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Published by Maney Publishing (c) The Soceity for the History of Discoveries
Martin Alonso Pinzon's
Discovery of Babueca
and the
Identity of Guanahani
Gregory C. McIntosh
Introduction
Since 1731, eleven different islands have been proposed as Guanahani, the native
Taino name for the Landfall Island of Christopher Columbus in the New World in
1492:
1
the Berry Islands, Egg Island, Cat Island, San Salvador (or Watlings) Island,
Conception Island, Samana (or Atwood) Cay, the Plana Cays, Mayaguana Island, East
Caicos Island, Grand Turk Island, and the Virgin Islands. It was not until after 1828,
however, that the determination of Guanahani became a subject of controversy. The
debate has continued to the present without a final selection satisfactory to all research-
ers, although three islands are generally considered to be the more likely candidates:
San Salvador Island, Samana Cay, and Grand Turk Island.
For each of the theories advocating a specific Landfall Island and the subsequent
inter-island route to Cuba, the primary source for the identification of Guanahani has
been the
Diario,2
or Log of the First Voyage, as abstracted by Bartolome de Las
Casas.
3
The reliance upon the
Diario
for evidence is easily understood, even though the
IAn excellent summary of the Landfall Controversy is John Parker, "The Columbus Landfall Problem: A
Historical Perspective," Terrae Incognitae 15 (1983): 1-28.
2According to Samuel Eliot :Nlorison, Journals and Other Documents on the Life and Voyages of Christo-
pher Columbus (New York, 1963), p. 41, the actual title of the Las Casas abstract of the journal, or diario
de a bordo, of Columbus's First Voyage, kept in the Biblioteca Nacional of Madrid, is El Libro de la
Primera Navegacion.
3Excellent reviews of the various copies and translations that have been made of this document are in Robert
H. Fuson, "The Diario de Colon: A Legacy of Poor Transcription, Translation, and Interpretation," Ter-
rae Incognitae 15 (1983): 51-75; David Henige, "Samuel Eliot Morison as Translator and Interpreter of
Columbus's diario de a bordo," Terrae Incognitae 20 (1988): 69-88; Oliver Dunn and James E. Kelley,
Jr., The Diario of Christopher Columbus's First Voyage to America 1492-1493 (Norman, Oklahoma,
1989, pp. 3-5, 10-11, 13; David Henige, "Edited ... and not Precipitated: Three Recent Editions of Co-
lumbus' diario," Terrae Incognitae 22 (1990): 93-104; David Henige, In Search of Columbus: The Sources
Terrae Incognitae 24, 1992, pp. 79-100.
©
The Society for the History of Discoveries, 1992.
79
Published by Maney Publishing (c) The Soceity for the History of Discoveries
document, as it has survived, is a third-hand copy with many recognized (and unrecog-
Inized) copyist errors. Although in the
Prologue
of the
Diario,
Columbus says " ... I
thought of writing on this whole voyage, very diligently, all that I would do and see
and experience ...
,"4
this implied claim of being an unadulterated recording of events
is questionable. The recent textual analysis of the
Diario
by David Henige~ shows that
the
Diario,
as it has come down to us, was "reprocessed" and "refurbished," first by
Columbus, and then again by Las Casas.
In addition to the
Diario,
other sources, such as Spanish maps and Spanish chroni-
clers of the sixteenth century, have been used to assist in identifying Guanahani. These
are, however, at second-hand or third-hand. The reports of Peter Martyr, Las Casas,
Oviedo, and Herrera, for example, are derivative. Further, the Juan de la Cosa map,
ostensibly made in 1500 by a pilot and cartographer of Columbus's Second Voyage,
and intensely studied in an effort to determine the identity of Guanahani, is a copy
generally considered to have been made after 1508 and possibly as late as c. 1530.
6
Similarly, the biography of Columbus by his son, Fernando, is a late sixteenth century
Italian translation of a lost Spanish original.
7
There is, however, a large body of first-hand, eyewitness evidence that has not often
been used to assist in determining the Landfall Island. This evidence, collectively
known as
Los Pleitos de Colon
(the Columbus Lawsuits), is the testimony given in the
suit between the Spanish Crown and the Columbus family. The intent of this suit,
brought by the Crown, was to prove that Martin Alonso Pinzon was actually the moti-
vating force behind the First Voyage and, thus, relegate Columbus to a lesser role. This
would relinquish the Spanish Crown of its obligation to grant privileges to Columbus's
heirs according to the agreements made with him. The suit was begun in 1513 and
finally resolved in 1536, though cadet branches of the Colon family continued with
suits of a related nature until the end of the eighteenth century.8 The witnesses who
gave testimony included participants of the Four Voyages of Columbus and of the so-
called "minor voyages" to South America and the Caribbean, including the first inde-
pendent voyage of Vicente Yanez Pinzon in 1499-1500.
Some of this testimony from these Spanish mariners of the early voyages to the New
World relates to the side trip of Martin Alonso Pinzon and the
Pinta
from November
21, 1492, to January 6, 1493, during the First Voyage of Columbus. Pinzon, second-
for the First Voyage (Tucson, 1991). For this paper, the edition of the Diario by Dunn and Kelley, which
has deservedly become the standard English translation, has been used.
4Dunn and Kelley, Diario, pp. 19, 21.
~See note 3 above.
6George E. Nunn, The Mappemonde of Juan de la Cosa: A Critical Investigation of Its Date (Jenkintown,
Pennsylvannia, 1934); Bernard G. Hoffman, Cabot to Cartier: Sources for a Historical Ethnography for
Northeastern North America 1497-1550 (Toronto, 1961), pp. 87-97; Kenneth Nebenzahl, Atlas of Colum-
bus and the Great Discoveries (Chicago, 1990), p. 30.
7Fernando Colon, Historie Del S. D. Fernando Colombo; Nelle quali s'ha particolare,
&
vera relatione
della vita,
&
de' fatti dell'Ammiraglio D. Christoforo Colombo, suo padre ... (Venice, 1571); translated
into English by Benjamin Keen, The Life of the Admiral Christopher Columbus by His Son, Ferdinand
(New Brunswick, New Jersey, 1959).
8Washington Irving, The History of the Life and Voyages of Christopher Columbus (London, 1828), Appen-
dix No.2; Morison, Journals, p. 188; Paolo Emilio Taviani, Christopher Columbus: The Grand Design
(London, 1985), p. 391.
80
Published by Maney Publishing (c) The Soceity for the History of Discoveries
in-command of the fleet and captain of the Pinta, sailed away from Columbus and the
other ships intending to find the island of Babeque which he and Columbus had heard
about from the natives of Cuba.
The first-hand evidence of these eyewitnesses, and the hearsay testimony of other
participants of Spanish voyages, coupled with information from the Diario and from
sixteenth century Spanish maps, toponymies, and chroniclers, shows that during the
side trip of the Pinta, Martin Alonso Pinzon and the crew sailed to Great Inagua
Island, then around the south side of the Caicos Bank to the islands and cays· of the
Turks Bank, named one of them "£1 Viejo," and then sailed to present-day Puerto
Blanco on the north coast of Hispaniola. Pinzon was the first European to visit the
Turks Islands, and they became known to the Pinzon family, to Columbus and to the
Spanish in Hispaniola and Spain as Los Bajos de Babueca (the Shoals of Babueca) and
Las Islas de Babueca, or simply, Babueca.
Grand Turk Island is generally considered to be one of the more likely candidates for
Guanahani, the Landfall Island.
9
The evidence presented in this paper will, however,
show that Martin Alonso Pinzon was the discoverer of Grand Turk Island, which
Pinzon, Columbus, and the other early Spanish in the New World knew as Babueca;
that this discovery of Babueca by Pinzon was distinct and separate from the discovery
of Guanahani; that Columbus was not the discoverer of Grand Turk Island; that
neither Pinzon nor Columbus knew Grand Turk as Guanahani; and that, therefore,
Grand Turk Island is not the Landfall Island and can be excluded from consideration
in the Landfall Debate.
The evidence of the connection of Martin Alonso Pinzon and other members of the
Pinzon family to Babueca, £1 Viejo, and Grand Turk Island will now be presented.
This evidence is from the Diario of Columbus' First Voyage, Los Pleitos de Colon, the
Log of Columbus' Third Voyage, the voyage of Vicente Yanez Pinzon to the Bahamas
in 1500, the expedition of Ponce de Leon in 1513, and the surviving Spanish maps and
toponymies of the sixteenth century.
Evidence from the
Diario
of Columbus's First Voyage
During the First Voyage, after Columbus and the Pinzon brothers, Martin Alonso
Pinzon and Vicente Yanez Pinzon, in the Santa Maria, Pinta, and the Nina, arrived
in Cuba, they learned from the natives of an island to the southeast named Babeque,
supposedly rich in gold and pearls.
1o
When the fleet reached the eastern end of Cuba,
the Cuban natives Columbus had brought along on the ships indicated that Babeque
9Herbert B. Sadler, Turks Islands Landfall (Grand Turk, 1972), 1: 2-34; Robert H. Power, "The Discov-
ery of Columbus's Island Passage to Cuba, October 12-27, 1492," Terrae Incognitae 15 (1985): 151-72;
Josiah Marvel, "On the First Landfall of Christopher Columbus in the New World: Textual and Carto-
graphic Evidence Supporting the Hypotheses That It Took Place on Grand Turk Island," (Providenciales,
1990), typescript, pp. 3-25; Josiah Marvel and Robert H. Power, "In Quest of Where America Began: The
Case for Grand Turk," American History Illustrated 25 (1991): 48-69.
