The Variation of the Compass. 181 
lishment of the squadron’s course would be an easy matter, but 
unfortunately this is not the case. At that time there was no 
instrument sufficiently pigcise to establish a ship’s position to 
within two or three degrees.* Moreover, in the entire log book 
there are but one or two references to latitudes, and these are 
not exact enough to establish anything. Still another difficulty 
in the way is the variation of the compass. At that time a vari- 
tion was known to exist, but, a few declinations excepted, no 
values had been determined. Columbus, indeed, found that his 
declination was changing, but he did not establish any values.t 
A change of twenty degrees or more in declination, during the 
voyage, even if the Admiral had allowed for it, would have 
i made the retracing of the course a difficult matter. 
The fact that Columbus did not write well in the Spanish lan- 
euage adds to the difficulty also. He did not punctuate, and 
many of his sentences are so ambiguous that it is impossible to 
tell their meaning. For instance, in the journal of Sunday, 
October 14, he says: “At the break of day I commanded the gig 
of the ship and the boats of the caravels to be [lowered] and 
went along the island in a north-northeasterly course to see the 
other part which was to the other part of the east.” { This par- 
ticular passage is so perplexing that at least three different points 
of Watling island have been selected as the first anchorage. 
Within a few years research has narrowed the six islands 
above named to the three already noted—Watling, Mariguana, 
and Samana. Watling island was first proposed by Mufioz, but 
it is very uncertain that the Watling island of Mufioz is the one 
at present bearing that name. On the contrary, if the maps of 
Sayer (1792), Jacobsz (1621) and the so-called map of Vallard 
(1547) are worth anything as evidence, the Watling island of 
Mufioz lay to the southeast of the island at present bearing the 
name Watling. In fact, this island had the relative position that 
Samana now occupies. 
* Vasco da Gama used to go ashore and rig a cross-staff on the beach 
when he wished to find his latitude. 
+ At the port of Gomera, at the time Columbus sailed, the declination 
was about 20° E.; at the crossing of the thirty-fifth meridian it was not 
far from 16° W. At Guanahani it could not have been more than two or 
three degrees. The agonic, or line of no declination, now passes within 
a few miles of Samana. 
+See note on page 184 for the quotation from the log book. 
