Cultural Links

Columbus Landed Here-- Or Did He?

by Arne B. Molander

Almost five hundred years have passed since two o'clock that fateful Friday morning, when the lookout. Rodrigo de Triana, cried out 'Tierra!" (Land ho!) to his weary shipmates on the deck of the Pinta. As the cannon of the Pinta thundered the news to the Santa Maria and the Nina, Christopher Columbus thanked God for a successful conclusion to his venturesome Enterprise of the Indies, unaware that he had opened up an entire new hemisphere to European exploitation.

The land discovered by Columbus on October 12, 1492, was an islet of the Bahamas, which was given the name San Salvador by the Admiral of the Ocean Sea. Columbus explored the Bahama Islands for twelve days, marveling at their lush vegetation and balmy breezes, before sailing on to Cuba and Hispaniola. During this period of discovery he explored and claimed three more of the Bahama Islands for Spain. He gave them the names of Santa Maria, Fernandina, and Isabela, in honor of his faith and of his patrons. Considering the detail and accuracy of his Journal, it would probably surprise Columbus to find that the identities of all four of his Bahama discoveries are today clouded by uncertainty.

There are many reasons for this uncertainty. The Bahamas were never developed by the Spaniards, who spurned their shallow banks in favor of the lofty peaks and gold deposits of Hispaniola. Not only are there no known surviving markers left by Columbus, there are very few contemporary descriptions of the discoveries. Finally, the original Journal of the voyage and its handwritten copy, the Barcelona Manuscript, both disappeared from history during the sixteenth century. Fortunately, a link to the original Journal was established in 1791 when Martin Fernandez de Navarette, a Spanish naval historian, came across some dusty pages in a library vault. They proved to be an abridged version of the Columbus Journal, handcopied from the Barcelona Manuscript by Father Bartolome de Las Casas in preparation for his famous History of the Indies. Apparently the crucial twelve-day interval in the Bahamas was copied without abridgement. When finally published in 1825, its wealth of descriptive clues encouraged many independent reconstructions of the Admiral's route through the Bahamas.

As diverse as these theories were, they all assumed that Columbus entered the Bahamas through Crooked Island Passage, one of the few deepwater passages across this six hundred mile-long archipelago. The choice of this southern route was dictated by a single entry in the Journal, which, taken at face value, clearly identifies Long Island as the Fernandina of Columbus. Once this association is made, then Watlings Island becomes the preferred candidate for San Salvador. In 1926, the Parliament of the Bahamas officially changed the name of Watlings Island to San Saivador, ending more than a century of debate.

Despite that official blessing, the southern route does not hold up very well when compared with sixty-five other clues that I have identified in the lournal. For example, Columbus used the diminutive term isleta (small isle) in his first reference to San Salvador. Such a description of the sixty square miles of Watlings would be inconsistent with his later use of the term to describe islets having only a few square miles of surface area in Tortuga. The Journal always refers to this seventy-two square mile island as an isla (island), twice reinforcing the definition with the adjective grar~de (large). Is it reasonable to suppose that Columbus would have downplayed the magnitude of his first discovery in his description to his sovereigns?

Columbus demonstrates the same kind of discipline in his use of the term puerto (harbor), which he consistently restricts to the flask-shaped harbors characteristic of the north coasts of Cuba and Hispaniola. Not once does he apply this term to the exposed shoal anchorages along these shores. How then does Samuel Eliot Morison, the chief spokesman for the southern route, elect wide-open Grahams Harbor on the exposed northeast corner of Watlings Island as the "harbor large enough for all the ships of Christendom, the entrance to which is very narrow." This selection becomes even less tenable when Columbus describes its surface as "no more disturbed than the water in a well." The Yachtsman's Guide to the Bahamas tells us that Grahams Harbor "always seems to carry a surge through it," and that "there are no really safe harbors on Watlings."

The location of suitable anchorages was of primary importance to Cclumbus. He found one on the west end of Santa Maria, and two off the east coast of Fernandina, before sailing on to Isabela. The Yachtsman's Guide describes excellent anchorages at Port Nelson on Rum Cay, Morison's candidate for Santa Maria. Older editions of the Guide also showed a "temporary anchorage" in deep water right where Columbus would have seen it, but the editors of the Guide have since deleted it because of its "persistent surge." Why would Columbus have passed up excellent midafternoon anchorages at Port Nelson in order to reach the questionable anchorage at dusk?

The situation becomes even more difficult when we try to fit Columbus'descriptions of his third discovery, Fernandina, to Long Island, which is the currently accepted candidate. Columbus recorded two separate anchorages made by his fleet off the east coast of Fernandina. Even an inexperienced sailor would understand the hazards of trying to anchor off the hostile east coast of Long Island, a shore that is pounded by the Atlantic Ocean, and has nothing resembling an anchorage between Cape St. Maria and Clarence Harbor.

