feast consisted of shrimps, cassavi,--the same as the native bread of
to-day,--and some of their nutritive roots.

It was not a sumptuous repast although it may have been a bountiful
one, yet they probably enjoyed it.

The work of building a fortress began at once. Within ten days the
Fortress of Navidad was completed. It stood on a hill and was
surrounded with a broad, deep ditch for protection against natives and
animals, and was to be the home of those of the company who remained
in the New World, for the _Niña_ was too small to convey all hands
across the ocean to Spain, and nothing had been heard of the _Pinta._
Leaving biscuits sufficient for a year's supply, wine, and such
provisions as could be spared, Columbus bade farewell to the forty men
whom he was never to see again, and sailed for the Old World on
January 4, 1493.

So far as recorded, Columbus was the only one among the Spaniards who
received gifts during this first Yule-tide in America. But what seemed
a cruel fate to him was the means of bestowing a valuable gift upon
the world. Had the _Santa Maria_ continued her course in safety that
Christmas Eve there might never have been a fortress or any European
settlement founded. So, although it was a sad, troubled Yule-tide to
the Spanish adventurers, it proved a memorable one in the annals of
America.

Four hundred years later the anchor of the _Santa Maria_ was
discovered and brought to the United States to be one of its treasured
exhibits at the great Columbian Exposition, where a descendant of
Columbus was the honored guest of the Government.