about 70 miles, and as no other islands at all answer to the description, we can almost positively fix the position of Columbus on the morning of the 27th as at anchor to the southward of the Ragged Islands.

The reckoning of the passage from Isabela to Las Islas de Arena is not given in full, but the general course is stated to have been about WSW., and the approximate distance between the position of the departure from Cape Verde and the point from which Las Islas de Arena were sighted is, as calculated from the courses and distances given in the log, fifty miles, and the course made good, WIS. The distance of the islands when first seen is given as five leagues, and we have to conclude therefore that the position at sunset on the 24th was about 65 miles, EN., from the Ragged Islands. Laying off this distance and bearing from the two extreme islands of the chain, and connecting the points thus determined, we have a line of bearing (Plate I.) that should contain the position of Columbus at the time he took his departure. But this position was SE. from Cape Verde, the south point of Fernandina, and WSW. from the "rocky islet" at the northern extremity of Isabela. These bearings immediately point to Long Island as Fernandina, and to Bird Rock as the "rocky islet." The exact manner in which Crooked and Fortune islands taken together fulfil the descriptions of the journal from the 19th to the 24th, has already been pointed out, and we are led, therefore, to identify Crooked and Fortune as the Isabela of Columbus, and the Saometo of the natives.

Isabela, or rather the "rocky islet," at its northern extremity bore about east from Fernandina, the only idea of the distance derivable being that the ships were about six hours crossing from one island to the other. Long Island, already indicated as Fernandina, from the departure taken from its southern cape, lies 25 miles west of Bird Rock (identified as the rocky islet), and corresponds very closely to the description of Fernandina as an island over twenty leagues long, extending NNW. and SSE.

We now reach the debatable point of the discussion. There can be but little doubt that thus far we have identified the islands visited; but the second island, Santa Maria, offers more difficulties. Captain Becher is compelled to alter the journal in order to adapt it to the topography, and Mr. Fox, by making the second island the keystone of his argument, is obliged to bring Columbus back almost on his own track. It is to be noticed that both Isabela and Santa Maria lay eight or

nine leagues east of Fernandina. It may also be inferred that they were distant from each other, or Columbus would have known of the position of Isabela, which he describes as the highest island he had up to that time visited, having seen it from Santa Maria. The uncertainty with which he writes of the position of Samoet or Isabela on the 17th, after he had been to Santa Maria, shows conclusively that it was not visible, and that the two islands must therefore be more than twenty miles apart. This inference seems to be almost indisputable, and, if correct, a glance at the chart shows that there is only one island on which we can fix as the Santa Maria de la Concepcion of Columbus, namely, Rum Cay. How does it fulfil the other conditions? The objection immediately presents itself that, instead of being eight or nine leagues from Fernandina, it is only fifteen miles, and this would be serious if in this particular point the journal did not appear to contradict itself. Columbus states emphatically on two occasions, that from Santa Maria he saw Fernandina, "appearing very large in the west"; but his estimate of the distance must have been defective, as there is no land in this part of the Bahamas that would be visible twenty-five miles from the deck of a small vessel. The fact of visibility cannot be reconciled with the distance given. Neither Washington Irving, Capt. Becher, nor Mr. Fox selects an island as Santa Maria from which the next island can be seen; and as Rum Cay meets this requirement, and as we have been led to select it by an independent course of reasoning, the objection of the wrong distance between the islands may be counterbalanced by the fact that in this case only is the third island visible from the second. Another objection to Rum Cay is that it does not agree with the description of the second island, as having a shore east and west, ten leagues in extent, and another, next to San Salvador, five leagues north and south. The north shore of Rum Cay is ten miles east and west, and its east side, which lies towards San Salvador, is five miles north and south. Capt. Becher pays but little attention to the size of the various islands as described, and Mr. Fox is compelled in two places to suggest that leagues in the journal should read miles. Without claiming this to be the case, it is possible; and the fact that the trend of the shores of Rum Cay is in conformity with that of Santa Maria is noticeable.

Lastly, San Salvador is seven leagues, or about twenty-two miles, from Santa Maria, presumably northeast. On the valuable chart accompanying Mr. Fox's monograph, the SW. point of Watling's

i.

Island is nineteen miles from the nearest part of Rum Cay, and bears NEIN. We are thus led to fix on Watling's Island as the Guanahani of 1492. In choosing it, no evidence has been considered other than that of Columbus himself, and it has been identified by his directions rather than by trying to lead him into conformity with a preconceived theory. It only remains to follow him through the details of his cruise, and to examine whether the course already traced enables us understandingly and naturally to interpret his logbook.

Mr. Fox gives excellent authority, that of Prof. Harkness of the Naval Observatory, for the statement that at the time San Salvador was sighted the moon was three hours high and favorably situated for seeing land to the westward. The vessels hove to and anchored off Guanahani the next morning. It is difficult to determine where Columbus anchored, as the journal contains no positive statements. The verbatim copy does not begin until after Guanahani had been reached, and Las Casas, in copying it, neglected to state anything on a point so unimportant to him as the anchorage. On the 13th the journal says, that "by going around the island to the southward" land could be reached; on the 14th Columbus took all the boats of the fleet and went NNE. to see the other side, which was on the other side of the east (point?)." These two expressions would seem to indicate an anchorage on the northwest side of the island. The speed of the ships during the night, nine knots an hour, indicates that they had not only a fresh breeze but also a fair one, and in that case the east side of the island would have been the weather side. It is therefore most probable that the anchorage was on the west or lee side of the island.