IOSamuel Eliot Morison, Admiral of the Ocean Sea (Boston, 1942), p. 255; Samuel Eliot Morison, The
r;uropean Discovery of America: The Southern Voyages A.D. 1492-1616 (New York, 1974), p. 74; Dunn
and Kelley, Diario, pp. 141,143,149,151,165.
81
Published by Maney Publishing (c) The Soceity for the History of Discoveries
lay to the northeast.
l1
From the directions and distances given to Columbus by the
Cuban natives, and later, by the natives of Hispaniola, the island of Babeque was
Great Inagua Island.12
During the night of November 21, Martin Alonso Pinzon and the crew of the Pinta
took off without the knowledge or permission of Columbus to find Babeque and gold.13
The route the Pinta was sailing on the night of November
21
and the morning of
November
22
would have taken Pinzon to Great Inagua Island.
The placenames
Babeque, Baveque, Baneque, Vaneque,
and
Veneque14
were used by
the natives of Cuba and by Columbus for an island to the northeast or east of Cuba
and, hence, north of Hispaniola. It is usually identified with the present-day Great
Inagua Island.15
Babueca, Bubulca,16 Babura,17 Baburca1S
and other similar names, were also used
by the Spanish, and later by other Europeans, for an island, a group of islands, and a
shoal or bank, also to the north of Hispaniola.
As was true for so many of the names used by the Spanish in the sixteenth century
for the islands of the Lucayos, or Bahamian archipelago, the names, Babeque and
Babueca, come from native Taino words or placenames. Perhaps, Babeque and
Babueca were the same island.19 To add to the confusion,
Habacoa
and
Yabeque
were
names also used for islands in the Bahamian archipelago by the Spanish of the six-
teenth century, the former being used for the present-day Andros Island,20 and the
latter for an island in the southern Bahamas not yet clearly identified, but, often sup-
posed to be the present-day Acklins Island.21
llDunn and Kelley, Diario, p. 199.
12Dunn and Kelley, Diario, pp. 141, 149, 151, 161, 165, 199,233,239.
13Dunn and Kelley, Diario, p. 165.
14The first occurrence in the Diario of this placename is as Baveque; Dunn and Kelley, Diario, p. 140.
Subsequent spellings and occurrences in Dunn and Kelley, Diario, are: Babeque, p. 142; Veneque, p. 148;
Vaneq, p. 150; Vaneque, p. 164; and Baneq, p. 216. Carlos Sanz, Diario de Colon: Libro de la Primera
Navegacion y Descubrimiento, 2 vols. (Madrid, 1962), reads Beneque, Baneq, and Baneque where Dunn
and Kelley read Veneque, Vaneq, and Vaneque. Morison,Journals, p. 93, gives Babenque. William Giles
Nash, America: The True History of Its Discovery (London, 1924), p. 232, has Babeche.
IIiFuson, "Legacy of Poor Transcription," pp. 59-60, suggests the Lucayan island name Yabeque, used by the
sixteenth century Spanish to apparently denote Acklins Island, is from Babeque.
16Martin Fernandez Navarrete, Coleccion de los Viajes y Descubrimientos Que Hicieron por Mar los Espa-
noles (Buenos Aires, 1945), 3: 554; Antonio Muro Orejon, Pleitos Colombinos (Seville, 1964-89), 1: 139.
Harrisse, Discovery, p. 758, cites a slightly different spelling - Baxos de Bulbulca - in Navarrete, Colecciim
(First Edition, 1829), pp. 570-71.
17Navarrete, Coleccion (1945), 3: 40, 559; Columbus Casebook: A Supplement to "Where Columbus Found
the New World" (Washington, D.C., 1986), p. 63; Morison, Southern Voyages, p. 214.
18Navarrete, Coleccion (First Edition, 1829), 3: 576, cited in Josiah Marvel, "The First Independent Voyage
of Vicente Yanez Pinzon," HRD News 2, 1 (January-February 1990): 8, 10, n. 16. See also Josiah Marvel,
Lucaiarum Tabula Onomastica (Providenciales, Turks and Caicos Islands, 1988), typescript, p. 30.
19The identification of these two islands with each other has often been made; for example, Henry Harrisse,
The Discovery of North America (Paris, 1892; reprint, Amsterdam, 1961), p. 757, and Fuson, "A Legacy of
Poor Transcription," pp. 59-60.
20James E. Kelley, Jr., "The Map of the Bahamas Implied by Chaves's Derrotero: What is Its Relevance to
the First Landfall Question?" Imago Mundi 42 (1990): 34, 37, 48, n. 198; Marvel, Lucaiarum, "Revised
Table of Lucayan Island Names." Habacoa was frequently named Babacoa on maps depicting the West
Indies, e.g., Caverio of c. 1505 and most of the subsequent maps and globes of the Lusitano-Germanic
tradition.
21Kelley, "Derrotero," pp. 32-33, discusses the problem of identifying Yabeque. The name was also used by
the sixteenth century Spanish, for example, Alonso de Santa Cruz, Isolario General de Todas las Islas del
82
Published by Maney Publishing (c) The Soceity for the History of Discoveries
Although it is not certain that Babeque is Great Inagua Island, it should be noted
that three of the earliest maps to depict the West Indies have names for Great Inagua
that appear to be somewhat similar to Babeque. These are Baoruco on the Juan de la
Cosa map of c. 1500-30,22 Bauejuco on the Cantino map of 1502, and Baronai on the
Pesaro (Oliveri ana) map of c. 1502-10. The present-day name of Inagua for this island
is first shown on a map on the Egerton MS. 2803 of c. 1510.23
Columbus states in the Diario that Martin Alonso Pinzon first sailed to Babeque,
but, not finding any gold there, he followed the instructions of the natives there and
sailed on to Hispaniola, arriving at a river mouth about 15 leagues east of the town of
Navidad.24 The Diario does not make clear if there were any other stops on Pinzon's
excursion between Great Inagua Island and this river mouth on the north coast of
Hispaniola. Pinzon's arrival date in Hispaniola is stated to be more than 20 days
before his reunion with Columbus on January 6, making the arrival date about De-
cember 18 or earlier.2~ From Columbus's son, Ferdinand, we learn that Pinzon stayed
at the river mouth for sixteen days.26 Allowing a couple or so days for the Pinta to sail
to meet Columbus at Monte Cristi on January 6, the arrival date of the Pinta, accord-
ing to Ferdinand, would have also been about December 18.
In the meantime, Columbus in the
Santa Maria
and Martin Alonso Pinzon's
brother, Vicente Yanez Pinzon, in the Nina, arrived on the north coast of Hispaniola.
Columbus and the cacique Guacanagari, his Taino host at Caracol Bay, learned on
December
27
from other natives that Pinzon and the Pinta were anchored at a river
mouth to the east and were trading for gold with the local people.27 Guacanagari sent
one of his men in a canoe to investigate and Columbus sent one of his men along with
him.28 On December 30 a native arrived who said that he had left the Pinta in a
harbor to the east two days before.
29
On January 1, the canoe returned with the sailor,
who said that they had traveled 20 leagues without seeing the Pinta.
30
When Pinzon learned through the native "grapevine" that Columbus had arrived in
Hispaniola and had lost his flagship, the Santa Maria, on a reef, Pinzon and the crew
of the Pinta sailed west towards Columbus, rejoining the expedition on January
6
near
Monte Cristi.31 This side trip of the Pinta lasted for seven weeks,32 from November 21,
Mundo (Madrid, 1920), p. 476, for the present-day ile-a- Vaehe on the south coast of Hispaniola.
22Kelley, "Derrotero," p. 46, n. 42.
23Actually spelled iuagua on the Egerton. See Arthur Davies, "The Egerton MS. 2803 Map and the Padron
Real of Spain in 1510," Imago Mundi 11 (1954), map facing p. 50; Marvel, Lucaiarum, p. 20; and, Kim
Dian Gainer, "The Cartographic Evidence for the Columbus Landfall," Terrae Incognitae 20 (1988), p.
48. The island name "Inagua" is apparently derived by the Spanish from the Arawakan iuana, meaning
"iguana."
24Dunn and Kelley, Diario, p. 313; Keen, Life, p. 87.
2~Dunn and Kelley, Diario, p. 313.
26Keen,
Life,
p. 87.
27Dunn and Kelley, Diario, pp. 293, 297, 299.
28Dunn and Kelley, Diario, p. 293.
29Dunn and Kelley, Diario, p. 297.
30Dunn and Kelley, Diario, p. 299. Columbus wrote (Dunn and Kelley, Diario, p. 313) that he believed that
the Pinta left the river mouth to sail to Columbus's location because of the arrival of the sailor in the canoe,
which would have been about December 30.
31Dunn and Kelley, Diario, p. 311.
32Morison, Southern Voyages, p. 81, incorrectly states that it was three weeks.
83
Published by Maney Publishing (c) The Soceity for the History of Discoveries
1492, to January 6, 1493.
