Chief among the honors paid to Columbus was the erection at Jackson Park of a reproduction of the Convent of La Rabida, at Palos, Spain, in which Columbus took refuge, and where he matured his plans of sailing due westward into the Ocean Sea.
His Holiness the Pope and the Duke of Veragua, whose name is Christopher Columbus, were the chief patrons of the undertaking, loaning to the collection the original letters of Columbus and the maps and documents which are in possession of the Vatican.
The building was filled with such a collection of relics as may never again be seen together, and these relics were jealously guarded by United States regular soldiers, continually on duty, who were under orders to speak to nobody, except in the way of duty.
-- The Dream City
