Many seventeenth and eighteenth century maps (and even a few sixteenth century maps) show an island labeled "Guanahaní" lying in the Bahamas. Of course, it was well-known that Guanahaní was the native name for the first landfall of Columbus. How did these cartographers get their information about Columbus's first voyage, decades or centuries after the fact? We don't know. But we do know that the island labeled "Guanahaní" on most of these maps can usually be identified as either Cat Island or Watlings Island.
The cartographic identification of Cat as the first landfall, even before the Diario was published in 1825, made Cat the early favorite in the landfall debate. Once the Diario became known, however, it became clear that Cat just didn't fit the descriptions of Columbus, and the theory was abandoned. Nevertheless, I've included old maps on the scorecard, and given Cat and Watlings favorable ratings on this clue.
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| A fragment from the Juan de la Cosa map, showing the island of Guanahaní. | |
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As far as I'm concerned, the only old map that's really useful in the landfall debate is the map of Juan de la Cosa. As an experienced mariner and shipowner, la Cosa sailed on the first and second voyages of Columbus, and in 1500 he drew a map of the world, including the newly discovered lands in the western hemisphere. This map is notable as the earliest known map that shows any part of the New World.
The la Cosa map is also significant because it is the only existing
map of the landfall drawn by any member of the first voyage. The map
shows Guanahaní, the landfall island, apparently as a small group of
islets, lying roughly east-west. Guanahaní is also shown as lying at
the longitude of the Windward Passage, between Cuba and Hispaniola.
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