Arrival Offshore Navidad

As the moon rose on November 27, 1493, 528 years ago, Columbus recognized the landmarks indicating that the fleet approached Navidad, including the great cape to the west he’d named Punta Santa (Point Picolet, at Cape Haitien, Haiti), the line of reefs upon which the...

Monte Christi, northern coast of “Española”

Columbus’s fleet departed Samaná promptly after the sailor’s burial on November 23, 1493, sailing west for the settlement he’d named Navidad on the first voyage (near the modern town of Bord de Mer de Limonade, Haiti). He’d left a garrison of men there with Chief...

Samaná, northeastern “Española”

Columbus’s fleet sailed from Boriquén (Puerto Rico) to “Española” on November 22, 1493, and last rites were given the sailor most seriously wounded on St. Croix. The next day, 528 years ago, the ships anchored briefly off Española’s mountainous Samaná peninsula...

St. Croix to Puerto Rico

On departing St. Croix, Columbus’s fleet coursed east over the next few days toward “Española.” While primary sources differ, my estimation is that Columbus now held almost thirty indigenous people seized or taken aboard at Guadeloupe and St. Croix. Some were Caribes,...

St. Croix

After Guadeloupe, the fleet explored the archipelago of islands to the north. Columbus named one for the Virgin of another Spanish monastery, Montserrat, a second for the Virgin who worked miracles in Seville’s cathedral, Saint Antigua, and a third—as the day of...