A NATION'S TRIBUTE

Temuka Leader, Issue 2399, 15 September 1892, Page 4

A NATION'S TRIBUTE

The four hundredth anniversary of the day 011 which Columbus set sail from Palos, Spain, westward on his voyage of discovery, was celebrated in that citv, principally by a grand naval demonstration, on August 30th. The programme of festivities was carried out with eclat, but the mist prevented morp than the dim outline of the navy lying at anchor being visible. At six o'clock in the morning, when the sailors on the caraval Santa Maria, constructed in imitation of the vessel of that name, the flagship of Columbus, spread their canvas to the In-ae&fcthejva v/;\s ljqbrocKo, and the sails hung in a ilabby iashiou. Sjinta Maria simply refused to move, and the flagship of the great voyager had to be hitched like a canal barge to one of tlj.es gunboats and towed out toward the ocean. A Spanish vessel followed next, and every foreign shin saluted with cannon aa the Santa Maria passed. The noise was deafening, an d the multitude on shore opened in unison with an artillery roar. For three hours the Santa Maria followed the route along which Columbus had been wafted by a breeze, an,d was then towed back to Palos. Later in tjje «J a y there was a great historical profession, iHustraiiiio; four ovpnts of the time of Columbus The first w;>*j ilia .conquest of Granada, in which Jjoabil, cUo fast Moorish king of Girannda, was presented j the (yccond was

the departure of Columbus, whose three vessels, Ninia, Pinta, and Santa Maria, were reproduced exactly as they were 400 years ago, and were drawn on floats. The third tableau was the Court of King Ferdinand and Isabella, and the fourth the reception of Columbus on his return from his first voyage of discovery.