Guanahani
First New World island sighted by Columbus, location still debated.
Guanahaní, meaning "small land above water" or "small upper land" in the Lucayan language, was the first land in the New World that Christopher Columbus saw and set foot on during his initial voyage, on October 12, 1492. This bean-shaped island was renamed San Salvador by Columbus. For a long time, it was commonly thought to be what was then called Watlings Island, which was officially renamed San Salvador Island in 1925 because of that belief. However, modern scholars disagree about whether that identification is correct, and several other islands in and around the southern Bahamas have been suggested as possibilities.
The name Guanahaní first became widely known in Europe through a letter Columbus wrote on February 15, 1493, to Luis de Santangel, one of his patrons. That letter was printed and translated many times, but it only mentions the name without any further details.
A map drawn in 1500 by Juan de la Cosa, who sailed with Columbus as master of the Santa María, shows the Caribbean. While Cuba and Hispaniola are clearly depicted, the Bahamas appear more confused. On that map, Guanahaní is drawn as a group of small islets rather than a single island, located due north of the Windward Passage, in the central Bahamas.
The most detailed account of Columbus’s movements comes from the Diario, an abstract of his original log made by the monk Bartolomé de las Casas in the 1540s. Columbus had presented his log to the Spanish court after his first voyage, and Queen Isabella ordered a copy made. That copy, known as the Barcelona copy, was returned to Columbus and later passed to his son Fernando. Las Casas obtained it and created the Diario, which is mostly in his own third-person voice but includes long first-person passages from Columbus himself for the Bahamas section. The Barcelona copy was lost in the late 1500s, but the Diario was discovered intact in 1795 and published thirty years later. It remains the most authoritative source.
A biography of Columbus written by his son Fernando Colón between 1537 and 1539, and published in Italian in 1571, also draws on the Barcelona copy. Many details match the Diario, which confirms Las Casas’s accuracy. However, the biography adds a few details not in the Diario, most notably that Guanahaní was fifteen leagues (about 45 miles) long—a claim that seems to conflict with Columbus’s implication that he saw the whole
- Meaning
- small land above water or small upper land
Lore & Background
Guanahaní is mentioned in Columbus' letter to Luis de Santangel, printed widely in 1493, which made the name known across Europe. The map of Juan de la Cosa, drawn in 1500, shows Guanahaní in the Bahamas as a group of islets rather than a single island, lying due north of the Windward Passage. The most authoritative account comes from the Diario, an abstract made by Bartolomé de las Casas from Columbus' original log, which describes the island as 'very flat and with very green trees' and having 'muchas aguas y una laguna en medio muy grande' (many waters and a very large laguna in the middle).
Reader's Guide
Guanahaní holds significance as the first landfall of Columbus' first voyage, marking the beginning of sustained European contact with the Americas. Its exact location remains unresolved, with scholars divided among several Bahamian islands. The Diario provides the most detailed description, noting a surrounding reef, a large lagoon, and a harbor 'large enough to store all ships of Christendom.' The biography by Fernando Colón adds that Guanahaní was fifteen leagues (45 miles) long, a claim that seems contrary to Columbus' implication that he saw the entire island in a single day's boat trip. Transatlantic track reconstructions using Columbus' log have yielded different endpoints—Watlings Island, Samana Cay, Grand Turk, and the Plana Cays—depending on assumptions about league length, currents, and magnetic declination. The inter-island track method, tracing Columbus' route from Guanahaní to Cuba, is considered more reliable but has not produced consensus. The light seen on the evening before landfall also provides clues, with different candidate islands offering explanations for its source.
Did You Know?
- Guanahaní means 'small upper waters land' in the Lucayan language.
- The island was called San Salvador by Columbus, and Watlings Island was officially renamed San Salvador Island in 1925.
- The Diario, an abstract of Columbus' log made by Bartolomé de las Casas, is the most authoritative account of the first voyage.
- Juan de la Cosa's 1500 map shows Guanahaní as a group of islets rather than a single island.
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