In witness whereof I have delivered the present on April 26, 1783.
PEDRO DE GALVEZ."
The certificates were not carefully drafted, for in speaking of the
rebuilding of the sanctuary only the interior thereof, probably only
the platform, was referred to, and from a notarial document of
December 21, 1795, quoted below, it is evident that by coffer was
meant a vault and that the word urn was used synonymously with box.
The papers give eloquent testimony of the uncertainty in which the
eminent men's remains were involved. Governor Peralta died in 1786 and
was interred under the altar platform near the supposed remains of
Columbus. In 1787, when Moreau de St. Mery endeavored to find the
official record of the find of 1783, it had already disappeared.
In 1795 Spain ceded to France the entire Spanish part of Santo
Domingo, and in evacuating the island the Spanish authorities
determined to carry with them the remains of the great Discoverer. It
is to be assumed that there were still persons connected with the
cathedral who could point out the location of the vault accidentally
discovered twelve years before and that as tradition referred to only
one vault on that side of the altar, the remains contained therein
were extracted without further investigation.
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