d the excellent critical essay
which preceded them, are indispensable to every English student of the
history of geographical discovery who is not familiar with the Spanish
language, and most useful even to Spanish scholars. His knowledge of the
history of cartography, his extensive and accurate scholarship, and his
readiness to impart his knowledge to others, made him a most valuable
member of the council of this society, and one whose place is not easy
to fill; while there are not a few among the Fellows who, like myself,
sincerely mourn the loss of a true and warmhearted friend.

When we warmly applauded the close reasoning and the unassailable
conclusions of Major's paper, we supposed that the question was at
length settled; but as time went on, arguments in favor of other islands
continued to appear, and an American in a high official position even
started a new island, contending that Samana was the landfall. But Fox's
Samana and Varnhagen's Mayaguana must be ruled out of court without
further discussion, for they both occur on the maps of Juan de la Cosa
and Herrera, on which Guanahani also appears. It is obvious that they
can not be Guanahani and themselves at the same time; and it is perhaps
needless to add that they do not answer to the description of Guanahani
by Columbus, and meet none of the other requirements.

On this occasion it may be well to identify the landfall by another
method, and thus furnish some further strength to the arguments which
ought to put an end to the controversy. Major established the landfall
by showing the identity between the Guanahani of Columbus and Watling's
Island, and by the evidence of early maps. There is still another
method, which was adopted by Lieut. Murdoch, of the United States navy,
in his very able paper. Columbus left Guanahani and sailed to his second
island, which he called Santa Maria de la Concepcion; and he gives the
bearing and distance. He gives the bearing and distance from this second
island to the north end of a third, which he called Fernandina. He gives
the length of Fernandina. He gives the bearing and distance from the
south end of Fernandina to a fourth island named Isabella, from Isabella
to some rocks called Islas de Arena, and from Islas de Arena to Cuba.

It is obvious that if we trace these bearings and distances backward
from Cuba, they will bring us to an island which must necessarily be the
Guanahani, or San Salvador, of Columbus. This is th