ir several tracks are
contrary to the journal, inconsistent with the true cartography of the
neighborhood, and to the discredit, measurably, both of Columbus and of
Las Casas. The obscurity and the carelessness which appear in part of
the diary through the Bahamas offer no obstacle to this demonstration,
provided that they do not extend to the "log," or nautical part.

Columbus went to sea when he was fourteen years of age, and served there
almost continuously for twenty-three years. The strain of a sea-faring
life, from so tender an age, is not conducive to literary exactness.
Still, for the very reason of this sea experience, the "log" should be
correct.

This is composed of the courses steered, distances sailed over, bearings
of islands from one another, trend of shores, etc. The recording of
these is the daily business of seamen, and here the entries were by
Columbus himself, chiefly to enable him, on his return to Spain, to
construct that nautical map, which is promised in the prologue of the
first voyage.

In crossing the Atlantic the Admiral understated to the crew each day's
run, so that they should not know how far they had gone into an unknown
ocean. Las Casas was aware of this counterfeit "log," but his abridgment
is from that one which Columbus kept for his own use.

If the complicated courses and distances in this were originally wrong,
or if the copy of them is false, it is obvious that they cannot be
"plotted" upon a correct chart. Conversely, if they ARE made to conform
to a succession of islands among which he is known to have sailed, it
is evident that this is a genuine transcript of the authentic "log" of
Columbus, and, reciprocally, that we have the true track, the beginning
of which is the eventful landfall of October 12, 1492.

The student or critical reader, and the seaman, will have to determine
whether the writer has established this conformity. The public,
probably, desires to have the question settled, but it will hardly take
any interest in a discussion that has no practical bearing, and which,
for its elucidation, leans so much upon the jargon or the sea.

It is not flattering to the English or Spanish speaking peoples that the
four hundredth anniversary of this great event draws nigh, and is likely
to catch us still floundering, touching the first landing place.

SUMMARY.

First. There is no objection to Samana in respect to size, position or
shape. That it is a little island, ly