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THE NATIONAL GEOGRAPHIC MAGAZINE 



ing to spend millions of dollars in deep- 

 ening the magnificent harbor at Charlotte 

 Amalia, on the island of St. Thomas, 

 expecting that here will be a favored 

 spot for the calling of ships after the big 

 waterway is in operation. 



Lying hard by the main shipway from 

 Europe to the canal and being a free 

 port, St. Thomas anticipates a great 

 boom. And it will almost certainly be- 

 come the Panama-hat distributing center 

 of the world. I have been in every coun- 

 try north of the Equator, and on this 

 island I saw the biggest Panama-hat store 

 I have ever seen. It is probably the big- 

 gest emporium of its kind in the world. 



wherie; is coivUmbus burii;d? 



Santo Domingo expects that it will get 

 a share in the great international com- 

 merce that will move through the Pan- 

 ama Canal. Not only will it afiford a 

 great highway for its exports and im- 

 ports, but will also constitute an impor- 

 tant port of call for many kinds of ships. 



Here one may see the house of Colum- 

 bus, and if the conclusions of the priests 

 of Santo Domingo are to be believed, his 

 very ashes. It seems that Columbus, his 

 brother, and his son were interred in the 

 Cathedral. In after years it was decided 

 to remove the ashes of the Discoverer to 

 Havana. ^ 



When the Spaniards were fighting in 

 the Spanish-American war they took the 

 bones at Havana back to Spain and in- 

 terred them there. It is claimed that it 

 has since been demonstrated that those 

 are the bones of his brother. 



The Santo Domingans afterward op- 

 ened up a leaden casket and in it found 

 the inscription "Cristobal Colon, First 

 Admiral." Other evidence substantiates 

 the claim and was strong enough to con- 

 vince Secretary Knox that the Domini- 

 cans actually do possess the real bones 

 of Columbus. 



The casket was opened for our party. 

 There were srriall parts of the skull, 

 vertebrae, ribs, and femurs remaining; 

 but for the most part there was nothing 

 but dust. The bones still remaining un- 

 crumbled would fill about a quarter-peck 

 measure. 



i 



UNCLi; SAM AS A CUSTOM''S CLERK 



Under the convention by which the 

 United States is overseeing the collection 

 of customs in Santo Domingo, remark- 

 able results are being achieved. When 

 the United States sent the receiver there, 

 the customs collections in their entirety 

 did not suffice to meet the needs of the 

 government and the republic was a bank- 

 rupt, defaulting on its interest and hav- 

 ing the warships of a European nation 

 at its door. 



One of the early acts of the receiver 

 was to revise the tariff. Export duties 

 were cut in two and import duties were 

 lowered 14 per cent. 



Under the old tariff champagne was 

 admitted with a nominal duty and beer 

 was heavily taxed ; silks came in almost 

 free and cotton goods bore a heavy bur- 

 den ; French sardines were admitted with 

 a low duty and rice was assessed with a 

 very heavy one. It put the burdens of 

 taxation on the poor masses and prac- 

 tically exempted the rich classes. 



The revised tariff reversed all this. 

 And under an honest administration of 

 the tariff laws 60 per cent of the reduced 

 tariff gives the country more revenue 

 than 100 per cent of the old tariff. The 

 other 40 per cent goes to the liquidation 

 of the foreign debt of the country. 



Haiti does not expect much from the 

 Panama Canal, for here is the one spot 

 in the New World where black rules 

 white, and to which the tourist tide will 

 probably never flow. 



Here also there have been revolutions, 

 starting almost with each change of the 

 moon, for a generation or more. The 

 country is perhaps the most backward in 

 the New World. They never plant any- 

 thing. Haiti grows a considerable amount 

 of coffee, but it grows on trees which are 

 now the wild descendants of the trees 

 which were planted by the French colo- 

 nists. 



Porto Rico feels that the completion 

 of the canal spells new prosperity for it. 

 Plans are on foot for a magnificent tropi- 

 cal hotel, to be built at San Juan. Being- 

 hard by the natural route for ships be- 

 tween the canal and Europe, it expects, 

 to profit by the traffic as Genoa profited 



