![Alain Manesson Mallet - circa 1685 - The Islet Guanahani or San Salvador - Fig 22](https://upload.wikimedia.org/wikipedia/commons/b/ba/Alain_Manesson_Mallet_-_circa_1685_-_The_Islet_Guanahani_or_San_Salvador_-_Fig_22.jpg)
Guanahaní is an island in the
Bahamas
The Bahamas (), officially the Commonwealth of The Bahamas, is an island country within the Lucayan Archipelago of the West Indies in the Atlantic Ocean, North Atlantic. It takes up 97% of the Lucayan Archipelago's land area and is home to ...
that was the first land in the
New World
The term ''New World'' is often used to mean the majority of Earth's Western Hemisphere, specifically the Americas."America." ''The Oxford Companion to the English Language'' (). McArthur, Tom, ed., 1992. New York: Oxford University Press, p. 3 ...
sighted and visited by
Christopher Columbus
Christopher Columbus
* lij, Cristoffa C(or)ombo
* es, link=no, Cristóbal Colón
* pt, Cristóvão Colombo
* ca, Cristòfor (or )
* la, Christophorus Columbus. (; born between 25 August and 31 October 1451, died 20 May 1506) was a ...
'
first voyage, on 12 October 1492. It is a bean-shaped island that Columbus changed from its native
Taíno
The Taíno were a historic Indigenous peoples of the Caribbean, indigenous people of the Caribbean whose culture has been continued today by Taíno descendant communities and Taíno revivalist communities. At the time of European contact in the ...
name to San Salvador. Guanahaní has traditionally been identified with Watlings Island, which was officially renamed
San Salvador Island
San Salvador Island (known as Watling's Island from the 1680s until 1925) is an island and district of The Bahamas. It is widely believed that during Christopher Columbus's first expedition to the New World, this island was the first land h ...
in 1925 as a result, but modern scholars are divided on the accuracy of this identification and several alternative candidates in and around the southern Bahamas have been proposed as well.
Primary sources
Letter from Columbus himself
Upon his return to
Spain
, image_flag = Bandera de España.svg
, image_coat = Escudo de España (mazonado).svg
, national_motto = ''Plus ultra'' (Latin)(English: "Further Beyond")
, national_anthem = (English: "Royal March")
, i ...
in the spring of 1493, Columbus
wrote a letter to Luis de Santangel, one of his patrons at the Royal Court of
Castile. The letter was printed widely and translated into many languages, spreading the news of the discovery throughout Europe. In the letter, Columbus mentions ''Guanahani'' as the name of the first island he discovered, but provides no other details. Nevertheless, this single mention in a widely printed letter would have been enough to make the name ''Guanahani'' widely known at an early date.
Map of Juan de la Cosa
Juan de la Cosa
Juan de la Cosa (c. 1450 – 28 February 1510) was a Castilian navigator and cartographer, known for designing the earliest European world map which incorporated the territories of the Americas discovered in the 15th century.
De la Cosa was th ...
was the owner and master of the ''
Santa María'' and as such sailed with Columbus on the first voyage. He was also a cartographer, and in 1500 de la Cosa drew a map of the world which is widely known as the earliest European map showing the New World. The Caribbean portion of the map shows
Cuba
Cuba ( , ), officially the Republic of Cuba ( es, República de Cuba, links=no ), is an island country comprising the island of Cuba, as well as Isla de la Juventud and several minor archipelagos. Cuba is located where the northern Caribbea ...
and
Hispaniola
Hispaniola (, also ; es, La Española; Latin and french: Hispaniola; ht, Ispayola; tnq, Ayiti or Quisqueya) is an island in the Caribbean that is part of the Greater Antilles. Hispaniola is the most populous island in the West Indies, and th ...
clearly, and a much more confused rendering of the Bahamas. Nevertheless, Guanahani is drawn in the Bahamas in a form that appears to show a group of islets rather than a single island, lying due north of the
Windward Passage
The Windward Passage (french: Passage au Vent; es, Paso de los Vientos) is a strait in the Caribbean Sea, between the islands of Cuba and Hispaniola. The strait specifically lies between the easternmost region of Cuba and the northwest of Haiti. ...
between Cuba and
Haiti
Haiti (; ht, Ayiti ; French: ), officially the Republic of Haiti (); ) and formerly known as Hayti, is a country located on the island of Hispaniola in the Greater Antilles archipelago of the Caribbean Sea, east of Cuba and Jamaica, and ...
