Page:Popular Science Monthly Volume 36.djvu/108

98 in communication with distant lands, for there is no rock, except soft coral limestone, anywhere in the archipelago. They knew the direction and distance of Cuba and Hayti, and they called the larger island by the name which it still bears. Their language was almost identical with that spoken in these islands, and, while they were upon the extreme edge of the civilization of the Gulf of Mexico, they were not entirely outside its influence, and the discoverers were able to use them as interpreters as far away from their home as Campeachy.

This is about the sum total of our knowledge of the Cebaynas, and does not their share in the discovery entitle them to our remembrance, and bind us to do what we can before November 12, 1892, to preserve them from complete oblivion?

What can we do to perpetuate their memory? There is one thing which would be a most worthy and becoming testimonial if it were practicable. The injury which they have sustained is past and irreparable, but if three years hence we could celebrate the institution of a wise, humane, and consistent method of dealing with the wards of our nation in place of the one which was initiated when Columbus devoted his first Sunday to a search for a fort, the shades of the Ceboynas might accept the sacrifice.

What else is there to be done? Can we not restore to the map the pretty word "Lucayas" as the name for the islands? Surely if Columbus has Columbia for his monument, the Lucayans are entitled to the Lucayas; and while this is only a little thing, it would be a graceful tribute to them.

In the little-known interior of the larger islands there are many caves which have never been disturbed. Canoes, stone implements, carved utensils, and other articles have been found from time to time in the out-islands, and, while the articles have no great archaeological interest, the part played by their owners in the events which are so soon to be commemorated would give great value to any new discoveries.

The delightful climate and the beauty of the landlocked sounds give to the Bahamas the greatest charm as a cruising-ground; and if some yacht-owner were to devote himself to exploration, with a well-equipped and energetic staff of earnest assistants, he might hope to gather a collection of Ceboyna relics which, placed in one of our museums, would be a permanent monument to their memory.

, of Munich, has advanced the theory, in a British Association paper, that the magnetic curves of the earth, wherever a magnetic survey has been made, show a distinct relation to mountain ranges, faults, eruptions, and tectonic disturbances. He urges that the investigation of this subject be taken up at once all over the world.