Later, on January 10, after Pinzon and the Pinta had rejoined Columbus and they
were sailing east along the north coast of Hispaniola, they came to the river mouth
where the Pinta had stayed. During their stay at this river mouth, Pinzon and his crew
were ·able to obtain gold by trading with the natives on the coast and also by a trading
and exploring expedition into the interior of Hispaniola (the area Columbus came to
know as Cibao).33 Pinzon had, during the stay of the Pinta there, named the river
mouth Rio
y
Puerto de Martin Alonso, after himself.34 It is the present-day Puerto
Blanco, about ten kilometers east of Cape Isabela, the northernmost point of the island
of Hispaniola and near the later site of the settlement of Isabela founded by Columbus
on the Second Voyage.3~ Columbus renamed the river Rio de Gracia,36 apparently in
commemoration of his forgiving Martin Alonso Pinzon his insubordinate behavior in
abandoning the expedition without permission on the night of November 21. The river
and river mouth were known, however, to the Spanish for sometime after by the name
Pinzon had given it,37
What was the route of the Pinta from Great Inagua to Puerto Blanco? Where did
the Pinta go during the time from the third week of November to the middle of
December?
The arrival point of the Pinta in Hispaniola was at or near Puerto Blanco. Pinzon
was looking for gold. We must suppose that the Pinta, if it had sailed directly from
Great Inagua southeast to Hispaniola, would have made stops along the coast of His-
paniola between Tortuga and Monte Cristi inquiring after gold before arriving at Pu-
erto Blanco by December 18. The natives along the coast of Hispaniola between Tor-
tuga and Puerto Blanco did not know of Pinzon and the Pinta until December 27. It
was then that they received the news of his presence at Puerto Blanco.38 They did not
receive this information until a week after they had already encountered Columbus
along the north coast of Hispaniola. The presence of Pinzon and the crew of the Pinta
on the north coast of Hispaniola was news to them which they communicated to Co-
lumbus, and if Pinzon had sailed along the coast of Hispaniola from Tortuga to Puerto
Blanco, the natives would have known and related this to Columbus.
In addition, the natives of Cuba had shown great concern and apprehension about
going with the Columbus expedition to Hispaniola because of their fear of the Caribs,38
and it is not unreasonable to suppose that the Cuban native who was guiding the Pinta
to Babeque would have continued to seek to avoid the north coast of Hispaniola, and,
33Nash, America, pp. 123, 127, 152; Dunn and Kelley, Diario, pp. 313, 315; Morison, Southern Voyages, p.
81.
3"Dunn and Kelley, Diario, pp. 321, 323.
35Samuel Eliot Morison, "The Route of Columbus Along the North Coast of Haiti, and the Site of
Navidad," Transactions of the American Philosophical Society 31, pt. 4 (December, 1940), p. 285; Mori-
son, ADS, p. 310. Also, from the description of the location of Rio de Martin Alonso given in Chaves'
toponymy, it is identifiable as Puerto Blanco. See Paulino Castaneda, M. Cuesta, and P. Hernandez,
Alonso de Chaves y el Libro IV de su "Espejo de Navegantes" (Madrid, 1977), pp. 73-74.
36Dunn and Kelley, Diario, p.
321.
37See, for example, the illustration of "Puerto de Martin Alonso" from Luz de Navegantes, written in 1592,
by de Vellerino de Villalobos, shown in Juan Manzano Manzano, Los Pinzones
y
el Descubrimiento de
America, 3 vols. (Madrid, 1988), 1: pI. 4.
38Dunn and Kelley, Diario, p. 293.
39Dunn and Kelley, Diario, p. 201.
84
Published by Maney Publishing (c) The Soceity for the History of Discoveries
therefore, direct the Pinta elsewhere. Therefore, Pinzon did not sail directly from
Great Inagua to Hispaniola and then along the north coast of Hispaniola to Puerto
Blanco.
4o
Evidence from
Los Pleitos de Colon
The itinerary of the side trip of Pinzon and the Pinta between November
21
(when
they departed from Columbus) and December
18
(the latest date of the arrival of the
Pinta at Puerto Blanco in Hispaniola) is given in the testimony in the Pleitos de Co-
lon,
the suit between the Columbus family and the Spanish Crown.
Francisco Garcia Vallejos, a mariner on Columbus's First Voyage,41 gave the follow-
ing testimony regarding the seven-week side trip of Pinzon in the Pinta to Babueca:
Vna noche el dicho Martin Alonso se despidio e partio del almirante e se fue a
dar a vna ysla que se llama Babueca ...
42
[One night [November
21]
the said
Martin Alonso (Pinzon] dispatched and parted from the Admiral [Columbus] and
he went to give to [the Admiral?] an island that he named Babueca .... ]
Fernando de Valladolid testified in Madrid on May 9,
1516
that:
. . . vna noche se despartyeron vnos de otros y quel dicho Martin Alonso se fue
por vna vanda y descobrio la ysla espanola con otras syete yslas de los baxos de
babueca ...
43 [•••
one night [November
21]
they [Columbus and Pinzon] sepa-
rated from each other and the said Martin Alonso [Pinzon] went on one side and
discovered the island Espanola along with seven other islands of the Shoals of
Babueca ....
J
Las Casas, in his Historia de las Indias, also mentions that Martin Alonso Pinzon
discovered the seven small islands and shoals of Babueca during this side trip of the
Pinta on the First Voyage.
44
The evidence of these witnesses clearly indicates that before arriving in Hispaniola,
Pinzon sailed to Los Baxos de Babueca, i.e., the Shoals of Babueca, and there discov-
ered seven islands. A course by the Pinta from the east coast of Great Inagua
(Babeque) on November 22 to the Turks Islands (Babueca), presumably by sailing
around the south edge of the Caicos Bank, and then to Puerto Blanco (Rio y Puerto de
4°Morison, Southern Voyages, p. 81, states that Martin Alonso Pinzon and the Pinta, after calling at Great
Inagua (Babeque), "sailed along the coast of Hispaniola and anchored in Puerto Blanco," though the evi-
dence indicates a different route was taken.
41Alicia B. Gould, Nueva Lista Documentada de los Tripulantes de Colon en
1492
(Madrid, 1984), p. 59.
42Navarrete, Coleccion (1945), 3: 555; De los Pleitos de Colon, pt. 2, p. 220. Vol. 8 of Coleccion de Docu-
mentos Ineditos Relativos al Descubrimiento, Conquista
y
Organizacion de las Antiguas Posesiones Espa-
iiolas de Ultramar (Madrid, 1892); Gould, Nueva Lista, p. 145; rvfanzano, Pinzones, 1: 127.
43rvfuro Orejon, Pleitos Colombinos, 2: 106; Marvel, Lucaiarum, p. 32; Manzano, Pinzones, 1: 422.
HBartolome de Las Casas, Historia de las Indias (Mexico, D.F., and Buenos Aires, 1951), lib. 1, cap. 65,
(vol. 1, pp. 298-99).
85
Published by Maney Publishing (c) The Soceity for the History of Discoveries
Martin Alonso) on the north coast of Hispaniola by December
18
is consistent with the
data presented in the Diario and the Pleitos de Colon.
These same witnesses, and many others,45 testified that Martin Alonso Pinzon, while
captaining the Pinta, the swiftest of Columbus's three ships, discovered Guanahani, the
Landfall Island, on October 11, before Columbus and the Santa Maria arrived. The
witnesses regard the discovery of Guanahani by Martin Alonso Pinzon in the Pinta on
October 11 as a distinct and separate event from the later discovery of Babueca by
Martin Alonso Pinzon during the seven-week side trip beginning on November 21.
The two discovery events are not the same.
It is well known that for organizing and outfitting his First Voyage, Columbus had
to rely upon Martin Alonso Pinzon and his family, experienced mariners and promi-
nent citizens of the city and port of Palos, Spain. On the First Voyage, Martin Alonso
Pinzon was the captain of the Pinta and a younger brother, Francisco Martinez
Pinzon, was the mate. Another brother, Vicente Yanez Pinzon, was the captain of the
Nina. A fourth member of their family, their cousin, Diego Martin Pinzon, who was
known by the affectionate sobriquet of El Viejo, i.e., "the Old Man" or "the Old Boy,"
was a mariner on board the Pinta.
46
One of the Turks Islands was known as El Viejo to the Spanish of the sixteenth
century. Because we know from the evidence of the witnesses in the Pleitos that Martin
Alonso Pinzon and the Pinta, during the seven-week side trip, sailed to the Turks
Islands and that Pinzon's cousin, Diego Martin Pinzon, known as
EI
Viejo, was on
board, it would seem certain that the island in the Turks known as
EI
Viejo was
named for Diego Martin Pinzon.
The origin of the name
EI
Viejo for one of the Turks Islands has, until now, been
something of a mystery. It has been suggested that this name for Grand Turk Island
originated with Ponce de Leon, supposing that he could find only one old man, the last
native Taino in the Turks Islands, to assist him as a guide for the voyage through the
Bahamas to Beimini (Florida).47 It has also been suggested that Big Sand Cay was
named
EI
Viejo because it was a logical place for old people to be abandoned to die.48
One can perhaps imagine Diego Martin Pinzon on board the Pinta being the first to
sight Big Sand Cay, the first of the Turks Islands to be seen when sailing from the
southwest through the Turks Island Passage, and being honored by his captain and
cousin, Martin Alonso Pinzon, by naming the island El Viejo after him. This was
possibly an item of much merriment to the Pinzon family and the rest of the crew of
the Pinta after having seen Columbus give the previously discovered islands holy and
regal names.
Having an island or locale named after oneself seems to have been something of a
desired novelty of the time. The literature of discovery and exploration records other
4l1Navarrete, Colecciim, 3: 574; Gould, Nueva Lista, p. 202; Nash, America, pp. 229-30; Morison, Journals,
pp. 189-91.
46Pleitos de Colon, pt. 2, p. 368; Gould, Nueva Lista, pp. 114-18; Morison, AOS, p. 136; !Vfanzano,
Pinzones, 1: 242.