, in the central part of the Bahamas islands chain.
''Diario''
Columbus' so-called log, more properly referred to as the ''Diario'', is an abstract made by
Bartolomé de las Casas
Bartolomé de las Casas, OP ( ; ; 11 November 1484 – 18 July 1566) was a 16th-century Spanish landowner, friar, priest, and bishop, famed as a historian and social reformer. He arrived in Hispaniola as a layman then became a Dominican friar ...
, a Spanish monk and friend of the Columbus family, probably sometime in the 1540s.
When Columbus returned to Spain after his first voyage, he reported to the royal court at
Barcelona
Barcelona ( , , ) is a city on the coast of northeastern Spain. It is the capital and largest city of the autonomous community of Catalonia, as well as the second most populous municipality of Spain. With a population of 1.6 million within ci ...
and presented his original log to the Spanish sovereigns.
Queen Isabella ordered that the log be copied. The original soon disappeared, but the so-called 'Barcelona copy' was returned to Columbus prior to his second voyage and was in his possession at the time of his death in 1506. It then passed to his son Fernando and remained in his vast library for many years. At some point, Las Casas got his hands on the Barcelona copy and made the abstract we today call the ''Diario''. Although most of the ''Diario'' is written in the third-person of Las Casas, nearly all of that portion dealing with Columbus' movements in the Bahamas is in the first person of Columbus himself, and is (according to Las Casas) a direct quote from the Barcelona copy.
The Barcelona copy disappeared late in the 16th century, but Las Casas' ''Diario'' was discovered intact in 1795 by Ferdinand de Navarette and published 30 years later. The ''Diario'' remains the most authoritative and detailed account of Columbus' movements and activities on the first voyage.
Biography by Sebastian LaFrance and Fernando Colón
In 1571, a biography of Christopher Columbus, written in Italian, was published in Venice. The book was a translation of a Spanish manuscript written by Columbus' second son,
Fernando Colón
Ferdinand Columbus (Spanish: ''Fernando Colón'' also ''Hernando'', Portuguese: ''Fernando Colombo'', Italian: ''Fernando Colombo''; c. 24 August 1488 – 12 July 1539) was a Spanish bibliographer and cosmographer, the second son of Christopher C ...
, between 1537 and 1539. The Spanish manuscript eventually was translated into Italian and published by Alfonso Ulloa, a Spaniard making his living in Venice as a professional translator.
It is clear from the context that Fernando must have been working from the Barcelona copy when he wrote the portion of the biography describing the first voyage, as many details in the biography agree precisely with the ''Diario''. In that sense, the primary utility of the biography is as a validity check on the ''Diario'', a test which vindicates Las Casas in many respects. However, there are a few descriptions in the biography that are not already in the ''Diario''. Most importantly, the biography asserts that Guanahani was fifteen
leagues (45 miles) long, which seems contrary to Columbus' implication in the ''Diario'' that he had seen the entire island on a single day's boat trip.
Description of San Salvador/Guanahani
Columbus calls the island "very flat and with very green trees", which is true for all of the islands proposed by historians. His next statement is more problematic. He says Guanahani has "''muchas aguas y una laguna en medio muy grande''" – many waters and a ''laguna'' in the middle (or "in between") very big. The word ''laguna'' creates many problems. It is uncertain whether it means
lagoon
A lagoon is a shallow body of water separated from a larger body of water by a narrow landform, such as reefs, barrier islands, barrier peninsulas, or isthmuses. Lagoons are commonly divided into ''coastal lagoons'' (or ''barrier lagoons'') a ...
or
pond
A pond is an area filled with water, either natural or artificial, that is smaller than a lake. Defining them to be less than in area, less than deep, and with less than 30% emergent vegetation helps in distinguishing their ecology from th ...
