PROMVCORDOVA sO'GA THA Y.

At last the fleet of carracks and caravels, seventeen sail in all, left the harbor
of Cadiz, on the twenty-fifth of September, 1493. On the third of November,
land was sighted in the Caribbees, or southern West Indies, but it was not till
the twenty-fifth of that month, after leisurely sailing through the golden chain
of islands, that Columbus arrived at the site of Fort Navidad. He found the
fortress destroyed and the garrison massacred, and whatever may have been his
original intentions as to fixing here the settlement he had been commissioned to
found in the New World, the circumstances attendant upon his return thither
prevented the consummation of such a scheme. The aspect of brightness
worn by the country less than a year ago was now changed to one of gloom.
Confidence in the Indians was impaired; suspicion and distrust had taken its
place. The occupants of the ves-
sels were anxious to disembark,
even suffering for a change of
environment; but no settlers could
be induced to fix their abode
here, with the fate of their pre-
decessors ever in mind.

So the fleet weighed anchor and
stood eastward. Fate, in the shape
of an adverse wind, threw in their
way what they had been so anx-
iously seeking —a secure harbor
with an advantageous site for settle-
ment. It was not far from a cape
seen and named by Columbus on = :
his previous voyage in January. FORT NAVIDAD (OR NATIVITY.)

Within a line of frothing coral Se ra rare Et ciate

reefs is a deep basin, spacious enough for many such ships as were those of
the Admiral’s day, while a great breastwork of coral rock, with a beautiful
beach on one side and a river on the other, gave promise of an excellent. site
for the city that was to be. The ships were brought within the line of
reefs, and the weary passengers, together with the live. stock and provi-
sions, were landed on a little beach. It was on the eleventh of December,
1492, that they arrived, and they went.to work with, such, diligence; that soon.
houses were built, and at least four stone buildings erected, the remains of
which have endured till the present time. Two months from the day of landing, a
church was dedicated, and the new city of “Isabella,” which Columbus had named
for his queen, presented a very creditable appearance. But it was not long
occupied. Because of the insalubrity of the climate and the recklessness of the
settlers, many deaths occurred, and in a few years it was abandoned. For
nearly four hundred years it has lain in desolation, no one living in it; and as