the additional island on Columbus's route, which in turn 

 supported the theory that his first landfall had been at 

 Caicos. 



All that day we argued, and again that evening, after 

 we had anchored for the night just beyond Ship channel 

 in the Exumas. We did not leave for Nassau until late 

 the following morning, for rain and cloudy skies made it 

 impossible to cross the coral-strewn Yellow banks until 

 there was better visibility. Instead we once again gath- 

 ered in our cabin to continue our debate. Each controver- 

 sial point was discussed, summarized and recorded, along 

 with the passage involved, on the dictaphone. 



Our final conference took place the next morning 

 at Sea Diver's dock in Nassau. Carefully we rechecked 

 every point. We found that there were a few differences in 

 translation and interpretation which must be cleared up, 

 as well as additional information which could only be 

 obtained when Pete had returned to the Smithsonian. We 

 also listed passages from the Journal which we planned 

 to ask Dr. Pedroso to retranslate. 



But when all the factors had been carefully weighed, 

 we found that everyone was inclined to agree that of the 

 three theories involved, Ed's revolutionary idea of the 

 unnamed island contained fewer discrepancies, and fitted 

 more completely the descriptions given by Columbus from 

 beginning to end, than either of the other two. 



Unless additional original material or charts should 

 be turned up in the future, we concluded there could 

 never be positive knowledge of Columbus's exact route; 

 but we had proved — to our own satisfaction, at least — 

 that he landed first at Caicos and from there followed a 

 course from Mayaguana to Samana to Long island, and 

 from there to Crooked island, the Ragged islands, the 

 Columbus banks and Cuba. 



326 Sea Diver 



