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find so

That explained the references to the torleta of the ancients It was apparently a stone tablet, a large and heavy one from the description, carved in a way to indicate it had been used for navigation Since Columbus couldn't use the stone without explanation, it must not have been a map in the conventional sense The letter returned to the fifth voyage account

August 10

We continued westerly, favored by good winds as before And now at last we are anchored off a shore more distant than any

one The native people we have talked to have said that there is ine l think

I a been made ill and weak once old to be near and ask your Majesty that when I return with these old and precious levels I be allowed to e to Roold in my possession

The next entry was dated two days later The script ritten in a firmer hand

The Adone! When the crew arose at dae found that a small boat had disappeared and that the Admiral's cabin is empty Gone too are his maps I have sent ashore a party to search for him, and they found the boat, but they were driven back to the ship by group of natives who showered then with arrows Alas I fear the Ades! We shall wait safely offshore, but unless we see a sign that he lives, we h anchor and will sail to Hispanola to seek help God bless the Admiral of the Ocean Sea

Signed this day by Alonso Mendez, apprentice pilot

Perlht Coluold indeed! He wondered off what shore the Nina was anchored He consulted thewesterly from Jamaica would have put him into Central America Anywhere from Mexico's Yucatan peninsula down to Belize or Honduras if he were a few degrees off When he had o over the daily observations and see if he could plot an exact course to its end

Columbus took his maps and charts with him, but what became of the stone? Perlmutter shook his head, amused at how he had let hi as if the docuht be nocrossword puzzle

But what if the docu?

What relevance ht it have to the modernday melodrama Austin had told hi about killing innocent archeologists? What was that odd reference to the "death of the five"? Coluuilty about his involve was divine punishain in case there was so into his own library

But first a snack was in order

Cancun, Mexico