196 F. A. Oher — In tJi.e Wake of Columbus. 



at Jamaica, where all of his vessels were wrecked and where 

 he remained a twelvemonth a prisoner on his stranded ships, 

 fighting the Indians and engaged in conflicts with his own 

 mutinous men. 



The scene of his last shipwreck is well authenticated, and, as 

 the conclusion of my labors in the search for Columbian foot- 

 prints, I visited and photographed the little bay in which for 

 a whole year he remained at the mercy of the sea and the 

 savages. It is on the northern coast of Jamaica, in the parish of 

 Saint Anns, the most beautiful portion of that beautiful island. 

 A mile distant from the bay of Saint Anns is a little sea-nook, 

 called today Don Christopher's cove, and on its narrow stretch 

 of beach, with bordering fringe of sea-grape and cocoa-plum, 

 Columbus stranded his vessels, building over their decks a shelter 

 of palm-thatch, and here lived for a year, as Irving says, '* castled 

 in the sea." 



Half way between Jamaica and Haiti is an island known as 

 Navassa, at which the canoe sent by Columbus to Haiti for 

 assistance touched on its way, the starving crew finding there a 

 little raw fish and some water, which enabled them to complete 

 their most perilous voyage. 



But perhaps I have followed too long after the ships of Colum- 

 bus. I might mention many other spots he visited, and which 

 I have seen ; but with you assent I will bring this description 

 to a close. 



