STATUE OF COLUMBUS
In the Courtyard of the Captain-General's Palace, Havana, Cuba
(See page [313].)
Cathedral of Havana, Cuba.—In the Cathedral of Havana there is a plain marble bas-relief, about four feet high, representing in a medallion a very apocryphal portrait of Columbus, with an inscription as follows:
O restos é Ymajen del grande Colon!
Mil siglos durad guardados en la urna
Y en la remembranza de nuestra Nacion.
(O remains and image of the great Columbus!
For a thousand ages endure guarded within this urn
And in the remembrance of our nation.)
Proposed Tomb—Havana Cathedral.—In February, 1891, by royal decree, all Spanish artists were invited to compete for a design for a sepulcher in which to preserve the Havana remains of Columbus; several were submitted to a jury, who awarded the first prize to Arthur Melida, with a premium of $5,000.
The sepulcher is now being erected in the cathedral. The design represents a bier covered with a heavily embroidered pall, borne upon the shoulders of four heralds, in garments richly carved to resemble lace and embroidered work. The two front figures bear scepters surmounted by images of the Madonna and St. James, the patron saint of Spain. On the front of their garments are the arms of Castille and Leon.
The two bearers represent Aragon and Navarre, the former being indicated by four red staffs on a gold field, and the fourth has gold-linked chains on a red field. The group is supported on a pedestal ornamented about its edge with a Greek fret.
Havana, Cuba.—In the court-yard of the Captain-General's palace, in Havana, is a full-length figure of Columbus, the face modeled after accepted portraits at Madrid.
Havana, Cuba.—In the inclosure of the "Templete," the little chapel on the site of which the first mass was celebrated in Cuba, there is a bust of Columbus which has the solitary merit of being totally unlike all others.
Nassau.—At Nassau, in the Bahamas, a statue of Christopher Columbus stands in front of Government House. The statue, which is nine feet high, is placed upon a pedestal six feet in altitude, on the north or seaward face of which is inscribed: