FROM CORDOVA TO CATHAY.

us a mile or so away. Arriving there, heated and exhausted, I received a warm
welcome from the head keeper, who placed a comfortable house at my service,
and took me to the top of the tower for the view. Built as it is upon the high-
est elevation in the island, this tower commanded the surrounding country and
the sea adjacent, the whole of Watling’s being visible, shaped like a pear, with
its stem to the south.

There is little doubt in my mind that I was then looking upon the very spot
at which Columbus landed, just four hundred years before. The reefs off shore
threw up their sheets of foam as at the time of the discovery; the bright lagoons
in the center of the island lay directly at my feet; the low hills, scarce rising
above the general level, the green trees, the sparkling beaches, all were spread
before me, and the prospect was pleasing and beautiful in the extreme. Half a
mile distant from the tower stretched a long, continuous beach of silver sands,
terminating in promontories some two miles apart, breasting which the water is
calm as in a pond, though broken by innumerable jagged reefs of coral.

Beyond this calm space of water that encircles the island all around, lies a
chain of barrier-reefs, that prevents the tumultuous waves from reaching to the
shore, where all is quiet and secure.

Bordering this beach, along its entire length, is a low growth of sea-grapes,
dwarf palmetto and sweet shrubs, just such as one may see on the southern
coast of Florida. Scattered over its silvery surface are shells of every hue, and
innumerable sprays of the Sargasso weed, such as the first sailors saw, coming
here in 1492. Sea-birds hover over it, fleecy clouds fleck it with their shadows;
but, other than the distant murmur of the breakers, no sound disturbs the eternal
silence here.

It was at the southeast extremity of this beach, where a jutting promontory
of honey-combed coral rock runs out toward the barrier-reefs, that we assume
the first landing took place, in a beautiful bay, with an open entrance from the
ocean. On the beach, the fierce sun beats relentlessly, but there are deep hol-
lows in the rock where, in the morning, we can find shelter from the heat.

To this first land of the first voyage, Columbus gave the name San Salvador.
By the Indians it was called Guanahani. By the “ Indians,’ I say; for thus
were termed these people found in possession, and who were here for the first
time seen by Europeans, In the first day of their stay on shore the Spaniards
had added several new things to their discoveries: to the discovery of the vari-
ations of the compass, the trades, the Sargasso Sea and weed, they now added
the new people termed by their commander “ Indians,” the craft called by the
Indians themselves canoes (canoas), new species of parrots, implements of bone
and stone, and, later on, hammocks.

We would like to know what kind of people these were who welcomed the
first Europeans to America, and if any of their kind exist to-day. They were
brown and bare, shapely, athletic, doing no harm, but gentle and loving. “I