47Sadler, Turks Islands Landfall,
1:
50.
48James E. Kelley, Jr., "Juan Ponce de Leon's Discovery of Florida: Herrera's Narrative Revisited," Revista
de Historia de America, in press.
86
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examples.
49
Upon the arrival of the Pinta on the north coast of Hispaniola, Martin
Alonso Pinzon named the mouth of the river where the Pinta anchored for three weeks
Rio)' Puerto de Martin Alonso, after himself. Vicente Yanez Pinzon, during his first
independent voyage, that of 1499-1500 to South America and the Caribbean, followed
the example of his brother and named a river after himself-Rio de Vicente Yanez-
located on the northeast coast of South America and recorded on a map for the first
time as "Rio de Vicentianes" on the Turin map of c. 1520-23.
~o
This river is also
present on later maps, e.g., "R. de Vincente Pin~on" on the double-hemispheric world
map, Orbis Terrarum Typus de Integro Multis in Locis Emendatus, of 1594 by Petrus
Plancius.
Evidence from Columbus's Third Voyage
Perhaps due to the insubordinate and untrustworthy actions of Martin Alonso
Pinzon on the First Voyage, Columbus did not include any members of the Pinzon
family on the Second Voyage. On his Third Voyage of
1498
to South America, how-
ever, there were members of the Pinzon family sailing with Columbus, including Diego
Martin Pinzon-EI Viejo-again.
While exploring the mainland of South America at the Gulf of Pari a on August 8-9,
1498, during his Third Voyage, Columbus found a native with pearls. The following
passage is from Columbus' Log of the Third Voyage, as paraphrased by Bartolome de
las Casas:
Vinieron unas mujeres que traian en los brazos sartales de contezuelas, y entre
elIas perlas
0
aljofar,~l finisimas, no como las coloradas que se hallaron en las
islas de Babueca.
~2
[Some women came who were wearing on their arms strings
of small beads, and among them pearls or baroque pearls, very fine, not like the
reddish ones which were found in the islands of Babueca.]
49Some well-known examples are: Lanzarote in the Canaries, in Taviani, Christopher Columbus, pp. 306-
307; the island of Saona off the south coast of Hispaniola discovered by Columbus during his Second
Voyage and given to his friend, !vfichele de Cuneo of Savona, in !vforison, Journals, pp. 224-25; the island
discovered off the east coast of North America by John Cabot during his voyage of 1497 and presented to
his Genoese barber, in James A. Williamson, The Cabot Voyages and Bristol Discovery Under Henry VII
(Cambridge, 1962), p. 211; Labrador, originally a name for Greenland later transferred to the mainland of
North America, named after Joao Fernandes, an Azorean landowner, in Samuel Eliot Morison, The Euro-
pean Discovery of America. The Northern Voyages A.D. 500-1600 (New York, 1971), pp. 211-13; and,
the Painter's' Wife's Island, a nonexistent island drawn on a map by a cartographer to please his wife, in
Raymond Ramsay, No Longer. on the Map (New York, 1972),
p.
120.
MHarrisse, Discovery, p. 532; E. Roukema, "Some Remarks on the La Cosa Map," Imago Mundi 14 (1959):
44.
r>lAljofar is from the Arabic alehauhara and has been used in the Spanish language since at least 1250. See
D. Leopoldo de Equilaz y Yanguas, Glosario Etimologico de las Palabras Espanolas ... de Origen
Oriental (Granada, 1886), p. 203, and Joan Corominas, Breve Diccionario Etimologico de la Lengua
Castellana (Madrid, 1961), p. 42. The translation in Josiah Marvel, Lucaiarum, p. 9, of aljofar as "dew-
drop," a metaphorical and poetic meaning, appears to be anachronistic.
r>
2
Las Casas, Historia, lib. 1, cap. 134, (vol. 2, p. 19).
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In an added note, Las Casas gives this comment of his own:
Nunca supe destas perlasque se hallaron en las islas de la Babueca, que son cerca
del Puerto de Plata, en esta Espanola, estas mas son bajos debajo del agua, que
no islas, que hacen harto dano a los navios que por alIi pasan, si no estan sobre el
aviso, y asi tienen titulo Abre el Ojo.
~3
[I never knew of these pearls which were
found in the islands of Babueca, which are near Puerto de Plata in this Espanola,
and these besides are shoals below the water which [are] not islands, [and] which
do sufficient damage to the ships that pass by there if they are not on the lookout,
and, thus, they take the name Abre el OjO.54
Abre el Ojo, literally, "Open the Eye," meaning "Eyes Open!" or "Lookout!" (a
warning of rocks or shoals), was the name given by the early Spanish in the West
Indies to the Silver Bank and Mouchoir Bank combined together, though Mouchoir
Bank was sometimes included with Turks Banks as Las Bajos de Babueca. The earliest
known use, as
baixos deabreos olhos,
is on the Cantino map of 1502. The name, in
variously spelled forms, but usually as
Abreojo,
persisted on maps for centuries. 55This
name sometimes designated either the Mouchoir Bank or the Turks Bank or both, but,
was usually used for the present-day Silver Banks.56
It is evident that Columbus, in the summer of 1498, knew of the Islands of
Babueca.57 Presumably, he and Vicente Yanez Pinzon, would have learned of Babueca
from Martin Alonso Pinzon when the latter rejoined the
Nina
at Monte Cristi on
January 6, 1493. A glance at a map will show that the Turks and Mouchoir Banks are
immediately north of Puerto Plata. It is evident that what Las Casas had in mind and
was describing is the Turks and Mouchoir Banks. The confusion made by Las Casas
between Las Islas de Babueca, or Los Bajos de Babueca (Turks Bank and, sometimes,
Mouchoir Bank), and Los Bajos de Abre el Ojo (Silver Bank and, sometimes,
Mouchoir Bank) was common among the Spanish mapmakers of the sixteenth
century. 58
The connection made by Columbus between Babueca and pearls is of interest. Our
English word, "Baroque," denotes the period of ornate art, architecture, and music in
Europe from ca. 1550 to ca. 1750. Earlier, in French and English, the word ~~baroque"
referred to irregularly-shaped pearls, as the word still does to this day. The French and
English words derive from the Spanish
barrueco
and the Portuguese
barroco,
meaning
an "irregularly-shaped pearl."69 It has, however, been suggested60 that
barrueco
and
&3Las Casas, Histaria, lib. 1, cap. 134, (vol. 2. p. 19).
MMarvel, Lucaiarum, p. 9.
116Forexample, Jedidiah Morse, Gazetteer of the Western Continent (Boston, 1804), S.v. "abrojos."
&6Kelley, "Derrotero," pp. 46-47, nn. 67, 71, 72, 73, 74. Some examples are given throughout Willian H.
Tillinghast, "Notes on the Historical Hydrography of the Hankerchief Shoal in the Bahamas," Harvard
University Bulletin, 20, or II, 7 (October 1, 1881): 258-63, and NIarvel, Lucaiarum. The modern name,
Silver Banks, resulted from the successful recovery of treasure by William Phips (Phipps) in 1687 from a
Spanish shipwrecked on the shoals.
&7Marvel, Lucaiarum, p. 9.
58Examples of the use of the names Babueca and Abrojas for the Turks, Mouchoir, and Silver Banks are in
Tillinghast, "Hankerchief Shoal" and Kelley, "Derrotero," pp. 46, n. 67; 47, n. 74.
59The Oxford English Dictionary, vol. 1, p. 965, derives the words barrueco and barroco from the Latin
verrucca, and related words, meaning, "wart," "hillock," "gutter made by a water-flood," and "uneven
88
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barroco are derived from a Taino word for the reddish pearls of the Queen Conch
(Strombus gigas), found in the West Indies, and that this Taino word is closely related
to the names Babueca, Baburca, Babura, etc. This suggestion seems very plausible be-
cause the Taino word for "sea" is bara.
61
Columbus's interest in reddish pearls is shown in his copy of Marcus Paulus (the
Book of Marco Polo), published in 1485 and preserved in the Biblioteca Colombina in
Seville. Columbus inscribed the marginal note, "margariet rubee," i.e., "red pearl,"
beside the following passage in Book Three, Chapter Two, entitled "The Island of
Ciampagu" (i.e., Japan):
Ibi sunt margarite in copia maxima, que rotunde et grosse sunt rubeique coloris
que margaritas albas precio et valore precellunt ... [There are pearls there in
greatest plenty, which are round and big and of a ruby color, which exceed white
pearls in price and value ... 62
Columbus undoubtedly is thinking of this passage when, on August 16, 1498
(according to Las Casas' abstract of the Third Voyage Log), he refers to "perlas
finimas y perl as bermejas de que dize Marco Polo que valen mas que las blan-
cas.
"63 ". . .
the finest pearls and reddish pearls, which Marco Polo says are
worth more than the white."64
Evidence from the Voyage of Vicente Yanez Pinzon In
1499-1500
Martin Alonso Pinzon, captain of the Pinta, died very shortly after his return to
Europe at the end of the First Voyage. His younger brother, Vicente Yanez Pinzon,
was captain of the Nina, the vessel upon which Columbus returned to Europe from the
First Voyage after the wreck of the Santa Maria on reefs at Hispaniola. In 1499-1500,
Vicente Yanez Pinzon led an expedition of four ships to the coast of Brazil, being the
first European to visit that country. His cousin, Diego Martin Pinzon-EI Viejo-was
on this expedition also. Diego Martin Pinzon, then, was on three of the early Spanish:'
voyages to the New World-the First Voyage of Columbus, the Third Voyage of Co-
lumbus, and the first independent voyage of Vicente Yanez Pinzon.
