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Copy/;./ 1913, by i ne
\ Star Company.
Ortat Britain Rights^iesutcd'.
The Landing cf Columbus—By Puebla.
The Earthly Remains of the Discoverer
• of America to Be Exhibited at the
Great San Francisco World's Fair
of those who had driven them out of their
last stronghold.
Sadly and proudly the Spaniards con
veyed the supposed bones of Columbus
from the cathedral to the warship Giralda.
On January 19 the ship arrived at Seville
amid the thundering salutes of the bat
teries on shore. The authorities solemnly
received the sarcophagus and transferred
it to the cathedral, where a requiem mass
r *
was sung.
It was then interred in a magnificent
tomb of colored bronze. Four crowned
heraldic figures representing the four an
cient kingdoms from which Spain was
formed bear aloft the sarcophagus. The
Spaniards still cherish the fond illusion
that they possess the bones of Columbus,
and the tomb constantly visited by tour
ists and others.
In gathering evidence relating to the
bones of Columbus the commissioners were
greatly impressed by the historical inter
est of San Domingo. The island of Hayti
is very closely bound up with the history
of Columbus. In December, 1492, on his
first voyage to America, after he had
turned his course homeward, he sighted
this island, which he called Hispaniola
(little Spain). He penetrated into the in
terior, where he planted a wooden cross
on Santo Cerro (Holy Hill).
In 1496 Columbus began the settlement
of the island. His brother and son were
associated with him. The present capital,
San Domingo, was founded in 1499. It is
the oldest Christian city in the New f World.
The bishopric established in 1573 is the
mother see of all Spanish America.
The present cathedral, finished in 1540,
Is the oldest church in America. Here is
still reverently preserved a fragment of
the cross which Columbus set up on Santo
Cerro, and about which miraculous legends
have grown up in the course of four cen
turies.
The chapel in which Columbus and sev
eral of his kinsmen were buried is a very
beautiful and remarkable specimen of
Spanish Gothic architecture. It is the only
work of this character in the two Amer
icas, and was erected at a time when
Gothic was nearly extinct in Europe.
Columbus lived for many years on the
island, and was here imprisoned by his
enemies. From San Domingo he set out
on his last voyage to Spain. The palace
which he occupied and the prison in which
he was lodged are among the many inter
esting buildings now shown in San Do
mingo. There is no doubt that this re
markable old city still contains much that
would contribute to the history of the dls-
CQverer of America. ^
There are extensive gold mines in the
interior, and Spain derived much of her
gold from here. Francis Drake sacked
San Domingo in 1586. In the next cen
tury it became the resort of French buc
caneers, and this was made the basis for
a French claim of sovereignty. The Eng
lish also made several attempts to occupy
the island on account of the mahogany it
contained.
The peculiar variety known as San Do
mingo mahogany is now very valuable, and
it is said that no fresh supplies can be
obtained.
The Panama Exposition may be the
means of calling attention to one of the
most interesting and neglected countries
in the New World.
The Casket Containing the Bones of Columbus Taken
to the Panama-Pacific Exposition.
Contemporary Portrait of Christopher Columbus.
E NE of the most interesting features
of the great Panama-Pacific Ex
position at San Francisco will be
the bones of Christopher Colum
bus himself.
Thus the mortal remains of the discov
erer of America, fittingly honored and
guarded, will he present at the celebration
of the opening of the Panama Canal, the
most momentous event in Central Amer
ica since the discovery of ouf continent.
There has been considerable contro
versy as to whether the ancient casket
lying in San Domingo Cathedral and bear
ing the name of Columbus really contained
his bones. The exposition commissioners
conducted a careful Inquiry into the sub
ject, and were satisfied that these were
the discoverer’s bones. They obtained the
consent of the Republic of San Domingo
to borrow them during the Exposition, and
then carried them away to San Francisco.
The facts ascertained in the course of
this investigation are here summarized.
Columbus died on May 21, 1506, at Valla
dolid, in Spain. He was buried in the
Franciscan convent there. Three years
later his body was taken to the Carthusian
Convent at Santa Maria de las Cuevas, in
Seville. In the will which he made just
before bis death Columbus expressed a
wish to be 3. .id to rest in the island of
Hayti, or Hispaniola, where be had estab
lished the first settlement. Forty years
later this wish was carried out. Docu
ments which have been preserved show
that the bones of the admiral were depos
ited in 1549 under the altar of the Cathe
dral of San Domingo, in Hayti.
When, by the terms of the treaty of
Basel, signed In 1795 th* eastern half of
the island was ceded to France, a leaden
coffin with no mark on it to indicate whose
body It contained was removed from the
right sride of the altar of the Cathedral of
San Domingo and transferred to the Cathe
dral of Havana, then In Spanish territory,
and reinterred there on January 19, 1796.
Here arises the crucial point in the con
troversy, for it is asserted that the bones
then removed were not those of Columbus
limself, but those of his son Diego, who
was also buried at San Domingo.
Earlj* in the nineteenth century the
island of Hayti became independent, and
was divided into two republics, one known
as 'kayti and the other as San Domingo.
On September 10, 1877, while a new floor
was being laid in the Cathedral of San
Domingo, the workmen came across a
small chamber between the wall and the
vault from which the Spaniards had re
moved the casket in 1795. In this chamber
was found an ancient leaden casket con
taining human bones.
From the Inscriptions on the cofTln it
was evident that the Spaniards in 1795
had not removed the remains of the dis
coverer. but those of his son Diego. A
later Investigation was made by the offi
cials of San Domingo on January 11, 1891,
In the presence of the foreign consuls, and
confirmed the view that the bones of Co
lumbus were actually here. The evidence
to this effect has satisfied the commission
ers of the Panama-Pacific Exposition.
Spain, however, continued to assert that
she possessed the bones of Columbus at
Havana. On New Year’s Day, 1899, the
Soanish flag was hauled down In the capi
tal of Cuba, and the Stars and Stripes
hoisted in its place. The descendants of
the early conquistadors did not wish to
leave the remains of the great discoverer,
"who once gave a new world to the king
doms of Leon and CastlUe," in the hands
The Magnificent Tomb in Seville Cathedral, Spain, Where the Discoverer’s
Bones Are Eivoneously Said to Be.
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