Beatrix to
one Enriquez. No authority is adduced for this theory.]

[Footnote 2: The monastery has been restored and preserved as a national
memorial since 1846.]

[Footnote 3: The invention of the mariner's compass is claimed by the
Chinese for the Emperor Hong-ti, a grandson of Noah, about 2634 B. C. A
compass was brought from China to Queen Elizabeth A. D. 1260 by P.
Venutus. By some the invention is ascribed to Marcus Paulus, a Venetian,
A. D. 1260. The discovery of the compass was long attributed to Flavio
Gioja, a Neapolitan sailor, A. D. 1302, who in reality made improvements
on then existing patterns and brought them to the form now used. The
variation of the needle was known to the Chinese, being mentioned in the
works of the Chinese philosopher Keon-tsoung-chy, who flourished about
A. D. 1111. The dip of the needle was discovered A. D. 1576 by Robert
Norman of London. Time was measured on voyages by the hour-glass.
Compare Shakespere:

Or four and twenty times the pilot's glass
Hath told the thievish minutes how they pass.

]

[Footnote 4: Capt. Parker, in _Goldthwaithe's Geographical Monthly_,
argues ably that the myth that a light was seen by Columbus at 8 P. M.
of the night of the discovery should be dropped simply as rubbish; it is
incredible. More than one hundred men in the three vessels were
anxiously looking for signs of land, and two "think" they see a light.
To say that Columbus felt sure that he saw a light is to pronounce him
an imbecile. For if ahead, he would have stopped; if abeam, stood for
it. His log does not say where or in what direction the light was--an
important omission--and Columbus _ran forty sea miles after he saw this
mythical light_.

We may safely decide that Watling Island, named after a buccaneer or
pirate of the seventeenth century, is best supported by investigation as
the landfall of Columbus.

Cronau, who visited Watling Island in 1890, supposes that Columbus'
ships, after making the land, continued on their course, under the
reduced sail, at the rate of four or five miles an hour; and at daylight
found themselves off the northwest end of the island. Mr. Cronau
evidently is not a seafaring man or he would know that no navigator off
an unknown island at night would stand on, even at the rate of one mile
an hour, ignorant of what shoal or reefs might lie off the end of the
island.]

[Footnote 5: The following from Las Casas' epitome of the log is all the
infor