Earlier it was suggested that the island in the Turks Islands named El Viejo, after
stony ground," and suggests a possible connection to the Arabic
buraq,
meaning "hard earth mixed with
stones, pebbly place."
6°Josiah Marvel, personal communication, 1990.
6lJose Juan Arrom,
Aportaciones Linguisticas al Conocimiento de la Cosmovision Taina
(Santo Domingo,
Dominican Republic, 1974), p. 13.
62Marvel, "Vicente Yanez Pinzon," p. 10, n. 8. The translation by Juan Gil,
The Book of Marco Polo: Copy
with Annotations by Christopher Columbus which is conserved at the Capitular and Columbus Library of
Seville
(Madrid, 1986), p. 84, adds the word
aljofar
to the translation without justification.
63Las Casas,
Historia,
lib. 1, cap. 148, (vol. 2, p. 67).
6"Morison,
Journals,
p. 282.
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Diego Martin Pinzon, was so named by Martin Alonso Pinzon during the seven-week
side trip of the Pinta in 1492. It is conceivable that it was, instead, so named by Vi-
cente Yanez Pinzon in the summer of 1500 when Diego Martin Pinzon would have led
his cousin and the fleet of four ships to some relative safety from a coming hurricane at
Hawk's Nest Anchorage, which he would have remembered from his visit there with
Martin Alonso Pinzon in the Pinta in 1492.65 Hawk's Nest Anchorage is in the midst
of the Turks Islands with Grand Turk Island and Long Cay to the north, Pear Cay
and East Cay to the east, and Cotton Cay and Salt Cay to the south. The seventh Turk
Island is Big Sand Cay at the extreme south end of Turks Bank.
What we know of the itinerary of this expedition of Vicente Yanez Pinzon has been
reconstructed from the information given in the testimony of participants in this voyage.
After sailing the coast of South America northeast to the Gulf of Paria, and in the
process discovering the Amazon River, the fleet proceeded, via the Lesser Antilles, to
the city and port of Nueva Isabela (later renamed Santo Domingo) on Hispaniola.
From there, the expedition sailed north into the Bahamian islands, lost two ships in a
hurricane, and the remaining two ships then proceeded back to Spain.
Pedro Medel, testifying in Santo Domingo in 1513, regarding the voyage of Vicente
Yanez Pinzon in 1499-1500, said "e de Paria fue a la Ysabel a vieja, ques en esta ysla
Espanola ... "66 ["... and from Paria he [Vicente Yanez Pinzon] went to Old Isa-
bella,67 which is in this island Espanola .... "]68
Pedro Ramirez, in Seville, in 1515, regarding this same voyage of Vicente Yanez
Pinzon, testified that:
. . . llegando a paria conoscieron la tierra unos hijos de Diego martin, sobrinos
de viceynte yanez pincon que yba en la caravel a gorda, al qual dixo que era pari a
e que alIi avia estado con el almirante colon, e los llevo a surjir en una ysla que
esta junto de tierra firme, que entro por ella la boca del Dragon e que de alIi
fueron a una ysla que hallaron, coriendo al nordeste, a la que pusieron nonbre
ysla de mayo, e de alli fieron su viaje e fueron a dar a la ysla de guadalupe, que
es en las honze mill virgenes, e de alli se partiron a san jan, e de san juan fueron
a la ysabella, e de alli fueron a otra ysla que dizen samana e a otra someto e a
otra maguana.69 [. . . reaching Pari a some sons of Diego Martin knew the land,
nephews of Vicente Yanez Pinzon who went on the caravel La Gorda, to whom
he [Diego Martin Pinzon] said that it was Paria and he had been there with the
Admiral Colon, and he took them to anchor in an island which was near Tierra
6l1Marvel, "Vicente Yanez Pinzon," p. 8; Josiah Marvel, Lucaiarum, p. 30: Manzano, Pinzimes, 1: 415.
66Pleitos de Colon, 1: 307.
67lsabela Vieja, or "Old Isabela," was the name given sometime after 1496 to the original settlement of
Isabela on the north coast of Hispaniola to distinguish it from Isabela Nueva, or "New Isabela," the
settlement founded by Columbus' brother, Bartolomew, the Adelantado, in 1496-97 on the south coast of
Hispaniola. When Nueva Isabela was rebuilt following its destruction from a hurricane early in the six-
teenth century, it was renamed Santo Domingo. Isabella Vecchia is shown on the map of "Spagnvola" in
Gian Battista Ramusio, Libri delle Indie (Venice, 1534). The version of this map from the 1556 edition is
reproduced in Justin Winsor, Narrative and Critical History of America (Boston, 1886), 2: 188; and in
Justin Winsor, Christopher Columbus and How He Received and Imparted the Spirit of Discovery (Boston
and New York, 1892), p. 369. See also Marvel, Lucaiarum, p. 59.
68Translation from Marvel, Lucaiarum, p. 26.
69As given in Marvel, Lucaiarum, p. 29.
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Firme, that for it he entered the Boca del Dragon, and that from there they went
to an island which they found, running to the northeast, to which they gave the
name Isla de Mayo, and from there they went on their voyage and went to land
at the island of Guadalupe, which is in the Eleven Thousand Virgins, and from
there they departed for San Juan, and from San Juan they went to Isabella, and
thence they went to another island which they call Samana and to another,
Someto, and to another, Maguana ...
70]
Anton Fernandez Colmenero (Antonio Hernandez Colmenero) on September 25,
1515, in Huelva, testified:
... que de ally se fueron a la espanola que se disce la ysabella e que el dicho
viceynte anez se partio de la ysabella que se disce xumeto y alos ojos dela babura
e de alli perdyron dos navios en bajos . . .71 [. . . that from there they went to
La Espanola, which is called Isabella, and that the said Vicente Yanez [Pinzon]
departed from Isabella, which is called Xumeto, and for the Ojos of Babura, and
from there they lost two ships on shallows ...
]72
The identity of Isabela, Samana, Someto (or Xumeto), Maguana, and other islands
in the Bahamas delineated in sixteenth century Spanish maps and toponymies, have
occasioned much discussion in the search for Columbus's Landfall. The name "Isabela"
was, in the early years of the sixteenth century, Columbus's name for the Fourth Island
(Samoet or Saometo) he visited on his First Voyage; the name of the second settlement
founded by Columbus on the north coast of Hispaniola; an alternate name for the
island of Hispaniola; the original name for Santo Domingo on the south coast of His-
paniola; and, an alternate name for Cuba on the Lusitano-Germanic maps. The multi-
ple uses of this name were confusing even in the sixteenth century.73 It is apparent that
the "Isabela" referred to by Pedro Medel is the settlement on the north coast of Hispa-
niola. Pedro Ramirez's use is not so definite; is it Hispaniola, the settlement on Hispa-
niola's north coast, or Columbus' Fourth Island? Anton Fernandez Colmenero men-
tions two "Isabela"s-one that is Hispaniola, the other that is Xumeto or Saometo, the
Fourth Island visited by Columbus.74
7°Translation from Marvel, Lucaiarum, pp. 29-30.
7lTransiation based upon Marvel, Lucaiarum, p. 30, except where that researcher, using material from
CJvL Dias, D.B. de Vasconcellos, and R. Gameiro, eds., Historia da Colonizaf;(W do Brasil, Edil;ao Mon-
umental Comemorativa do Primeiro Centenario da Independencia do Brasil (Porto, Brazil, 1923), 1: 210,
has barburca, babura has been substituted, based upon the following more recent works: Navarrete, Colec-
cion (1945), 3: 40: Morison, Southern Voyages, p. 214: Columbus Casebook, p. 63: Muro Orejon, Pleitos
Colombinos, 4: 202.
72Translation based upon Marvel, Lucaiarum, p. 30. Manzano, Pinzones, vol. 1, makes a distinction be-
tween the voyage of Vicente Yanez Pinzon in 1499-1500 and another one by him in 1504, apparently
hitherto unknown. Manzano asserts that the testimonies of Pedro Medel and Pedro Ramirez are in refer-
ence to the later voyage and only Anton Fernandez Colmenero's testimony is in reference to the 1499-1500
voyage. Other researchers, e.g., Columbus Casebook, p. 63, have concluded the testimony of these three
mariners is about a single voyage - that of 1499-1500. This issue warrants further investigation.
73See, for instance, George E. Nunn, The Geographical Conceptions of Columbus (New York, 1924), pp.
108-13.
7
4
Columbus records the Taino name in the Diario as Samoet, Saomete, and Saometo. Alternative spellings
recorded in the first three decades of the sixteenth century include Samoto, Someto, Sumete, Somete, So-
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Samana was apparently used at one time or another for Crooked Island, Rum Cay,
and the present-day Samana Cay.75 Someto and Xumeto were Taino names for the
Fourth Island visited by Columbus, the one he named Isabela. This name was appar-
ently used for either Long Island76 or part or all of Fortune-Crooked-Acklins Islands.
77
Maguana denoted the present-day Mayaguana.
