The accidental running aground of the Santa María on December 25, 1492, provided additional planks and provisions for the garrison.

With the help of a Taino cacique, or Indian chief, named Guacanagarí, he set up a stockade on the northern coast of the island, named it La Navidad, and posted 39 men to guard it until his return. There Columbus found at least enough gold and prosperity to save him from ridicule on his return to Spain. He seems to have thought that Hispaniola might be Cipango or, if not Cipango, then perhaps one of the legendarily rich isles from which King Solomon’s triennial fleet brought back gold, gems, and spices to Jerusalem (1 Kings 10:11, 22) alternatively, he reasoned that the island could be related to the biblical kingdom of Sheba ( Sabaʾ). Thus, on December 5, he turned back southeastward to search for the fabled city of Zaiton ( Quanzhou, China), missing through this decision his sole chance of setting foot on Florida soil.Īdverse winds carried the fleet to an island called Ayti ( Haiti) by its Taino inhabitants on December 6 Columbus renamed it La Isla Española, or Hispaniola. He thought that he had found it in Cuba, where he landed on October 28, but he convinced himself by November 1 that Cuba was the Cathay mainland itself, though he had yet to see evidence of great cities. Beyond planting the royal banner, however, Columbus spent little time there, being anxious to press on to Cipango, or Cipangu ( Japan). The place of the first Caribbean landfall, called Guanahani, is hotly disputed, but San Salvador (Watlings) Island in the Bahamas is generally preferred to other Bahamian islands ( Samana Cay, Rum Cay, or the Plana Cays) or to the Turks and Caicos Islands. Columbus allayed their fears, at least temporarily, and on October 12 land was sighted from the Pinta (though Columbus, on the Niña, later claimed the privilege for himself).

But by October 10 the crew had begun to lose patience, complaining that with their failure to make landfall, contrary winds and a shortage of provisions would keep them from returning home. On several occasions in September and early October, sailors spotted floating vegetation and various types of birds-all taken as signs that land was nearby. Landing of Columbus, oil on canvas by John Vanderlyn, 1846 in the U.S.

Nina santa maria