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(Published in Southeastern Geographer, Vol. XXXIV, No. 2, November 1994)
The identity of the Bahamian island on which Columbus first made landfall on the New World, and of the others visited by him before reaching Cuba, remains enigmatic. Beyond commemorative considerations, the inability to determine wherein the ethnographic and environmental observations made by Columbus apply, significantly hinder our ability to fully utilize this earliest American historical record. Comparisons between current physical and ecological features and those described by Columbus have been used to argue between the two leading landfall candidates: San Salvador (Watlings Island), the most popular prospect, and Samana Cay. Such comparisons rest on the implicit assumption that the present characteristics of the islands have remained unchanged during the past 500 years. Evidence is presented in this paper, based on integration of paleoclimatic, geological and historical data of hemispheric, regional and local scale, which indicates that environmental conditions on the islands have changed substantially since 1492. Attempts to identify the first landfall of Columbus should consider the implications of these changes. Paleogeographic evaluation appears to further the Samana Cay landfall theory.
(Published in GROUND WATER, Vol 34, No. 4, July-August 1996)
Abstract
Samana Cay, Bahamas, is a leading candidate among the sites proposed as the first landfall of Columbus in the New World. One main point of contention against this identification, however, is that Samana lacks a feature matching the laguna observed by Columbus in the middle of his landfall island. However, this argument has failed to consider the paleogeographic aspects of the problem. A hydrogeologic computer model suggests the existence of a sizable surface water feature in the medial interior of Samana Cay under conditions theorized to have been present when Columbus arrived in the Bahamas. This feature may correspond to the laguna described by Columbus.
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