been found. 

 The third monument is in the form of a cross at First Landing Bay, erected by 

 the writer with volunteers in December 1956; photographs in National Geo- 

 graphic Magazine, Feb. 1959, p. 198, and Oct. 1959, pp. 448-450; Saturday 

 Evening Post, Oct 3, 1959, p. 43. 