. In any case, most of the proposed islands have either a lagoon or a pond; only
East Caicos
East Caicos is the fourth largest island in the Turks and Caicos Islands. To the west, it is separated from Middle Caicos by Lorimer Creek, a narrow passage that can accommodate only small boats. To the south is South Caicos. East Caicos has no ...
lacks one.
On 14 October, Columbus made a boat trip to "the other part, which was the eastern part" of Guanahani. Therefore, he went the length of the island in a
north-northeast direction. This is possible only at
Plana Cays
The Plana Cays are a group of two small uninhabited islands in the southern Bahama Islands, located east of Acklins Island and west of Mayaguana Island.
The eastern cay was the last natural habitat of the Bahamian Hutia, a species of rabbit-si ...
,
Conception and
Egg
An egg is an organic vessel grown by an animal to carry a possibly fertilized egg cell (a zygote) and to incubate from it an embryo within the egg until the embryo has become an animal fetus that can survive on its own, at which point the a ...
, and to a very minor extent at
Samana Cay
Samana Cay is a now uninhabited island in the Bahamas believed by some researchers to have been the location of Christopher Columbus's first landfall in the Americas on October 12, 1492.
It is an islet in the eastern Bahamas, northeast of Ackli ...
. Columbus noticed a
reef
A reef is a ridge or shoal of rock, coral or similar relatively stable material, lying beneath the surface of a natural body of water. Many reefs result from natural, abiotic processes— deposition of sand, wave erosion planing down rock out ...
that completely surrounded the island. All proposed islands have a reef, but the ones on
Cat
The cat (''Felis catus'') is a domestic species of small carnivorous mammal. It is the only domesticated species in the family Felidae and is commonly referred to as the domestic cat or house cat to distinguish it from the wild members of ...
and
Watling's do not completely surround the island. Between the reef and the island was a harbor "large enough to store all ships of Christendom." This could easily have been an exaggeration. The harbor on Egg is definitely too small, although it is fairly appropriate for the impressive harbor at the neighboring islet of Royal Island, which could have been considered part of the same larger island he named "San Salvador" (the other "part, which is the eastern part"). Columbus went on land and saw "a piece of land, that looked like an island, but actually wasn't one." This is difficult to track, because it may have become a real island in the past 500 years.
Number of islands
One question in dispute is whether Guanahani was one island or more than one. Evidence is said to be inconclusive. Columbus never says specifically that Guanahani consisted of more than one island, something which is surely worth noting. But he does say that Guanahani had "another part, which is the eastern part"; and to explore that eastern part, he used a boat rather than walking, which may be significant. On reproductions of the map by
Juan de la Cosa
Juan de la Cosa (c. 1450 – 28 February 1510) was a Castilian navigator and cartographer, known for designing the earliest European world map which incorporated the territories of the Americas discovered in the 15th century.
De la Cosa was th ...
, who was with Columbus, Guanahani looks to some researchers like a string of small islands.
Transatlantic track
The first way to locate Guanahani is to follow the distances and directions Columbus gave in his log. This procedure is difficult because of the uncertainties in knowing the length of Columbus' league, the speed and direction of
ocean current
An ocean current is a continuous, directed movement of sea water generated by a number of forces acting upon the water, including wind, the Coriolis effect, breaking waves, cabbeling, and temperature and salinity differences. Depth contours, s ...
s, and the exact direction his magnetic
compass
A compass is a device that shows the cardinal directions used for navigation and geographic orientation. It commonly consists of a magnetized needle or other element, such as a compass card or compass rose, which can pivot to align itself with ...
would have pointed in 1492.
