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...

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...

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...

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,...

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...

At last! Columbus and Caonabó: 1493–1498 Retold goes on sale today! See the reviews of historians and others under Reviews, as well as purchase links to Amazon, Barnes & Noble, iBooks, and IndieBound (you select your participating independent bookstore)!

After Dominica and Marie-Galante, Columbus’s fleet anchored for a week (November 4–10, 1493) at the twin islands close to Marie-Galante that the Kalinago or Caribe inhabitants called Caloucaera and Couchoalaoua. Columbus named them as one—Santa María de Guadalupe...

At 5 a.m. on November 3, 1493, 528 years ago today, a lookout on Columbus’s flagship, the María Galante, sighted a volcano topping the sea mist in the moonlight. By dawn, islands of the archipelago now known as the Lesser Antilles came into view, and Columbus directed...

For this Indigenous Peoples’ Day, I post a link to my article published yesterday on the History News Network explaining why I believe it’s important to retell the traditional “Columbus story” from both Taíno and European perspectives. HNN Article

Columbus’s second fleet stopped over at Gran Canaria on October 2, 1493, where sugar was stocked and a leaking ship repaired, and then anchored in the tiny harbor at San Sebastián on Gomera on October 5, the latter shown in two photos below. Prior to his first voyage,...