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i I 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. 'V mm jfi |j;J | lafe t Ilf I l