Tlie Landfall of Colambas. 189 



have been Watlings. All the evidence, and careful descriptions 

 of the island, I have given in my recently published book. " In 

 the Wake of Columbus/' to which I must refer any one for fur- 

 ther particulars. 



Having followed Columbus throughout Spain over five years 

 ago, and having been commissioned by the Exposition to inves- 

 tigate the route of the navigator through the West Indies, as 

 well as to search out all existing remains of his settlements and 

 plantations, when in those islands as a special commissioner 

 during the past two years. I can claim to have given the matter 

 some attention. 



Accepting the courses of the first voyage across the Atlantic 

 as worked out by eminent navigators of modern times, we bring 

 Columbus, at least approximately, to an island midway the 

 Bahama chain. He " lay to " outside the reefs, and landed in 

 his small boats, finding an island (described as nearly as possi- 

 ble in his own words from the " Diary of Colon," transcribed 

 from his journal by Las Casas), large and very level, with a large 

 lagoon in the middle, without any mountain, and covered with 

 verdure. The journal also describes the great barrier-reef of 

 coral that surrounds th'e island and within which the water is 

 as " still as a well," as Columbus himself says. 



Now, the distinctive feature of this island and this description 

 is the great lagoon in the center of the island, a feature possessed 

 by no other in the chain except Crooked island, which has never 

 been claimed as that of the landfall. Cat island has no such 

 body of water, and in no respect does it answer the description 

 as given by the admiral. 



It should be observed that the only weak link in the chain of 

 evidence in favor of Watlings is the fact that there are no other 

 islands of any size visible from any portion of it, as mentioned 

 by Columbus; but this may not be an objection, for he may 

 have seen distant portions of the same island and taken them 

 for different isles and islets. 



The island itself is about twelve miles long by from five to 

 seven broad, with great salt-water lagoons in the center — egg 

 shaped — and almost entirely surrounded with dangerous coral 

 reefs. 



Like all the Bahama islands, it is composed of limestone, 

 with a very scant covering of soil — in fact, the rocks are almost 

 denuded of vegetal covering, and that little of the poorest and 



