Samana Cay is a now -uninhabited island in the Bahamas believed by some researchers to have been the location of Christopher Columbus's first landfall in the Americas on October 12, 1492.[1]
It is an islet in the eastern Bahamas, 22 miles (35km) northeast of Acklins Island. About 10 miles (16km) long and up to 2 miles (3km) wide with an area of about 17 square miles (45km2) it is bound by reefs. The verdant cay has long been uninhabited, but figurines, pottery shards, and other artifacts discovered there in the mid-1980s have been ascribed to Lucayan Indians, who lived on the cay around the time of Columbus's voyages.
The indigenous people of the island on which Columbus first landed called it "Guanahani." Samana Cay was first proposed to be Guanahani by Gustavus Fox in 1882,[2] but the predominant theory gives the honour to San Salvador Island.[3] However, in 1986, Joseph Judge of National Geographic Magazine made different calculations based on extracts from Columbus's logs and argued for Samana Cay as the location, but his methodology has also been criticised.[4]
Samana was a name of apparent Lucayan origin (meaning "Small Middle Forest") used by the Spanish to designate one of the islands in the Bahamas. Granberry and Vesceliuus identify that island as the present-day Samana Cay.[5]
Samana Cay had a permanent population during the first half of the 20th century, and the ruins of the settlement are visible on the south side of the island, near the western end. The island is now uninhabited, but residents of nearby Acklins Island visit occasionally to collect cascarilla bark, which grows in abundance on the island.
↑ Fox, Gustavus V. (June 1880). "An Attempt to solve the Problem of the First Landing Place of Columbus in the New World", "Report of the Superintendent of the US Coast and Geodetic Survey". Appendix No. 18. Washington, DC: Government Printing office.
↑ William D. Phillips Jr., 'Columbus, Christopher', in David Buisseret (ed.), The Oxford Companion to World Exploration, (Oxford: Oxford University Press, online edition 2012).
↑ For a brief discussion of the controversy, see William D. Phillips, Jr., and Carla Rahn Phillips, The Worlds of Christopher Columbus (Cambridge and New York: Cambridge University Press, 1992), pp. 155–5.
↑ Julian Granberry and Gary S. Vescelius. (2004) Languages of the Pre-Columbian Antilles. The University of Alabama Press. ISBN0-8173-5123-X p. 83
The Bahamas, known officially as the Commonwealth of The Bahamas, is a country within the Lucayan Archipelago of the West Indies in the Caribbean. It takes up 97% of the Lucayan Archipelago's land area and is home to 88% of the archipelago's population. The archipelagic state consists of fewer than 700 islands, cays, and islets in the Atlantic Ocean, and is located north of Cuba and Hispaniola Island, northwest of the Turks and Caicos Islands, southeast of the US state of Florida, and east of the Florida Keys. The capital is Nassau on the island of New Providence. The Royal Bahamas Defence Force describes The Bahamas' territory as encompassing 470,000 km2 (180,000 sq mi) of ocean space.
The earliest arrival of humans in the islands now known as The Bahamas was in the first millennium AD. The first inhabitants of the islands were the Lucayans, an Arawakan-speaking Taino people, who arrived between about 500 and 800 AD from other islands of the Caribbean. Their ancestors came from mainland South America, where Arawakan-language peoples were present in most territories, and especially along the northeastern coast. Bahamian descendents was mostly from North and South Africa.
The Lucayanpeople were the original inhabitants of the Bahamas before the arrival of European colonizers. They were a branch of the Tainos who inhabited most of the Caribbean islands at the time. The Lucayans were the first inhabitants of the Americas encountered by Christopher Columbus. The Spanish started seizing Lucayans as slaves within a few years of Columbus's arrival, and they had all been removed from the Bahamas by 1520.
San Salvador Island is an island and district of the Bahamas. It is widely believed that during Christopher Columbus's first expedition to the New World, San Salvador Island was the first land he sighted and visited on 12 October 1492. He named it San Salvador after Christ the Saviour. Columbus's records indicate that the native Lucayan inhabitants of the territory, who called their island Guanahani, were "sweet and gentle".
Grand Turk Island is an island in the Turks and Caicos Islands. It is the largest island in the Turks Islands with 18 km2 (6.9 sq mi). Grand Turk contains the territory's capital, Cockburn Town and the JAGS McCartney International Airport. The island is the administrative, historic, cultural and financial center of the territory, and has the second largest population of the islands at approximately 3,720 people.
