APPENDIX.
294
decorated, containing distinguished military and ministerial officers.
Two
feluccas followed, in one of which was a marine guard of honor, with mourning banners and muffled drums ; and in the other were the com mandant general, the principal minister of marine, and the military staff. In passing the vessels of war in the harbor, they all paid the honors due to an admiral and captain-general of the navy.
O n arriving at the mole, the
remains were met by the governor of the island, accompanied by the gen erals and the military staff.
T h e coffin was then conveyed between files
of soldiery which lined the streets to the obelisk, in the place of arms, where it was received in a hearse prepared for the purpose.
Here the
remains were formally delivered to the governor and captain-general of the island, the key given up to him, the coffin opened and examined, and the safe transportation of its contents authenticated.
This ceremony be
ing concluded, it was conveyed in grand procession and with the utmost pomp to the cathedral.
Masses, and the solemn ceremonies of the dead
were performed by the bishop, and the mortal remains of Columbus de posited with great reverence in the wall on the right side of the grand altar.
" All these honors and ceremonies," says the document, from
whence this notice is digested,* " were attended by the ecclesiastical and secular dignitaries, the public bodies and all the nobility and gentry of Havana, in proof of the high estimation and respectful remembrance in which they held the hero who had discovered the N e w W o r l d , and had been the first to plant the standard of the cross on that island." This is the last occasion that the Spanish nation has had to testify its feelings towards the memory of Columbus, and it is with deep satisfaction that the author of this work has been able to cite at large a ceremonial so solemn, affecting, and noble in its details, and so honorable to the national character. W h e n we read of the remains of Columbus, thus conveyed from the port of St. Domingo, after an interval of nearly three hundred years, as sacred national relics, with civic and military pomp, and high religious ceremonial ; the most dignified and illustrious men striving who most should pay them reverence ; we cannot but reflect that it was from this very port he was carried off loaded with ignominious chains, blasted ap parently in fame and fortune, and followed by the revilings of the rabble. Such honors, it is true, are nothing to the dead, nor can they atone to the heart, now dust and ashes, for all the wrongs and sorrows it may have
* Navarrete Colec. torn. ii. p. 365.