that first expedition, the Bahamas were completely neg- 

 lected for the more lush and profitable lands in the vicinity 

 of the Caribbean. 



While we were debating the question of where Co- 

 lumbus's sailings had taken him, we came across a small 

 book, Guanahani Again, which questioned whether Co- 

 lumbus had in fact made his first landfall on Watling island. 

 It had been written by Captain Pieter Verhoog, an officer 

 of the Holland-America Line, who had made many voy- 

 ages through Bahamian waters. Captain Verhoog main- 

 tained with careful, well-documented arguments that Co- 

 lumbus had first set foot on the island of Caicos, farther 

 to the south. As his study was backed by years of re- 

 search among the original manuscripts dealing with all 

 aspects of Columbus's voyages, it seemed to us that his 

 selection of the Caicos archipelago and the consequent 

 route which Columbus took through the Bahamas was 

 worthy of consideration. 



But then I recollected having read, several years be- 

 fore, a fascinating account of Columbus's voyages, Admiral 

 of the Ocean Sea, by the well-known naval historian, Rear 

 Admiral Samuel Morison. The book was aboard Sea Diver, 

 and we reread it thoroughly, meanwhile comparing Mori- 

 son's picture of Columbus's first voyage with Verhoog's 

 account. Necessarily, because of the selection of different 

 islands for the first landfall, the two scholars had traced 

 radically different courses for the little fleet through the 

 Bahamas to Cuba. 



From then on, in our spare time, Ed and I pored over 

 the writings of various historians from Columbus's time 

 on, not neglecting to read and compare the various trans- 

 lations of Columbus's Journal. Instead of solving the prob- 

 lem to our satisfaction, we became more confused. 



Navarrete, the first historian to render the early Co- 

 lumbus documents available to the world, in the early 



The Bahama Islands 141 