John McElroy was one of the first to attempt this in 1941, using a speculative magnetic chart for the year 1500 and currents from pilot charts. His vast overrun in distance was corrected by a
fudge factor A fudge factor is an ''ad hoc'' quantity or element introduced into a calculation, formula or model in order to make it fit observations or expectations. Also known as a "Correction Coefficient" which is defined by:
: \kappa_c = \frac
Examples ...
, leaving his endpoint in the vicinity of
Watling's Island. This result was substantially confirmed by Doug Peck's sailing voyage of 1991.
In 1986,
Luis Marden
Luis Marden (born Annibale Luigi Paragallo) (January 25, 1913 – March 3, 2003) was an American photographer, explorer, writer, filmmaker, diver, navigator, and linguist who worked for ''National Geographic Magazine''. He worked as a photographer ...
of the National Geographic Society applied currents to the first half of the voyage (but not the second half) and determined
Samana Cay
Samana Cay is a now uninhabited island in the Bahamas believed by some researchers to have been the location of Christopher Columbus's first landfall in the Americas on October 12, 1492.
It is an islet in the eastern Bahamas, northeast of Ackli ...
as the most probable landfall. In 1992, Goldsmith and Richardson used vector average currents (rather than prevailing currents) along with an updated magnetic field, and found a track that ended in the vicinity of
Grand Turk Island
Grand Turk Island is an island in the Turks and Caicos Islands. It is the largest island in the Turks Islands (the smaller of the two archipelagos that make up the island territory) with . Grand Turk contains the territory's capital, Cockburn T ...
. In 2004, Keith Pickering applied magnetic declinations from a more modern source and found a track that ended in the vicinity of the
Plana Cays
The Plana Cays are a group of two small uninhabited islands in the southern Bahama Islands, located east of Acklins Island and west of Mayaguana Island.
The eastern cay was the last natural habitat of the Bahamian Hutia, a species of rabbit-si ...
.
Light seen on the evening preceding the discovery
At 10 p.m. on 11 October
Columbus saw a light "like a small wax candle that rose and lifted up". He pointed it out to other people on board, some of whom were able to see the light, while others did not. The actual landfall was about 35 miles from the location Columbus saw the light, so if taken that the light was from a ground-based source, then it could not have been from Guanahani, but must have been from another island farther east. For the Plana Cays theory, the light would have been on
Mayaguana
Mayaguana (from Taíno language ''Mayaguana'', meaning "Lesser Midwestern Land") is the easternmost island and district of The Bahamas. Its population was 277 in the 2010 census. It has an area of about .
About north of Great Inagua and southe ...
. For Conception, it could have been on Cat Island, Watlings Island, or
Rum Cay
Rum Cay (formerly known as Mamana and Santa Maria de la Concepción) is an island and district of the Bahamas. It measures in area, it is located at Lat.: N23 42' 30" - Long.: W 74 50' 00". It has many rolling hills that rise to about 120 feet (3 ...
. For Caicos, it could have been on Grand Turk. For Cat Island, it could have been on Watlings Island, and for
Lignum Vitae Cay it could have been
Eleuthera Island. The Watling's, Grand Turk, and Egg Island theories have no ready explanation.
Inter-island track
Besides the transatlantic track, the other important method for determining the location of Guanahani is the inter-island track, which can be traced either forward (from Guanahani to Cuba) or backward (from Cuba to Guanahani). Given the numerous descriptions of courses, distances, and directions in the log, this method seems more likely to pinpoint the location, and has been by far the method most frequently used by historians.
It was common practice among 20th-century historians to refer to the various Bahamian islands visited by Columbus by Roman numerals to avoid confusion: Island I being Guanahani, Island II being the second island visited by Columbus (which he named ''Santa María de la Concepción''); followed by Island III (named ''Fernandina'' by Columbus) and Island IV (called Samoete by the indigenous inhabitants and renamed ''Isabela'' by Columbus).
