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Where Did Christopher Columbus
first land in the New World?
Where Did Christopher Columbus
first land in the New World?
Where did Christopher
Columbus land when he and the men sailing with him first landed in the
New World? Even today there still debate about where Columbus first saw
the new world.
We have a map of the Bahamas, down around Cuba, showing the most likely
places Columbus may have first landed.
Columbus visited five islands in the Bahamas before reaching Cuba.
He named these (in order) San Salvador, Santa Maria de la Concepcion,
Fernandina, Isabela, and Las Islas de Arena.
The last of these has been identified (almost universally) with the modern
Ragged Islands in the Bahamas.
The first four are in dispute. To avoid confusion with modern placenames,
the first four are referred to in Roman numerals as Island I through Island
IV. The native names for these islands were Guanahani for Island I and
Samoete (or Saomete or Samoet) for Island IV.
The native names for Island II and Island III were not recorded.