NO. I COLUMBUS S LAXDFALL WOLPER J 



was copied later by Emanuel Bowen in 1747. On these two maps 

 Guanima is "Catt." 



In 1779, in an early French Atlas, 1 ' "Watlins" becomes ''Wattelin" 

 and Catt is "I de Chat ou Guanima." Guanahani or "Watlins" now 

 becomes "I. de Wattelin ou S. Sauveur." On the very next page in 

 the same atlas, Catt Island is "I de Chat ou Guanahani ou de S. 

 Sauveur"; Rum Cay 7 (Columbus's Santa Maria de Conception), is 

 "La Petite Isle de S. Sauveur, decouverte par le St. Abotret." 



Cat Island enthusiasts in the Bahamas first called Catt Island 

 "San Salvador" in the Parochial Act of 1802 ; Washington Irving s 

 wrote from a library in Milan in 1828 that this was also his opinion. 

 Cat Island remained San Salvador in Bahamian public records for 

 124 years, after which the name was restored to Guanahani in 1926. 9 

 At that time the island was called "Watlings," 10 after a pirate ; but no 

 records of significance have been found concerning anyone of that 

 name who lived on the island. 



EXPEDITION RECONSTRUCTING THE APPROACH TO 

 GUANAHANI— SAN SALVADOR 



The historical and graphic documents, then, indicate that the 

 present island of San Salvador was Guanahani, that Cat Island was 

 Guanima, and that these two islands were distinct from the Caicos 



the Public Record Office, London. Two letters stated that this office had no 

 information concerning Watlin either, and suggested that the name might be 

 found in "the records of the High Court of Admiralty and State Papers, Foreign 

 (Spain)." 



6 Mappe-Monde Physique d'apres les Vues de M. Pallas, redigees par M. L. 

 Abbe Mongez, Journal de Physique, Mai 1779. Avec Privilege du Roi. 



7 Rum Cay is an island southwest of San Salvador and deserves the name 

 Conception Island. A small cay southeast of Cat Island, "2| miles in length and 

 2 miles across at its widest point," uninhabited, is Conception Island today. 



8 In 1829, Washington Irving sealed his new theory with a gift; both were 

 accepted. He was responsible for having a statue of Columbus made (with a 

 beard, which historians say he did not have) in London, which was imported 

 by His Excellency, the Governor of the Colony, Sir James Carmichael Smith, 

 and now stands in front of Government House in Nassau. 



'■' The Very Reverend Chrysostom Schreiner, O.S.B., V.F., who lived on 

 San Salvador for 3 years, died and was buried there in 1928. He was respon- 

 sible for the change in 1926, according to the records, the writer was told by the 

 Hon. Etienne Dupuch, O.B.E., K.C.S.G., C.H.M.. M.L.C, editor of the Nassau 

 Daily Tribune. 



"'(a) The Bahamas Handbook (Dupuch, 1960, p. 101) says, "Captain George 

 Watling, sometimes known as the pious pirate, made his headquarters on the 

 island at one time and it became known as Watling's Island." 