Following these four islands, Columbus next visited a string of seven or more islands in a line running north–south (which historians generally agree must be the modern
Ragged Island, Bahamas
Ragged Island is a island and district in the southern Bahamas. Ragged Island is part of the Jumentos Cays and Ragged Island Chain. The crescent-shaped chain measures over in length and includes cays known as Raccoon Cay, Hog Cay and Double-Brea ...
) before landing on the north coast of Cuba. A successful inter-island track must therefore navigate from Guanahani to the Ragged Islands in a way that fits the descriptions of the log without serious infidelity. Strictly speaking this is impossible, as there are a few places where the log seems to contradict itself.
Island II
Leaving Guanahani late on 14 October, Columbus said "I saw so many islands I did not know how to decide which one I would go to first". Aiming for the largest, he estimated its distance by eye at five leagues, while other islands were both nearer and farther than that.
He arrived at Island II around noon, delayed by a contrary ''marea'' (usually translated as "tide", although "breeze" is possible), re-estimating the distance as seven leagues rather than five. Island II had a coastline facing Guanahani that ran north–south for five leagues, and another coastline ("which I followed", says Columbus) that ran east–west for more than ten leagues.
At this point comes a contentious passage in the log: "And since from this island I saw another larger one to the west, I spread sail to go forward all that day until night, because
therwiseI would not have been able to reach the western cape of the island". From this it is unclear whether the "western cape" at which Columbus anchored that night was on the island with the five- and ten-league coastlines, or the larger island to the west; in other words, it is unclear whether Columbus was adjacent to one or two islands on 15 October. Those who prefer the two-island interpretation call these Island IIa and Island IIb.
Island III
The log gives two descriptions of the sail from Island II to Island III on 16 October: in the first version, Columbus leaves at 10 AM and sails nine leagues east–west to reach Island III; in the second version, Columbus leaves at noon and sails eight leagues "almost east-west" to reach Island III.
Columbus also gives somewhat contradictory information on the size of Island III, saying at first (before actually exploring the island) that it "may well be" more than 28 leagues long; but later saying only that "I saw quite 20 leagues of it but it did not end there."
But Columbus does give quite detailed information on the coastline of Island III, more so than any other island he visited. On the evening of 16 October, he arrived at a cape where the coastlines ran NNW and SSW (though some scholars see a possible transcription error here). The following morning (17 October) he followed the coast NNW, and when he was two leagues distant from the end (or "the cape") of the island, he found a "wonderful harbor" with a small island in its mouth forming two narrow entrances. Going into the harbor with boats, he found it too shallow for use and put the boats ashore for water instead. Leaving the harbor after two hours, he then sailed northwest (rather than the previous NNW) "so far that I viewed all that part of the island as far as the coast that runs east-west".
Thus there are four coastlines described at Island III: from the arrival cape, one coast runs SSW, one runs NNW; following the second coast NNW, Columbus arrived at a harbor; continuing along that coast, the coastline runs NW, and then W. These four coastlines and harbor are an essentially perfect fit with the southern part of
Long Island
Long Island is a densely populated island in the southeastern region of the U.S. state of New York (state), New York, part of the New York metropolitan area. With over 8 million people, Long Island is the most populous island in the United Sta ...
.
Columbus ran into foul weather on the night of 17–18 October and gained sea room to avoid running onto a lee shore. He returned to Island III on the 18th, but the log does not specify where on the island he anchored that night. The following morning, 19 October, he split his fleet to search for the island of Samoete that his kidnapped native guides had told him about.
Island IV
Leaving his Island III anchorage at dawn, Columbus sent ''Niña'' SSE and ''Santa María'' SE, while ''Pinta'' was sent "east and southeast" (contrary to the ESE mentioned in some sources). Thus the ships were able to sweep a large area of ocean in search of the island whose position was only vaguely known. The ''Santa María'' herself raised the island before 9 AM, and signalling the other ships to rejoin, Columbus reached Island IV before noon, arriving at the northern point. Columbus describes this point as being surrounded by a reef, with a small island nearby.