78
The last place mentioned above by Fernandez Colmenero, Los Ojos de la Babura, is
a curious name. Some Portuguese and Spanish maps have both Baxos de Abre el Ojo
and Baxos de Babueca, the former designating the Mouchoir Banks and the latter the
Turks Bank, e.g., Kuntsmann No.4, probably made by Jorge Reinel and his father
Pedro in 1519; the Atlantic chart from the Miller Atlas, also probably made by the
Reinels in 1519; the Rutter of Alonso de Chaves of c. 1526; and, two maps of 1545 by
Alonso de Santa Cruz-wherein Baxos de Abreojo are the Mouchoir Banks and Baxos
de Babueca are the Turks Bank.
The placename Ojos de la Babura, from the voyage of Vicente Yanez Pinzon, as
recorded in the Pleitos de Colon, seems to be a combination of these two names-Baxos
de Abre de Ojos for the Mouchoir Bank and Baxos de Babura for the Turks Bank.
Many maps from the sixteenth century through the eighteenth century use both Baxos
de Abre de Ojos (Abreojo) and Baxos de Babura (Babueca) to denote a shoal region
combining the Turks, Mouchoir and Silver Banks.
Evidence from the Voyage of Juan Ponce de Leon
In Herrera's Historia General de los hechos de los Castellanos is contained a de-
tailed itinerary of the first voyage of Juan Ponce de Leon from Puerto Rico, through
the Bahamas, to Florida in 1513.
79
It is apparent from the details given that this itiner-
ary in Herrera was based upon the log of Ponce de Leon.
80
This itinerary has been of
interest to investigators of the Landfall Problem because it says that Ponce de Leon
stopped at Guanahani during his voyage of discovery to Florida and places the Landfall
Island in the central Bahamas, apparently as Samana Cay, San Salvador (Watlings)
mento, SarmentO, Sermento, Xumete, Xumate, Xomento, Xumeto, Zumeto, Jumeto, Iumeto, and Gumeto.
The name apparently persists in the Jumento Cays, an older, alternative name for the Ragged Islands,
discovered by Columbus on his First Voyage. See Harrisse, Discovery, p. 779; Marvel, Lucaiarum; Dunn
and Kelley, Diario, pp. 86, 90, 94, 96, 102; Kelley, "Derrotero," p. 45, n. 17.
75See Jacques W. Redway, "The First Landfall of Columbus," National Geographic Magazine 4 (1894):
179-192; Kelley, "Derrotero," p. 47, n. 127; Gainer, "Cartographic Evidence," pp. 45-47.
76Gainer, "Cartographic Evidence," p.
47.
77Kelley, "Derrotero," p. 47, nn. 118, 125; Marvel, Lucaiarum, "Revised Table .... "
78The name on the Juan de la Cosa map is maiuana, which Harrisse, Discovery, p. 771, identifies as an
alternate spelling of Maguana.
79Antonio de Herrera y Tordesilla, Historia general de los hechos de los Castellanos en las Indies, y Tierra
firme del mar Oceano, 8 vols. (Madrid, 1601-15), dec. 1, lib. 9, caps. 10-11. Various Spanish editions and
English translations of this part of Herrera have been made in the ensuing four centuries, some of which
are: James E. Kelley, "Juan Ponce de Leon"; Harrisse, Discovery, pp. 145-47; David Beers Quinn, ed.,
New American World (New York, 1979), 1: 235; Marvel, Lucaiarum, pp. 22-23); Columbus Casebook, p.
64.
BOKelley, "Juan Ponce de Leon"; Marvel, Lucaiarum, p. 22; Harrisse, Discovery, p. 145.
92
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Island, Conception Island, or Cat Island. In the present discussion, however, we will
instead look at another island visited by Ponce de Leon. This itinerary in Herrera
begins:
Hallandose Iuan Ponce de Leon sin oficio, por auer sido restituydos en
10
de la
isla de san Iuan, Iuan Cera, y Miguel Diaz: y viendose rico, determino de hazar
alguna cosa con que ganar honra, y acrecentar hazienda: y como auia nueua que
se hallaua tierras a la yanda del Norte, acordo de yr a descubrir hazia aquella
parte: para
10
qual armo tres nauios, bien proueydos de vituallas, gente, y
marineros, que para efeto de descubrir son los mas necessarios. Sallo de la isla
Iueues en la tarde, a tres de Mar~o, partiendo del puerto de san German. Fue al
Aguada, para tomar de alli su derrota. La noche siguiete salio a la mar, al
Norueste, quarta del Norte, y anduuieron los nauios ocho leguas de singladura,
hasta que el Martes a ochio del dicho, llegaron a surgir a los baxos de Babueca, a
vna isla que dizen del Viejo, que esta en veynte y dos grados y medio. Otro dia
surgiera en vna isleta de los Lucayos, dicha Caycos. Luego surgieron en otra
dicha la Yaguna, en viente y quatro grados. A los onze del mismo, llegaron a otra
isla dicha Amaguayo, y alIi estuuieron al reparo: passaron a la isla dicha
Manegua, que esta en viente y quatro grados y medio. A los catorze llegaron a
Guanahani, que esta en veinte y cinco grados, y quarenta minutos, a donde ader-
ezaron vn nauio para atrauesar el golfo Barlouento de las islas de los Lucayos.
Esta isla Guanahani fue la primera que descubrio el 'Almirante Don Christoual
Colon, y a donde en su primer viaje salio a tierra, y la llamo san Saluador.81
[Juan Ponce de Leon finding himself without public office, because of those [of-
fices] of the island of San Juan having been restored to, Juan Ceron, and Miguel
Diaz: and seeing himself rich, decided to do something with which to earn honor,
and increase estate: and as he had news that lands were being found to the north,
he decided to go to explore toward that region: for which he equipped three ves-
sels, well stocked with victuals, people, and mariners, which are the most essen-
tial to bring about discovery. He left the island Thursday afternoon, 3 March,
departing from the harbor of San German. He went to Aquada, in order to take
from there his course. The following night he set out to sea, northwest by west,
and the vessels made eight [Portuguese maritime] leagues in a night's run, by
sunrise. They went on sailing until Tuesday the 8th of the said [month), they
came to anchor at the banks of Babueca, at an island which they call El Viejo,
which lies in 221;20[north latitude).82 Next day they anchored at an islet of the
Lucayos, called Caycos. Then they anchored at another called La Yaguna, in 240
[north latitude). On the 11th of the same [month], they came to another island
called Amaguayo, and there they stayed jogging on and off. They passed to the
island called Manegua, which lies in 241;20 [north latitude]. On the 14th they
81Kelley, "Juan Ponce de Leon."
82The latitudes given for the islands, as with all the latitudes given by the Spanish on their maps and topony-
mies of the West Indies in the first half of the sixteenth century, are too high. The literature on this issue is
quite extensive. For some discussion of the problem, see James A. Williamson, "The Early Falsification of
West Indian Latitudes/' Geographical Journal 75, 3 (March 1930): 263-65; Kelley, "Derrotero," pp. 28-
29, 42; and, the references cited in Kelley, "Juan Ponce de Leon."
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came to Guanahani, which lies in 25° 40' [north latitude]' where they rerigged
one vessel for crossing the waters windward of the islands of the Lucayos. This
island Guanahani was the first that Admiral Don Christobal Colon discovered,
and where on his first voyage he went ashore, and called it San Salvador.]83
The narrative in Herrera of Juan Ponce de Leon's voyage continues through the
Bahamas to the discovery of Florida and the return of the fleet.
The locales and islands named in this itinerary of Juan Ponce de Leon have been
identified as in Table 1.
TABLE 1:
Selected Localities Mentioned in the Itinerary
of Juan Ponce de Leon with their Modern Equivalents
name in itinerary
San German
Aquada
Los Baxos de Babeuca
EI
Viejo
Caycos
La Yaguna
Amaguayo
Managua
modern name
Afiasco Bay or Mayagiiez Bay,
Puerto Rico
Punta Higuero or Aguadilla,
Puerto Rico
Turks Islands, Turks Banks,
or Mouchoir Bank
Grand Turk Island, Salt Cay,
or Big Sand Cay
Caicos Bank, West Caicos Island,
or North Caicos Island
Mayaguana Island
Plana Cays or Samana Cay
Samana Cay or San Salvador Island
In this itinerary,S4 Los Baxos de Babueca is clearly to be identified with Turks Bank
and the Turks Islands. The island named
EI
Viejo is one of these islands. The Turks
Islands, in their approximate order of size, and some of their former names, are as
follows:
Grand Turk Island (Grande Saline),
Salt Cay (Petite Saline),
83This translation, except for a few minor changes, is from Kelley, "Juan Ponce de Leon." The endnotes
accompanying the translation in Kelley have been omitted.
84The multiple identifications of these islands is due to combining the differing views expressed in Kelley,
"Juan Ponce de Leon"; Marvel,
Lucaiarum,
"Revised Table ... " and p. 23; Aurelio
TiD,
"Historia del
descubrimiento de la Florida y Beimini
0
Yucatan,"
BoLetin de La Academia Puertorriquena
2, 9 (1972):
21-22, 38-41; and Roberto Barreiro-Meiro,
Guanahani
(Madrid, 1968), p. 37.
94
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Cotton Cay,
Pear Cay (Breeches Island, East Cay),
Long Cay (Pelicans Island),
East Cay (Birds Island, Pear Cay),
Big Sand Cay (Great Sand Cay, Sand Cay, Sable Cay),
and various rocks, such as Gibb Cay, the Twins, Toney Rock (the Sentry),
the Mushroom, South Rock, and Endymion Rock.
Grand Turk Island and Salt Cay are the two largest islands of the Turks Islands
and are the only islands of the group that are presently regularly inhabited. Big Sand
Cay is the most southernly. These three seem to be the most likely candidates for the
island called EI Viejo. The names Babueca and EI Viejo continued to be located in
Turks Bank and the Turks Islands by the Spanish and others for some time.
