FROM CORDOVA TO CATHAY.

ourselves in the dreariest river I had seen for many a month: a swift-flowing
stream of yellow water between banks of mangroves, and the only sign of life
some blue and white herons, plovers and black-neck stilts. Our boys pulled
hard against a four-mile current, and a half a mile up landed us opposite a col-
lection of small houses on a bluff. We were met at the landing by a young
man who had once lived in Florida; and though we were in a Spanish-speaking
country, all the men then
in our employ spoke English,
the sailors having come from
Grand Turk, in the Baha-
mas. The young man,
Washington Banks, had been
recommended by our consul,
so he was at once installed
as factotum and general
purveyor. He took us to
the house on the _ bank,
which we found a very com-
fortable dwelling; here he
swung our hammocks, and
we were well housed against .
the rain, which fell the THE BLUFF ON WHICH COLUMBUS ERECTED THE PILLAR,
whole night through. oy ennaes

At daybreak, next morning, the mocking-birds awoke us. Crawling out
from under our mosquiteros we shook the fleas from our blankets, and were
assailed by myriads of mosquitoes and sand-flies. At six o’clock or so, after the
morning coffee, Washington — or “ Wash,” as he was called — guided us along the
steep river bank and through a dense forest-growth in the direction of the lost
city. The morning was cool and fresh; the bushes were wet with the rain; the
trees were filled with birds: cooing doves, moaning pigeons, chattering parrots,
with now and then a darting humming-bird, crossing our path like a sunbeam.
Beyond the woods we passed through a mangrove swamp, with the river on one
side and steep coral rocks on the other; thence we reached a bluff headland,
covered with densest vegetation of cactus and almost impenetrable thickets of
spiney plants.

This bluff faces the west. It is composed of coral conglomerate, evidently
upheaved, containing branches and sections of coral, beautiful in shape and in-
finite in variety of form.

This is the plain upon which unvarying tradition, as well as ancient ruins
and environment, locate the city founded by Columbus and called by him
Isabella, after the queen of Spain. It is not large, containing perhaps two acres.
It slopes gradually upward toward steep and densely-wooded hills on either