The choice of Watling's Island as Guanahani is not new, it having been designated by Muñoz as long ago as 1793 as Columbus' landfall, and it has for many years been widely accepted as such. There is nothing in the description of San Salvador that conflicts in any way with the topography of Watling's Island, but, on the contrary, there is so strong a correspondence as to have led to its having been designated long before any attempt was made to identify the other islands. It agrees with the short bits of description given by Columbus, in having a large lagoon in the middle, and a rocky reef surrounding the island. It is questionable if a coral reef existing in 1492 would now be entire, and as these reefs are found more or less throughout the Bahamas, neither the presence nor absence of one would be a strong argument either way. There is to-day a reef

harbor at the northern end which would answer the description in many respects, although it is too shallow for large vessels.

Some time in the afternoon of the 14th the ships of Columbus left San Salvador, presumably steering southwest, as he said he should do, in search of gold and precious stones. From its very beginning, the career of Spanish discovery and conquest in the New World was guided by the thirst for wealth, and Columbus shows in his journal, day after day, how he was led from island to island by the vague and oftentimes misunderstood signs of the Indians, that farther on gold was plentiful; and although repeatedly disappointed, he was time and again led to put faith in these golden rumors.

On leaving San Salvador, the distance to the next island, given as five and afterwards as seven leagues, would seem to be but a short passage, but as it was dark before the island was reached, the ships lay off and on during the night, and apparently drifted so far away that they did not arrive before noon of the 15th. Mention is made of detention due to the tide, but nothing is said of which way the ships were set. The sailing directions make but little mention of any tidal current on the outer edge of the Bahamas; but the currents are very strong. The sailing directions issued by the U. S. Hydrographic Office, 1877, say that "almost everywhere through these islands the current sets to the westward at the rate of half a mile to a mile an hour." In the vicinity of Rum Cay they are either to the NW. or to the SE. In the track drawn on the chart (Plate I.) it is assumed that the current causing the detention was setting to the SE., but it is impossible to decide from the context which way the ships were drifted, and it is not intended, in assigning this drift to the SE., to assert that one in the opposite direction is not possible. It is also doubtful whether Columbus followed the north or south shore of the island to its western cape. These details are of little importance and cannot be exactly determined. At sunset on the 15th the ships "anchored near the west cape." The best anchorage at Rum Cay is on the south side of the island, near the eastern extremity, but there is an open roadstead under the west end that affords excellent shelter in any easterly wind. This was probably the anchorage of Columbus. At dawn of the 16th Columbus went ashore in the boats, but, to use his own words, did not wish to stay, "porque el viento cargaba á la traviesa Sueste." This passage has been variously rendered, but usually in some way different from its ordinary signification. The word "traviesa" is the modern "travesia," and is used in nautical

parlance in speaking of the wind when it blows directly on a coast or directly into a port or harbor. The phrase, as used here, may possibly have reference to the fact that, if the wind increased, Columbus might find difficulty in reaching the ships with his boats, as he was anxious to be back and to get under weigh. Another explanation, which is afforded by the track proposed in this paper, is that he wished to get to the southward, and wished to start before the wind came more nearly ahead. It is to be noticed that two different times are assigned in the log for the departure from Santa Maria. In the journal of the 15th is a note, evidently written on the next day, saying, "and so I left about ten o'clock"; under date of the 16th the time of departure is given as noon.

It has always been assumed that on leaving Santa Maria the course to the next island was west. There is no course given anywhere in the journal, although the bearing of the two islands is twice mentioned as east and west; but there are the best of reasons for thinking that the course sailed was not west, but as nearly south as the wind would permit. The third island bore west from the second, but after reaching it Columbus says it extended NNE. and SSW., and that he "saw more than twenty leagues of it, but this was not the end." From the deck of his vessel, or even from the mastheads, he could never have seen more than six or seven leagues of the shore, if steering west; and the fact that he twice records its length, once under the date of the 15th as twenty-eight leagues, and again on the 16th as more than twenty, admits of but one explanation, that he sailed along the coast of the island in sight of it. It is by no means certain that the phrase "inclining to the south" (on the 15th, when he says, "and so I left at about ten o'clock with a southeast wind, inclining to the south") does not refer to the course steered, and not, as it first appears, to the direction of the wind. But there are still other inferences to be drawn in favor of the idea that he went to the southward. One is that on the 17th Columbus evinces a desire to sail to the southeast, as he understood from the Indians whom he had brought with him, that in that direction lay the island of Samoet, where gold was to be found. But these Indians were with him on the 16th at Santa Maria, and in addition to their information he had that of the inhabitants of the island as to the position of Samoet. He twice expresses his wish to reach Samoet, and it is therefore reasonable to suppose that on leaving Santa Maria he had that island and not Fernandina as his objective point, although he went to the