Evening star., 1934-10-14

three immortal little caravels. FOR
~ over two months Columbus and his
crew had been sailing blindly west
ward. Hope was exhausted. and
from all sides the admiral was beseeched to turn
back Perhaps he might have had not
sailor on board the Pinta, at o'clock in the
morning, seen in the moonlight line o. white
surf breaking on tongue of land. With the
cry Of "Tierra! Tierra!" he rushed to the ships
cannon and fired the shot that announced the
most momentous discovery in history.
LandiS
But where? What land on our modern
charts? Some Bahaman island without
doubt The Indians called it Guanahani CO.
lumbus renamed 1t San Salvador. But which
island is san Salvador? That question has been
asked thousand times since the first clumsy
maps confused the answer. As boy myself
asked it Of my school teachers They always
replied, Nobody knows exactly.
Growing up read what books there were on
what had become for me q fascinating mystery.
But each author argued for different island.
NY interest In the controversy rose UNTIL
finally. led me to engage seapaane and
with . copy Of the transcript Of Columbus log
San Salvador. ,@sts-s r.
Unfortunately, Columbus original log book
disappeared soon after his death, but not be-
fore fray Las Casas, contemporary. had made
faithful copies of parts OF 1t, one part pean8
dated October IL, 1892. The cleric, no man OF
~
reckcnings which would have located the island
exactly He did. however. extract literally Co
tumbus picturesque description Of his landfalL
A ND that is how We know stin wind was
blowing toward the west on the night Of
the discovery: and that Rodrigo. seaman. Was
the first to see the tongue Of land cleaning IN
the moonlight.
The same Spanish copy Of the original record
describes rsan Salvador: This island b quite
large and very level. It has large lake In the
center. The shape Of the island b that OF .
bean, and the vegetation 20 luxuriant that Il
Is \ pleasure to behold It," On October II.
after two days ashore, Columbus also wrote:
eat daybreak had the boats Of the caravels
made ready and went along the island in
northeasterly direction In order to see the vi.
lages. The inhabitants, coming to the shore,
beseeched us to land there, but I was AFRAID
of . reef of rocks which entirely surround the
island But within this belt Is harbor Of such
size that there would be ample room Tor AL
the vessels of Christendom."
This Is not great deal Of information. But
It is all that exists, and with It my pilot and
laid our course for the Bahamas.
In this archipelago there are 30 large Islands
and overs600 islets. Fortunately. didn't need
to expl0le them all. for Columbus, coming nom
the east must have encountered nrst one
Of the string of islands-10 in numbcr-which
face the open ocean. Each Of these has had
It's strong advocates among geographers. and
since came with an open mind meant TO
whit all 10.
From the coast of Florida the two Of ~
new over 500 miles down. the outer chain. chr
cling over each in turn, looking for one that
offered the special features Columbus de-
scribed. Great Abaco had the sse-"a large
island"-but no lake. We new on to Eleuthera.
From the air it resembled snake. but not BY
any stretch Of the imagination - beam Con-
ception the next island, was only half sur
rounded by q reef, not entirely surrounded':
and Yuma Fernandina had no reef at al.
Samana looked like . bean. but that was its
only claim.
Cat Island occupied me for an entire day.
This has always been . strong contestant for
the honor, since Washington Irving, following
the conclusions Of q United States naval Of
iacer, chose in his great biography Of Columbus
to name Cat Island as the landfau. Conse-
quently most of the maps Of the nineteenth
century call it San Salvador. But search though
! might, could not find even the weakest
argument In its favor. There Is no lake, and
ridge 400 feet high running down the center
prevents It from being very fiat" ! had TO
conclude that Irving had accepted . careless
Identification
Next morning new on to Crooked Island.
Mariguana, Rum Cay. Grand Turk. Not one
Of these had harbor at to shelter single
sailing boat, much less "all the ships IN
Christendom"
-Four days had spent exploring from the
"a and the air. and e faE not one Of the