PROM ICO RID O/aA Om GA eae.

side a half-submerged basin covered with mangroves. The soil, in no place
deep, becomes thinner and thinner toward the hills, where there is none at all
except in holes in the white coral rock; and yet, these rocks are covered with
a dense growth of such hard woods as lignum-vite, and such a mass of thorny
bushes and vines as to be well-nigh impenetrable. The bluff faces the ocean,
west; the forest-covered hills lie to the east, while north and south are the man-
grove swamps. The northern swamp is sometimes filled with water, and looks
like a lagoon; and when the water comes down from the hills, as it does in the
rainy season, through a picturesque caiiada, and as it did when Columbus landed
here, it must appear like the “lake ” that he called it.

It was around this lake that the first settlement was located. Directly in
front of it is a beautiful beach of yellow sand; here, without doubt, Columbus
landed, as a channel admitting small vessels through the reefs comes directly
up to the sands. This beach is two hundred and seventy-five feet in length,
with a coral bluff at either end, and a border of sea-grapes behind and between
it and the mangroves of the lagoon.

Here, four hundred years ago, the caravels ‘and carracks disembarked their
living freight of sea-worn sailors and Spanish cavaliers, the horses, the cattle and
the sheep. Here were accumulated the munitions of war, the provisions, plants,
articles for trade and barter, and the little beach was piled high with the freight-
age of the ships. Even to-day the sands sometimes disclose most interesting
relics of that far-away time when first the products of Europe were landed on
American soil. I have had in my hands a fragment of chain-armor and a stone
ball, which were found here, and I now possess pieces of the tiles that covered
the houses erected by the Spaniards and of the crucibles in which the first gold
was smelted.

The morning sun lay aslant the beautiful beach, and cool shadows lurked in
the hollows of the rocks, tempting us to strip and plunge into the limpid waves
that lazily lapped the sands. “ Wash” was dubious about this experiment, because
the water inside the reefs is sometimes alive with the big fish known as barra-
coutas, more dreaded by the natives than the sharks; but we paddled about in
great glee, and emerged refreshed and unharmed. After that, and during the
week that we were there, a bath on the beach in the cool of early morning was
our regular refresher. I used to take in a big stick with me, plant it firmly in
the sand beneath the water, and swim about where I could have it always within
reach. And so gentle was the movement of the water that the stick remained
‘standing there from day to day. It is said that Columbus used to bathe on this
very beach.

Overlooking the beach, at its southern point, once stood, according to tradi-
‘tion, and the evidence of the visitors of fifty years ago, a pillar of masonry, or
a monument, which formed a conspicuous landmark, visible some distance at
sea. Local tradition states that this pillar was destroyed fifteen years ago, and