Evidence from Spanish Maps and Toponymies
The placename Baxos de Babueca for the Turks Bank occurs on the Spanish maps
of the Sevillian School of H ydrography8~ during the first half of the sixteenth century.
These maps and toponymies by Cosmographer-to-His-Majesty Diogo Riberio, Pilot-
Major Alonso de Chaves, and Cosmographer-Major Alonso de Santa Cruz, were cop-
ied from the padron general (called the padron real prior to 1526), the official map of
the Spanish crown.
86
The Weimar planisphere, or world map, was made by the Portuguese cartographer
Diogo Ribeiro in 1527 while in the employ of the Spanish and has Baxos de
Babueca.
87
Two manuscript world maps were made by Diogo Ribeiro in 1529.88 In the follow-
ing year he made another similar map in Seville of which only a portion has survived.89
Ribeiro again made another similar world map90 in ca. 1532 in Seville. All of these
maps by Ribeiro have Baxos de Babueca as the name for the Turks Bank and are
believed to represent the official Sevillian hydrography.
The Derrotero, or Rutter, of Alonso de Chaves, of ca. 1526-38, contains a descrip-
8~For a discussion of this school of mapmaking, see Harrisse, Discovery, pp. 255-71; Edward L. Stevenson,
"The Geographical Activities of the Casa de la Contratacion," Annals of the Association of American
Geographers 17, 2 (June, 1927): 39-59; Davies, "Egerton tviS. 2803," pp. 47-52.
8
6
Harrisse, Discovery, p. 261-62.
87Tillinghast, "Handkerchief Shoal," p. 258; Marvel, Lucaiarum, p. 45; Armando Cortesao and Avelino
Teixeira da Mota, Portugaliae Monumenta Cartographica, 6 vols. (Lisbon, 1987), vol. 1, pI. 38; Harrisse,
Discovery, pp. 557-59.
88The two maps are known as the "Propaganda Map" and the "Weimar Map." The former is reproduced in
Michel Mollat du Jourdin and Monique de La Ronciere, with Marie-Madeleine Azard, Isabelle Raynaud-
Nguyen and Marie-Antoinette Vannereau, Sea Charts of the Early Explorers: 13th to 17th Century, trans.
L. Ie R. Dethan (New York, 1984), pI. 37 and pp. 223-24; and the latter in Cortesao and Teixeira da
Mota, PMC, vol. 1: pI. 40. For other references, see Marvel, Lucaiarum, p. 50; Tillinghast, "Handkerchief
Shoals," p. 258.
89Marvel, Lucaiarum, p. 51.
90Called the "Wolfenblittel B Map." Reproduced in Cortesao, PMC, vol. 1: pI. 41. See Marvel, Lucaiarum ,
p. 56; Harrisse, Discovery, pp. 580-81.
95
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tion of the sizes and relative locations of the islands of the Lucayan archipelago.
91
Chaves was the Pilot· Major of Emperor Charles V. The Rutter undoubtedly was
based upon the padron general, the official map of the Spanish crown containing the
latest geographical information. The configuration of the Lucayan islands and their
relative positions and orientations to each other according to the description given by
Chaves is virtually identical to that shown on the maps of 1527 and 1529 of Diogo
Ribeiro, and to those of Alonso de Santa Cruz.
92
The beginning of Chapter 7 of the Rutter gives the description of the geography of
the present·day Silver Bank, Mouchoir Bank, Turks Bank, and the Turks Islands:
1. The western and northern edge of Abre el Ojo Bank in the Lucayos lie in
21°%" N latitude. They lie 10 leagues east of the shoals of Babueca. They lie 26
leagues north northeast of Puerto de Plata. That is, the said [point] is the western
point of these shoals, where the channel is. These shoals are of quadrangle shape,
two ends of which lie east-west 34 leagues. The other two ends lie north-south,
20 leagues. Between these shoals and those of Babueca, where Amuana lies, there
is a channel which lies north northeast of Puerto Plata. It is 10 leagues wide.
These shoals are covered with one, two and three brazas of water. The currents
flow north northeast.
2. The northern margin of the shoals of Babueca, also called those of Amuana,
lie in 22°; the southern margin lies in 21 °YZ".They lie 10 leagues west of Abre el
Ojo bank. They lie 6 leagues east of the reefs of Caicos. They lie 20 leagues
north northwest of Puerto de Plata. They lie 20 leagues north northeast of Monte
Cristi. The channel of these shoals lies 30 leagues northwest by north of Puerto
Plata. This channel lies 28 leagues north by northeast of Puerto Real. These
shoals run 15 leagues from north to south, and 10 leagues from east to west. To
the north of these shoals is an island called Amuana. To the south [of these
shoals] is another, called Cacenu. Also, to the north of these shoals, to the west of
Amuana, are another two islets, one of which is called Canamanani, the other
Macariey. The currents flow north northeast.
3. Amuana island in the Lucayos lies in the northern end of the shoals of
Babueca.
4. Canamanani island in the Lucayos lies in the northern end of the shoals of
Babueca.
5. Macariey island in the Lucayos lies in the northern end of the shoals of
Babueca.
6. Cacenu island in the Lucayos lies to the south of the shoals of Babueca. The
currents among these four islands flow north northeast.
93
From the description of the location, it is clear that the Shoals of Babueca are the
Turks Bank. Abre el Ojo, as stated earlier, was the name commonly used in the six-
91
Kelley, "Derrotero"; Marvel, Lucaiarum, pp. 44-45; Castaneda, Cuesta, and Hernandez, Alonso de
Chaves, Chap. 7; Columbus Casebook, p. 65.
92
Compare the reconstructed Chaves "map" in Kelley, "Derrotero," facing p. 28, with Alonso de Santa Cruz,
Iso/ario, pI. 110 and 111.
93As
Translated in Kelley, "Derrotero," pp. 35-36.
96
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teenth century for the present-day Mouchoir and Silver Banks. Amuana was the ab-
original name for Grand Turk Island and was used by the sixteenth century Spanish
cartographers.94 Puerto Plata was the chief Spanish port on the north coast of Hispa-
niola. Cacenu was probably Big Sand Cay, the most southern of the Turks Islands.9G
Canamanani96 was the name for Salt Cay, and Macariey was the name for Cotton
Cay.97 The island of Caicos is one or more of the islands of the Caicos Bank, possibly
the present-day East Caicos.98
The latitude given for the southern end of the Shoals of Babueca-22Y2° -where
Cacenu (Big Sand Cay) is located is the same as that given for the island of EI Viejo in
the log of Ponce de Leon. The actual latitude of the southern end of Turks Bank is
about 21°8'.
Alonso de Santa Cruz, Cosmographer-Major of the Casa de Contrataci6n,99 wrote
the
Isolario General
in 1545. This work contained both maps and descriptions of vari-
ous islands around the world, including the Lucayan archipelago. The Lucayan islands
on the maps of Santa CruzlOOand on the maps of Diogo Ribeiro, and the map inferred
by the Rutter of Chaves are essentially identical and this implies that they were based
upon the same map, which, of course, would be the
padron general.
lol
The diamond
shape conceptualization of the Mouchoir and Silver Banks, shown in the maps of Santa
Cruz, was shown on the earlier mapsl02 and is described in the Rutter of Chaves. The
maps of Santa Cruz show the Baxos de Babueca in the same location as in the implied
map of Chaves's Rutter and the earlier maps of Ribeiro. The close affinity of these
three mapmakers is to be expected. Ribeiro was the Cosmographer to His Majesty/os
Chaves was the Pilot-Major/04 and Santa Cruz was the Cosmographer-Major.10
5
They
undoubtedly knew each other, were active making maps at the same time, and each
played a role in creating and maintaining the
padron general.
Oviedo, in his
Historia general de las Indies,
published in 153-5, gives a Lucayan
toponymy which is believed to also represent the official Sevillian hydrography /06 part
of which says:
... y desde la isla de Sanct Johan dicha Boriquen corriendo al Norueste
94Kelley, "Derrotero," p. 47, n. 82; Marvel, Lucaiarum, "Revised Table .... "
9l1Marvel, Lucaiarum, "Revised Table ... "; Kelley, "Derrotero," p. 47, n. 83, suggests Cacenu is either Big
Sand Cay or Salt Cay.
96Marvel, Lucaiarum, "Revised Table ... " and p. 10, also gives caiceman (or caiocman) as one of the
several alternate spellings. Kelley, "Derrotero," p. 46, n. 39, suggests, however, that caice mon on the Juan
de la Cosa map may, instead of being from the Taino language, be from the Spanish calce, "wedge" (from
the Latin calx, "heel"), alluding to a shoal on which a ship might become wedged.
97~1arvel, Lucaiarum, "Revised Table ... "
98Kelley, "Derrotero," p. 47, n. 88, identifies the island named Caicos in Chaves with the present-day West
Caicos. Marvel, Lucaiarum, "Revised Table ... ," identifies it with the present-day North Caicos.
99Harrisse, Discovery, p. 262.
lOOSanta Cruz, [solario, pI. 2, 110-11. See also Marvel, Lucaiarum, pp. 64, 69-70, 75-77.
lOlMarvel, Lucaiarum, p. 69, presumes the Santa Cruz manuscript map of 1541 is based upon the 1536
padron general of Chaves.
l02Kelley, "Derrotero," pp. 46-47, n. 67.
l03Harrisse, Discovery, pp. 262, 733-34.
l04Harrisse, Discovery, pp. 261,710.
lOIlHarrisse, Discovery, pp. 262, 736.
l06Marvel, Lucaiarum, p. 61.
