FROM CORDOVA TO (CATHAY.

the marble tablet it bore carried away. It is supposed that it was erected by
Columbus, to indicate the site of the city to passing vessels; its destruction
is attributed to treasure-seekers, who blew up its foundations, hoping to find
that it covered hidden gold.

Fifty years ago, much of the original city was visible, and in the midst of
the forest the traveler saw all the remains of the structures erected by Colum-
bus: the pillars of the church; the remains of the king’s storehouse; a
part of the residence of Columbus; the small fortress, and a circular battle-
mented tower.

From the northern point of the bluff, where the pillar stood, following along
the shore, there is a semi-lunar-shaped heap of debris about a hundred feet long.
A little farther on, at about the center, is a quadrilateral depression in the soil,
where the church once stood, some traces of what may have been a fortified wall,

 

THE RUINS OF ISABELLA.

and scattered stones. At the southern bluff, overlooking the river, and perhaps
five hundred feet from the pillar-site, is the most conspicuous monton, or heap of
stones, mixed together with tiles. This is conjectured to have been the “king’s
house,” or the smelting works where the gold was assayed that the explorers
brought from the mountains. I found several hewn stones here, as well as
heaps of tiles, and what we think were the fragments of crucibles. This is the
most commanding point of the bluff, and it appears possible that the river,
though now some distance away, once laved the base of the cliff.

It did not take long to ascertain the little that remained of Isabella— a day
or two did that— but the remainder of a week was consumed in proving what
was not there. This is always the task of the explorer; to investigate, to
search out, not alone the actualities, but the fallacies and distorted statements.
What I refer to is this: there was a tradition current that the original church