occupied the men's time during the remainder of the Yule-tide.

The _Niña_ was too small to accommodate two crews, therefore on
Christmas Day many of the men were wondering who were to stay on that
far-away island among the strange looking natives of whom they knew
nothing.

The Chief of Guarico (Petit Anse), whom Columbus was on his way to
visit at the time of the disaster, sent a fleet of canoes to the
assistance of the strangers, and did what he could to make them happy
during the day. The Spaniards and the natives worked until dawn on
Christmas morning, bringing ashore what they could secure from the
wreck, and storing it away on the island for future use. Strange to
relate, they succeeded in saving all of their provisions, the spars,
and even many of the nails of the wrecked _Santa Maria._ But what a
Christmas morning for Columbus and his men, stranded on an island far,
far from home, among a strange people! There were no festivities to be
observed by that sad, care-worn company of three hundred men on that
day, but the following morning Chief Guacanagari visited the _Niña_
and took Columbus ashore, where a banquet was prepared in his honor,
the first public function attended by Columbus in America. It can be
pictured only in imagination. There on that beautiful island which
seemed to them a paradise on earth, with tall trees waving their long
fronds in the warm breeze, with myriads of birds such as they had
never seen filling the air with song, Columbus stood, attired in his
gorgeous uniform and dignified, as it befitted him to be, beside his
host who was elegantly dressed in a _shirt_ and _a pair of gloves_
which Columbus had given him, with a coronet of gold on his head. The
visiting chieftains with gold coronets moved about in nature's garb,
among the "thousand,"--more or less,--who were present as guests. The