The Abaco Islands lie in the northern Bahamas, 180 miles off the South Florida coast. They comprise the main islands of Great Abaco and Little Abaco, along with smaller barrier cays. The northernmost are Walker's Cay, and its sister island Grand Cay. To the south, the next inhabited islands are Spanish Cay and Green Turtle Cay, with its settlement of New Plymouth, Great Guana Cay, private Scotland Cay, Man-O-War Cay, and Elbow Cay, with its settlement of Hope Town. Southernmost are Tilloo Cay and Lubbers Quarters. Another of note off Abaco's western shore is onetime Gorda Cay, now a Disney Island and cruise ship stop and renamed Castaway Cay. Also in the vicinity is Moore's Island. On the Big Island of Abaco is Marsh Harbour, the Abacos' commercial hub and the Bahamas' third largest city, plus the resort area of Treasure Cay. Both have airports. A few mainland settlements of significance are Coopers Town and Fox Town in the north and Cherokee and Sandy Point in the south. Administratively, the Abaco Islands constitute seven of the 31 Local Government Districts of the Bahamas: Grand Cay, North Abaco, Green Turtle Cay, Central Abaco, South Abaco, Moore's Island, and Hope Town.
Mayaguana is the easternmost island and district of the Bahamas. Its population was 277 in the 2010 census. It has an area of about 280 km2 (110 sq mi).
Acklins is an island and district of the Bahamas.
Rum Cay is an island and district of the Bahamas. It measures 30 square miles (78 km2) in area, it is located at Lat.: N23 42' 30" - Long.: W 74 50' 00". It has many rolling hills that rise to about 120 feet.
Guanahani is an island in the Bahamas that was the first land in the New World sighted and visited by Christopher Columbus' first voyage, on October 12, 1492. It is a bean-shaped island that Columbus renamed San Salvador, which is its current name. Guanahani is the native Taíno name.
Gustavus Vasa Fox was an officer of the United States Navy, who served during the Mexican–American War, and as Assistant Secretary of the Navy during the Civil War.
The Plana Cays are a group of two small uninhabited islands in the southern Bahama Islands, located east of Acklins Island and west of Mayaguana Island.
Elbow Cay is an eight-mile-long (13-kilometre) cay in the Abaco Islands of the Bahamas. Originally populated by British loyalists fleeing the newly independent United States of America in 1785, it has survived on fishing, boat building, and salvage. Its main village of Hope Town surrounds a protected harbor with a noted red-and-white-striped one-hundred-and-twenty-foot-tall (37-metre) lighthouse built in 1863. On September 1, 2019, Elbow Cay took a direct hit from Category 5 Hurricane Dorian, with sustained winds of 185 mph (295 km/h). The lighthouse survived.
South Caicos is the seventh-largest island in the Turks and Caicos archipelago, with a land area of 21.2 square kilometres. South Caicos is known for excellent fishing, both deep-sea and bone fishing, and scuba diving. South Caicos was formerly a salt exporter, the island still hosts a network of salt pans as a reminder of the industry. Today, the island's main income is derived from small-scale commercial fishing.
Joseph Judge was a writer and editor for National Geographic magazine, retiring as Senior Associate Editor in 1990 after 25 years of service.
Long Cay is an island in the Bahamas in an atoll that includes Acklins Island and Crooked Island. It is 8 square miles and is in the Acklins and Crooked Islands District. As of 2010, its population was 29.
The following outline is provided as an overview of and topical guide to the Bahamas:
The following is an alphabetical list of topics related to the Commonwealth of the Bahamas.
The 1492 light sighting was a sighting of unknown light during the first voyage of Christopher Columbus on October 11, 1492, by some crew members of the Santa Maria, Pinta and possibly Niña shortly before the landing on Guanahani. The light was reported in Columbus' journal, Ferdinand Columbus' Vita del Ammiraglio, the proceedings of the Pleitos colombinos and some other sources.
Long Island is an island in the Bahamas that is split by the Tropic of Cancer. It is one of the Districts of the Bahamas and is known as the most scenic island in the Bahamas. Its capital is Clarence Town. The population of Long Island is 3,094 inhabitants.
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