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Sailing from Island I to Island II

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While anchored at Island I, Columbus learned of other islands in the vicinity from the natives. One of these, to the south or southwest, Columbus understood to be the source of the natives' gold. Columbus wrote of his intention to sail southwest when he left Island I. He set sail from Island I (which he called San Salvador) on October 14:

"I set sail and saw so many islands that I did not know how to decide which one to go to first . . . Therefore I decided to go to the largest, and so I am doing. It is about five leagues from this island of San Salvador, and the others, some more and some less."

But Columbus was unable to make this modest distance in the time remaining before nightfall, and he spent the night jogging off and on. The following morning, he started again for his target island:

"The tide detained me, and it was farther than five leagues, closer to seven. So it was already around noon when I reached the island, and I found that the face in the direction of San Salvador runs north-south and in it there are five leagues, and the other, which I followed, runs east-west, and in it there are more than ten leagues."

The Spanish word for tide (marea) can also mean a gentle sea breeze. This may be a better sense of the word here, since tidal currents are generally too weak to detain a ship, except in restricted waters. Others have suggested for the same reason that Columbus must have really been detained by a current.

I have elsewhere called this paragraph the single most important landfall clue in the Diario, because this is the only place where Columbus tells us the direction to Island I from any other point. If the north-south coast faces San Salvador (Island I), then Island I must lie due east of that north-south coast. Watlings advocate Mauricio Obregon has used this clue as a bludgeon against the Samana Cay theory, since the north-south coast of Samana's Island II (Acklins) most definitely does not face Samana Cay. Unfortunately, the north-south coast of Rum Cay does not face Watlings, either.

Islands that are east of such a coastline (Grand Turk and Plana) are given high marks in the scorecard.

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