But the major failure of Long Island is due to the sparse nature of its vegetation. Repeatedly Columbus marveled at the verdant forests of Fernandina. One interesting entry focuses on a mastic tree that enthralled the Admiral with its several species of epiphytic plants. But the rainfall distribution of the Bahamas varies from lush tropical in its northwestern corner, down to half that value in the southeast corner. That's why both Rum Cay and Long Island have been home to a salt industry whose climatic demands are drastically different than those of the rain forest. The mastic tree is in fact not found southeast of New Providence Island. To the contrary. G. B. Shattuck, in his authoritative The Bahama Islands, continually refers to the extremely xerophytic growth existing on Long Island almost a century ago.

These are only a few of the major discrepancies between the entries in the Columbus Journal and the southern route of Morison. There are dozens more dealing with island dimensions, compass di rections. fauna. and sailing directions; all suggest that maybe Columbus didn't enter the New World through Crooked Island Passage. The resolution of this speculation depends on reconstruction of both parts of his route-the ocean crossing as well as his travels in the Bahamas.

First, let's reconstruct his trans Atlantic crossing based on the data entered in his Journal. If all of the daily entries are taken at face value, their summation results in a landfall at the mouth of Northeast Providence Chan nel, ninety miles north of Watlings Island. Morison got around this problem by asserting that the Admiral navigated by dead-reckoning, that is, by combining compass headings with speed estimates to plot his daily position. Using this method of navigation, compass variations could have deflected his course to Watlings Island. But why would Columbus have relied on this dangerous form of navigation while his contemporaries were using a much more accurate alternative. Iatitude sailing''

The method of latitude sailing is much more rel iable than dead-reckon) ng since one of the ship's coordinates is always known, despite unknown variations in ship's speed and compass headings. In this technique, the navigator sails a fixed latitude by maintaining constant elevation angles to the sun and the stars. Thus he knows he'll eventually reach his latitude objective on the far shore, although speed errors may alter his time of arrival.

The superiority of latitude sailing is demonstrated by Morison himself in his classic work The European Discovery of Africa. He cites the 1497 performance of John Cabot, who employed latitude sailing to reach Newfoundland from Ireland with only four miles of error. Again, in 1534, Jacques Cartier used the same method to reach Newfoundland from France with only three miles of error. What reason could Columbus have had for using an inferior navigation system, one that resulted in a ninety-mile error? And if he did, could he have failed to notice that the bright star Dubhe, which sank to within one and a half degrees of the northern horizon at his departure point in the Canary Islands, was now brushing the horizon toward the end of his westward trek? It seems impossible that the Admiral failed to observe an angular change equivalent to a full two and a half diameters of the moon.

Columbus employed latitude sailing with the same degree of competence as his contemporaries. I believe, therefore, that his excellent navigation brought him to the northern shore of Eleuthera Island. This landfall is confirmed by records of the Ponce de Leon expedition of 1513, where San Salvador is described as being at a latitude of 25ø40', just off the north coast of Eleuthera. This precise description has always been garbled or ignored by supporters of the Watlings Island theory, despite his demonstrated accuracy in measuring the latitude of Cape Canaveral, and his close association with Columbus.

I have supported this northern landfall by reconstructing a route through the Bahamas that fits the entire set of sixty-six clues in the Journal far better than the southern route does. Let's follow Columbus' progress along this proposed northern route as we refer to important clues in the Journal.

The moon, five days past full, hung high over his left shoulder like a lantern when Rodrigo de Triana finally glimpsed the northeast shore of Eleuthera "at a distance of about two leagues" off the port quarter. This was a surprisingly short detection range, considering the clarity of the atmosphere and the monetary reward for Rodrigo. But perhaps he was concentrating on the western horizon in front of the Pinta. and was late in picking out the thundering surf off to his left. (According to the Yachtsman'.s Guide, this is less than half the detection range expected for the 140foot limestone cliffs on the east shore of Watlings Island, even when viewed from sea level.)

Columbus stood clear of the reefs fronting the north shore of Eleuthera until morning. At dawn's first light, he followed the reef westward until he found an opening that would allow him to pass safely from the deep blue waters of the channel into the iridescent shallows of the Grand Bahama Bank. This opening is marked for mbdern sailors by a 112-foot tower on Egg Island, which I helieve was the San Salvador of Columbus. The Admiral anchored and rowed ashore to take formal possession. His last Journal entry on this historic evening was that "I saw no beast of any kind in this island, except parrots." (The giant iguana of the southern Bahamas would have been a strange omission on Watlings Island.) He did not include his usual quantitative descriptors, apparently finding the melange of islets and sandbars on the Bank difficult to characterize.

Saturday he remained aboard and received the Indians and their sailing directions for Cuba, which could be reached by "going to the south or going round the island to the south," confirming the Indians uncertainty whether he could safely pass over the expanse of shoal water south of Egg Island. He endorsed the concept of latitude sailing by emphasizing that he was "in one line from east to west with the island of Hierro in the Canaries." Finally, his first substantive description of Egg Island correctly noted that "in the center of it, there is a very large lagoon."