Columbus's descriptions of Island IV are, at best, confusing. He describes Island IV being "on an east-west course" from Island III (which contradicts his previous description of the fleet's movements in the search), and he also asserts that from the northern point the coast ran west for 12 leagues, to its western cape, Cabo Hermoso. The direction of this coastline running west contradicts both Columbus's own arrival at the island (since he arrived at the north point by sailing east, and did not arrive at Cabo Hermoso first) and his later description of his departure from this northern end of Island IV (as he departed sailing SSW and yet did not run aground).
From Cabo Hermoso, Columbus described a "great bight" to the northeast. Further confusing the issue, Columbus then says that he believes Cabo Hermoso is on a separate island from Samoete. The following morning (20 October), he tried to enter the bight in order to circumnavigate the island. That attempt soon proved futile because it was too shallow, and Columbus reversed course and returned to the northern end, awaiting the arrival of the King which his kidnapped native guides had told him about.
After two days of fruitless waiting for the King and another day becalmed, Columbus departed from the northern end of Island IV at midnight on 24 October, setting his sights on Cuba, the large island to the south he had been told about. He sailed WSW until dawn on the 24th, then was becalmed again until noon, making scant progress in the afternoon. At some point, he fixed his position at seven leagues southeast of Cape Verde, which he describes as being "in the western part of the southern part" of Island III. From that point, he made two leagues on a doubtful course under a rising wind; then, the morning of 25 October, he made five leagues WSW and another 11 leagues west when they sighted the Ragged Islands, which he called the ''Islas de Arena'' ("Sand Islands") running north–south at a distance of five leagues.
Candidates
![Lfmap](https://upload.wikimedia.org/wikipedia/commons/2/24/Lfmap.gif)
* Modern
San Salvador Island
San Salvador Island (known as Watling's Island from the 1680s until 1925) is an island and district of The Bahamas. It is widely believed that during Christopher Columbus's first expedition to the New World, this island was the first land h ...
was known since the 17th century as
Watlings Island but renamed in 1925 after historians identified it as Guanahani. This hypothesis was first proposed by
Juan Bautista Muñoz
Juan Bautista Muñoz (Museros, 12 June 1745 – Madrid, 19 July 1799) was an 18th-century Spanish philosopher and historian.
Biography
Born in Museros (near Valencia) in 1745, Juan Bautista Muñoz was the third of four sons.Bas Martín, Nic ...
(1793). It was resurrected by A. B. Becher (1856) and forwarded strongly by
James Murdock (1884). Notable defenders of the theory include the influential historians
Richard Henry Major
Richard Henry Major (October 3, 1818 – June 25, 1891) was a geographer and map librarian who curated the map collection of the British Museum from 1844 until his retirement in 1880.
Biography
Major was born in Shoreditch in 1818 to Richard ...
(1871) and
Samuel Eliot Morison
Samuel Eliot Morison (July 9, 1887 – May 15, 1976) was an American historian noted for his works of maritime history and American history that were both authoritative and popular. He received his Ph.D. from Harvard University in 1912, and ta ...
(1942). It remains widely accepted as the most probable candidate today. However, Keith Pickering argues that Watlings Island is among the least probable, and that it is only widely accepted because it was seen as superior to previous 19th century theories.
*
Samana Cay
Samana Cay is a now uninhabited island in the Bahamas believed by some researchers to have been the location of Christopher Columbus's first landfall in the Americas on October 12, 1492.
It is an islet in the eastern Bahamas, northeast of Ackli ...
, first proposed in 1880 by
Gustavus V. Fox
Gustavus Vasa Fox (June 13, 1821 – October 29, 1883) was an officer of the United States Navy, who served during the Mexican–American War, and as Assistant Secretary of the Navy during the American Civil War, Civil War.
Life and career
Fox wa ...
, a
U.S. Navy
The United States Navy (USN) is the maritime service branch of the United States Armed Forces and one of the eight uniformed services of the United States. It is the largest and most powerful navy in the world, with the estimated tonnage o ...
captain. Fox's theory was little known until revived in a 1986 issue of ''
National Geographic Magazine
''National Geographic'' (formerly the ''National Geographic Magazine'', sometimes branded as NAT GEO) is a popular American monthly magazine published by National Geographic Partners. Known for its photojournalism, it is one of the most widely ...
