188 F. A. Ober — In tlie Wake of Columbus. 



themselves upon the site of the present city of Santa Fe, build- 

 ing there a camp that eventually became a city. Here Columbus 

 found them in January, 1492, and here he made his last plea 

 for his projected voyages. Disappointed, he left the fortified 

 camp of Santa Fe, and departed toward the coast of Spain, all 

 his years of attendance on the court having apparently been 

 passed in vain. 



Fate or fortune took him to the convent of La Rabida, on the 

 coast, near the important town of Huelva, and here he met and 

 conversed with the prior, who, formerly confessor to Isabella, 

 retained Columbus at the convent until he himself had seen her 

 and obtained her sanction to his return. The result the world 

 knows. The " capitulation " between Columbus and the sover- 

 eigns of Spain was signed April 17, 1492, and the Genoese re- 

 turned to La Rabida and Palos, where he completed his prepa- 

 rations for the voyage, sailing in August, to the discovery of the 

 New World. 



With all this, of course, every one is familiar; but with the 

 places most closely identified with the life and career of Colum- 

 bus, and particularly in the hemisphere he discovered, very few 

 people now living are acquainted. 



After more than two months of sailing, or about October 12, 

 Columbus found himself at the New World's portal — at the 

 gateway to the unknown lands beyond. 



This island, the Guanahani of the natives, called by the sailor 

 San Salvador, the landfall of the first voyage, has been variousl}^ 

 located in different portions of the Bahaman chain. 



We for a long time accepted the statement of Irving that it 

 was that now known as Cat island, an opinion in which Hum- 

 boldt coincided ; but later investigators have assigned it to 

 Watlings island, most of them agreeing on it who have given 

 the matter much attention. 



Of one thing we are sure, that it was an island in the Baha- 

 mas and about midway the chain, though islands so far apart 

 as Grand Turks and Cat, with 300 miles between them, have 

 been claimed as the landfall. It is unfortunate that the journal 

 of Co-lumbus, which Avas doubtless written on the voyage and in 

 detail, is lost, since that might have settled all doubts on this as 

 on man 3^ other .points. 



But, in view of what has been published, and after a careful 

 sifting of all available evidence. I think we may assume it to 