On Sunday morning, Columbus ordered all rowboats readied and recorded that "I went along the island in a northnortheasterly direction, to see the other part of Royal Island which lay to the east" of Egg Island. He enthusiastically described Royal Island Harbor, using almost the same terms as the Yachtman's Guide, which calls it a "beautiful and almost landlocked harbor which affords protection in any weather." Before returning to his anchorage, he notecl the peninsula "which is formed like an island" on the northwest side of Royal Island and "the loveliest group of trees" near Egg Island. This seven-mile rowing circuit (an impossible twenty-five miles on Watlings) lasted until mid-afternoon. He then sailed from his Egg Island anchorage, anxious to avoid the strong easterly set described in the Yachtman's Guide and which he must have observed the previous morning. As he left, he "saw so many islands" along the south side of the Channel (no islands are visible from Watlings) that he finally "resolved to steer for the largest." which is New Providence, the modern name for Columbus' island of Santa Maria. (Rum Cay is not the largest neighbor of Watlings Island).

He stood off shore all night and at daybreak Monday was near Pimlico Island, "seven leagues" from New Providence, which he did not reach until midday because "the tide was against me." (There is no tide between Watlings and Rum Cay.) He described the east coast of New Providence as running "north and south for a distance of five leagues, and the other side, which I followed, runs east and west for more than ten leagues. Clearly, Columbus had the orientation and proportions correct, and if he N`,as using the same land league that his sovereigns used for their land grants, there is no other island on the face of the earth that better fits his description. He had to "set sail to go all that day until night" since there are no anchorages along the north shore of New Providence, an`] "about sunset" he anchored south of the "westerly point," now known as Lyford Cay.

As he was departing this excellent anchorage Tuesday morning, an Indian canoe came "from the other cape," now called Clifton Point, in order to barter a ball of cotton for beads and other trinkets. He then sailed from the"islands" of New Providence (Rum Cay is solitary) for Andros Island, or Fernandina, which lay "eight leagues" to the west across the Tongue of the Ocean. " Ln the middle of the gulf between these two islands" Columbus picked up an Indian who was carrying tobacco, giving him an opportunity to write the first description of this highly prized plant. Under a light wind, he reached Andros Island too late to cross the third largest reef in the world safely, and so he stood off all night.

Wednesday morning he anchored behind the reef at Mastic Point, which he accurately described as "this point. where I came, and all this coast runs NNW and SSE" and "that on this side of the coast may extend for some twenty-eight leagues or more." The Admiral appropriately wrote that Andros was "very green and flat and very fertile." even by Bahama standards. He marveled at the mastic tree, which grows to great size on Andros, recording that "five of six different kinds" of branches all grew on a single tree. Before departing at midday, he described the reef fish, "of the finest colors in the world," and made his first references to " Lizards," widely distributed on Andros.

Wishing to sail south to Cuba, the Admiral was dissuaded by his Indian guides. who perhaps questioned whether his great ships could safely pass over the shoal water south of the Tongue of the Ocean. Accordingly, he followed their advice "that the island could be rounded more quickly in a north-northwesterly direction." (Inapplicable advice on Long Island.) "About two leagues from the head of the island," renamed Morgan's Bluff in honor of the pirate, Columbus anchored at Conch Sound, which he first assumed to be "the mouth of a river . . . wide enough for a hundred ships."

The wind shifted to WNW, forcingthe Admiral to reverse his course for Cuba. The next day he continued to sail before the wind, anchoring that night in the shoal water to the south of the Tongue of the Ocean. Friday morning he separated his fleet for the first time in the New World, fanning it out from ESE to SSE as he ventured into deep water west of Long Island. At midday they reached the western islet that " Lay on the course from the Island of Fernandina." Following the coast twelve leagues to a cape, called South Point on Long Island, he accurately described it as "round and in deep water, with no shoals off it." Columbus stayed here until late Tuesday night, waiting for an east wind to carry him to Cuba.

At midday Wednesday he recorded the one important clue that is totally incompatible with the northern route as "Cape Verde, in the island of Fernandina, which is on the south side in the western part, lay to my northwest, and was seven leagues from me." But was it wise for the earlier analysts to hang their entire reconstruction on this single clue, especially since the Admiral had never mentioned this cape before and there is no cape on the west end of Long Island? Perhaps Father Las Casas' thirdhand copy was in error; if the distance had originally read seventy leagues, the clue would have correctly identified Andros rather than Long Island as Fernandina. According to the analysis presented here, the overwhelming weight of evidence points to Northeast Providence Channel as the entry of Columbus into the New World. The islands of Santa Maria and Fernandina have been identified with virtual certainty, while San Salvador is probable and Isabela is still questionable.