''.
*
Plana Cays
The Plana Cays are a group of two small uninhabited islands in the southern Bahama Islands, located east of Acklins Island and west of Mayaguana Island.
The eastern cay was the last natural habitat of the Bahamian Hutia, a species of rabbit-si ...
, proposed by Ramón Julio Didiez Burgos in 1974 and Pickering in 1994. Pickering argues that the Plana Cays "has fewer and less serious problems than any of the others -- in some cases, a lot fewer."
*
Grand Turk Island
Grand Turk Island is an island in the Turks and Caicos Islands. It is the largest island in the Turks Islands (the smaller of the two archipelagos that make up the island territory) with . Grand Turk contains the territory's capital, Cockburn T ...
, was first proposed by
Martín Fernández de Navarrete
Martín Fernández de Navarrete y Ximénez de Tejada (November 9, 1765 – October 8, 1844), was a Spanish noble, grandson of the Marquess of Ximenez de Tejada, knight of the Order of Malta, politician and historian. He was a Spanish senator an ...
in 1825, but soon fell out of favor until it was resurrected by
Robert Power in 1924.
*
Cat Island was long believed to be Guanahani and identified as such on many nautical charts from the 18th century. In light of the competing new theories of Muñoz and Fernández de Navarrete,
Washington Irving
Washington Irving (April 3, 1783 – November 28, 1859) was an American short-story writer, essayist, biographer, historian, and diplomat of the early 19th century. He is best known for his short stories "Rip Van Winkle" (1819) and " The Legen ...
(1828), with the assistance of
Alexander Slidell Mackenzie
Alexander Slidell Mackenzie (April 6, 1803 – September 13, 1848), born Alexander Slidell, was a United States Navy officer, famous for his 1842 decision to execute three suspected mutineers aboard a ship under his command in the Somers Mutin ...
, set out the case for Cat Island, and was supported by the weight of
Alexander von Humboldt
Friedrich Wilhelm Heinrich Alexander von Humboldt (14 September 17696 May 1859) was a German polymath, geographer, naturalist, explorer, and proponent of Romantic philosophy and science. He was the younger brother of the Prussian minister, ...
(1837). The hypothesis lost traction after the publication of
Bartolomé de las Casas
Bartolomé de las Casas, OP ( ; ; 11 November 1484 – 18 July 1566) was a 16th-century Spanish landowner, friar, priest, and bishop, famed as a historian and social reformer. He arrived in Hispaniola as a layman then became a Dominican friar ...
' abstract of Columbus' on-board journal (1875–1876), which argued strongly against the identification.
*
Mayaguana
Mayaguana (from Taíno language ''Mayaguana'', meaning "Lesser Midwestern Land") is the easternmost island and district of The Bahamas. Its population was 277 in the 2010 census. It has an area of about .
About north of Great Inagua and southe ...
, proposed by
Francisco Adolfo de Varnhagen
Francisco Adolfo de Varnhagen, Viscount of Porto Seguro (February 17, 1816 – June 26, 1878), was a Brazilian diplomat and historian. He is the patron of the 39th chair of the Brazilian Academy of Letters. He is considered "the father of modern ...
in 1864.
*
Conception Island, proposed by R.T. Gould in 1943.
*
East Caicos
East Caicos is the fourth largest island in the Turks and Caicos Islands. To the west, it is separated from Middle Caicos by Lorimer Creek, a narrow passage that can accommodate only small boats. To the south is South Caicos. East Caicos has no ...
, proposed by Pieter Verhoog in 1947.
[Verhoog's Caicos hypothesis was vigorously supported by the Links (1958) and Fuson (1961)]
*
Egg Island, proposed by Arne Molander in 1981.
*
Lignum Vitae Cay, proposed by
John H. Winslow in 1989.