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cinciienta leguas, estan los baxos que Haman de Babueca, y llevando la misma
derrota, adelante de los dichos baxos veynte
e
cinco leguas estan las islas de
Amuana ...
107 [•••
and from the island of San Juan [Puerto Rico), called Bori-
quen, running to the northwest fifty leagues, are the shoals named Babueca, and
taking the same course, further beyond the said shoals twenty-five leagues are the
islands of Amuana ...
J
The name Babueca, in time, became associated more closely with the Mouchoir and
Silver Banks and became an alternate name for Abreojo. A sample of the many later
maps which have the name Babueca are given in Table 2.
TABLE 2:
Some Printed Maps and Gazetteers
Having the Name "Babueca," 1635-1804
rendering of "Babueca"
"Abreojo, 6 Baxos de Babueca"
"Abreojo
0
Baxos de Babueca"
"Baxos de Babarca"
"Abrolho de Babueca"
"Baxos de Babueca"
"Abreojo
0
Baxos de Babueca"
"I. del Viejo"
"Bane du Mouchoir Quarre, called
also los Abrojos and formerly
Baxos de Babueca"
"Baxos de Babueca"
"Abrojos, or Baxos de Babuca"
map
Willem Blaeu, "Insulae Americanae"
(1635)108
Nicolas Visscher, "Insulae Americanae"
(1650)109
John Overton, "America"
(1671)
Arent Roggeveen, The First Part of the
Burning Fen, Discovering the Whole West
Indies, etc.
(1675)110
P. Coronelli, "L'Amerique Septentrionale"
(1689)111
Louis Renard, "Indiarum Occidentalium"
(1703)112
Thomas Jefferys, The West India Atlas
(1775)113
Bryan Edwards, "West Indies"
(1795)
Listed in Jedidiah Morse, Gazetteer of the
Western Continent
(1804)
lo7Gonzalo Fernandez de Oviedo y Valdes,
Historia General de las Indias, Islas
y
Tierra-Firme del Mar
Oceano
4 vols. (Asuncion, Paraguay, 1944), pt. 1, lib. 19, cap. 15 (vol. 4, p. 131); Manzano,
Pinzones,
vol.
1,
p.
421
n.
336.
l08Tillinghast, "Hankerchief Shoal," p. 259; Pierluigi Portinaro and Franco Knirsch,
The Cartography of
North America
(New York, 1987), pI. 86.
loePortinaro,
North America,
pI. 82.
1l0Tillinghast, "Hankerchief Shoals," p. 259.
lUPortinaro,
North America,
pI. 99.
112Portinaro,
North America,
pI. 105.
113Tillinghast, "Hankerchief Shoal," p. 261.
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Apparently, the placename Babueca was dropped from cartography around the end
of the eighteenth century and the beginning of the nineteenth century.
The Piri Reis map of 1513 is of interest because it contains a copy of a map made by
Columbus, probably in 1495-96, during his Second Voyage.1l4 The Columbus source
map, used by Piri Reis when constructing his map, depicted Cuba, Hispaniola, and the
Bahamas or Lucayan archipelago.
Off the north coast of Hispaniola on the Piri Reis map is an island with the name of
Barbura.
1l5
This name is very similar to the cognates of Babueca discussed earlier -
Babura, Baburca, Bubulca, etc. The identification of Barbura with Grand Turk Island
is further strengthened by the fact that the size of Barbura and its relative distance
from Hispaniola on the Piri Reis map is the same as Grand Turk Island is from
Hispaniola. To the west of Barbura on the Piri Reis map is, with a similarly accurate
shape and location, the island of Great Inagua, named Isla Verde on the Piri Reis map.
Also, the mysterious Tres Matos next to Barbura on the Piri Reis map may be the
Spanish for "Three Guides, or Landmarks,"1l6 something a mariner might put on his
chart, in this case, perhaps, indicating three cays that would be encountered when sail-
ing north from Hispaniola to the island of Babueca.
The presence of Grand Turk Island with the name of Barbura, i.e., Babueca, on a
Second Voyage map of Columbus made in 1495-96 cannot be explained if Grand Turk
Island were Guanahani. It makes sense, however, that Columbus would include onto
his map this island he and Vicente Yanez Pinzon would have learned about from Mar-
tin Alonso Pinzon and Diego Martin Pinzon after January 6, 1493, when the Pinta
rejoined Columbus and the Nina.
We may presume that Columbus did include information from other mariners onto
his maps. He is known to have done so during the Second Voyage when a portion of
his seventeen-ship fleet sailed along the east and north coasts of Puerto Rico while the
Admiral and the balance of the fleet sailed along the south and west coasts.1l7
1141nthe early 1930s, when the Piri Reis map was first studied, it was believed by the Turkish and German
scholars who studied the map that the Columbus source map used by Piri Reis was made in 1498 near the
beginning of the Third Voyage. The incorrect dating of 1498 of the Columbus source map used by Piri
Reis was originally suggested-by Paul Kahle in a series of books and articles, e.g., Die verschollene Colum-
bus-Karte von ]498 in einer turkischen Weltkarte von ]513 (Berlin and Leipzig, 1933), and has been
uncritically repeated since. Recent analysis of the Piri Reis map reveals, instead, that the Columbus source
map was made in 1495 or 1496, during, or shortly after, the Second Voyage. See Gregory C. McIntosh,
Columbus and the Depiction of the West Indies on the Piri Reis Map of 1513, paper presented at the
Twenty-fifth Annual Meeting of the Middle East Studies Association of North America, Washington,
D.C., November 26, 1991.
115Transliterations of the Arabic script placenames of this map are in Kahle, Columbus-Karle; Roberto AI-
magia, "I] :lvfappamondo di Piri Reis e la Carta di Colombo del 1498," Bolletino della Societa Geografica
Italiana 17 (1934): 442-49; Yusuf Akcura, Reis Haritasi (Istanbul, 1966); McIntosh, "Columbus and the
Depiction of the West Indies." Marvel, "Vicente Yanez Pinzon," p. 8, suggests Barbura, written in
Arabic script on the Piri Reis map, is an incorrect transliteration made by Piri Reis in 1513 of the Spanish
Babueca on the Columbus source map he used.
116Marvel, Lucaiarum, p. 25.
117Keen,
Life,
p. 117. This may have been the source of the unusual depiction of Puerto Rico with peninsulas
at the northwest corner seen on the earliest maps, i.e., the Juan de la Cosa of c. 1500-30, and the maps of
the Lusitano-Germanic tradition, e.g., the Cantino of 1502, Caveri of ca. 1506, Waldseemliller of 1507,
etc.
99
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Conclusions
Some questions remain unanswered:
Were Babeque and Babueca the same island? This may not matter in resolving the
Landfall Problem because regardless of whether or not they were the same island, it
has been established that Martin Alonso Pinzon and the Pinta discovered the Turks
Islands.
Was the placename "EI Viejo" given to one of the Turks Islands during the side trip
of the Pinta in 1492 or during the Vicente Yanez Pinzon voyage of 1500?
Based upon the evidence of the Logs of Columbus's First and Third Voyages, Span-
ish maps and toponymies of the first half of the sixteenth century, and the testimony
given in the Pleitos de Colon, we can make the following conclusions about Babueca,
EI
Viejo, and Guanahani:
1. After Martin Alonso Pinzon and the Pinta left Columbus's First Voyage fleet on
November 21, 1493, and before their arrival at Puerto Blanco on the north coast of
Hispaniola, they discovered the seven small islands of the Shoals of Babueca.
2. The discovery of the seven small islands of Babueca by Martin Alonso Pinzon
during the seven-week side trip of the Pinta was a separate discovery from that of
Guanahani.
3. Las Islas de Babueca (the Islands of Babueca) and Los Baxos de Babueca (the
Shoals of Babueca) are the Turks Islands and Turks Bank.
4. Martin Alonso Pinzon, while at Babueca, or the Turks Islands, named one of the
islands
EI
Viejo, probably either Big Sand Cay, Salt Cay or Grand Turk Island, after
his cousin and shipmate, Diego Martin Pinzon.
5. Columbus referred to Babueca in 1498 and Las Casas understood this to be the
Turks and Mouchoir Banks.
6. The location and identity of the Shoals of Babueca were well-known throughout
the sixteenth century to the Spanish in the West Indies and the chroniclers and official
cartographers in Spain, e.g., Ponce de Leon, Herrera, Santa Cruz, Chavez, Ribeiro,
and Oviedo.
7. Diego Martin Pinzon, during the voyage of Vicente Yanez Pinzon in 1500, revis-
ited the Shoals of Babueca and the island of
EI
Viejo.
8. Later, in 1513, this island was still known as
EI
Viejo to Juan Ponce de Leon and
his pilot, Anton de Alaminos. The name persisted on maps, apparently denoting Big
Sand Cay, for almost two-hundred years.
9. Babueca, as Barbura, one of its cognates, occurs on the section of the Piri Reis
map copied from a map made by Columbus in 1495-96.
10. Grand Turk Island and the other islands of Turks Bank were discovered by
Martin Alonso Pinzon during the side excursion of the Pinta on the First Voyage.
11. Grand Turk Island is Babueca, not Guanahani. Grand Turk Island is
not
the
Columbus Landfall Island and can be excluded from consideration in future efforts to
identify Guanahani.
100