See also
*
Columbian Exchange
Notes
References
* Becher, A.B. (1856) ''The Landfall of Columbus on his First Voyage to America''. London: Potter
online* Dunn, Oliver, and James E. Kelley, Jr. (1989). ''The Diario of Christopher Columbus's First Voyage to America, 1492-1493.'' Norman and London: University of Oklahoma Press.
* Fox, Gustavus V. (1880) "An Attempt to solve the Problem of the First Landing Place of Columbus in the New World", ''Report of the Superintendent of the US Coast and Geodetic Survey''. Appendix No. 18, June 1880). Washington, DC: Government Printing office
offprint* Fuson, Robert (1961) "Caicos: Site of Columbus's Landfall", ''Professional Geographer'', vol. 13 (2), pp. 65–97.
*
Humboldt, Alexander von (1837) ''Examen critique de l'histoire de la géographie du nouveau continent et des progrès de l'astronomie nautique aux quinzième et seizième siècles'', Paris: Gide
vol. 3, p.169ff
*
Irving, Washington (1828) "Appendix XVI: Route of Columbus in his First Voyage", in vol.IV of ''A History of the Life and Voyages of Christopher Columbus''. London: Murray
App. XVI, pp.239-71* Judge, Joseph (1986) "Our Search for the True Columbus Landfall", ''National Geographic'', vol. 170 (No. 5, November), pp. 566–71.
* Link, E.A. and M.C. Link (1958) ''A New Theory on Columbus's Voyage through the Bahamas''. Washington DC: Smithsonian institution.
* Major, Richard H. (1848) ''Select Letters of Christopher Columbus, with other original documents relating to his four voyages to the New World''. London: Hakluyt
online* Major, R.H. (1871) "The Landfall of Christopher Columbus", ''Report of the Fortieth Meeting of the British Association for the Advancement of Science - Notices and Abstracts'', London: Murray
p.171-72* Molander, Arne (1983) "A New Approach to the Columbus landfall", ''Terrae Icognitae'', vol. 15, pp. 113–149.
*
Morison, Samuel Eliot (1942) ''Admiral of the Ocean Sea''. 2 vols. Boston: Little, Brown & Co.
*
Muñoz, Juan Bautista (1793) ''Historia del Nuevo Mundo'', Madrid: Ibarra
v.1* Murdock, J.B. (1884) "The Cruise of Columbus in the Bahamas, 1492", ''Proceedings of the US Naval Institute'', Vol 10
pp.449-86
*
Navarrete, Martín Fernández de (1825–37) ''Colección de los viages y descubrimientos que hicieron por mar los españoles desde fines del siglo XV: con varios documentos inéditos concernientes á la historia de la marina castellana y de los establecimientos españoles en Indias'', 4 vols., Madrid: Imprensa Rea
v.1(1825)
v.2v.3(1829)
* Peck, Douglas T. (1993) ''Christoforo Colombo, God's Navigator'', Columbus, WI: Columbian Publishers
* Peck, Douglas T. (post-1996) "The Navigation of Columbus and the Controversy over his landfall island in the New World", New World Explorers
online* Pickering, Keith (1994) "Plana Cays as the Landfall of Columbus in 1492", ''Dio'', Vol. 4 (1), p..15-32.
* Pickering, Keith (1997, rev. 2010) "The Columbus Landfall Homepage: Just where did Columbus first see the New World?
online* Roukema, E. (1959) "Columbus Landed on Watlings Island", ''American Neptune'', vol. 19, pp. 79–113.
*
Varnhagen, F.A. (1864) "La verdadera Guanahani de Colon", ''Anales de la universidade de Chile'', vol. 26
offprint* Verhoog, Pieter (1947) "Columbus Landed on Caicos", ''Proceedings of the U.S. Naval Institute'', 80, 1101–1111.
External links
Site of Keith Pickering, advocate of Plana Cays
{{coord unknown, Bahamas
Discovery and invention controversies
Islands of the Bahamas