Columbus's First Voyage: Palos to San Salvador and Back

The Franciscan friary sits on a rocky bluff over the meeting of the Tinto and Odiel rivers. Columbus came here in 1490 and talked over his plans for a voyage of discovery with the friars,. Two years later, on the morning of 3 August 1492, the expedition left the nearby Port of Palos, going down the Río Tinto and out into the Atlantic.

Three days out, the Pinta's rudder broke. The ships limped to the Canary Islands, where the Pinta was fitted with a new rudder on Gran Canaria, and the fleet met again at La Gomera. On 6 September they left San Sebastián de La Gomera for what turned out to be a five-week crossing. The Gothic Torre del Conde, 15 metres high, still stands in the town, and Columbus is listed among its illustrious guests.

Around ten at night on 11 October Columbus thought he saw a light like a little wax candle. Four hours later the sailor Rodrigo de Triana sighted land from the Pinta. They went ashore on the morning of 12 October. Columbus named the island San Salvador; its Indigenous name was Guanahani. Which island this was is disputed: San Salvador Island, renamed in 1925, is the usual candidate, while Samana Cay was proposed in 1880 and revived in 1986.

Location precision: Historians still disagree on which Bahamian island Columbus first reached; the pin marks the traditional choice, San Salvador Island.

On Christmas Day 1492 the Santa María ran aground on a sandbank off Hispaniola and had to be abandoned. From its timbers Columbus built a fort, La Navidad, and left 39 men in it, among them the interpreter Luis de Torres. When he returned on his second voyage, he found it burned to the ground with nobody in the vicinity. Archaeologists have found artefacts but no conclusive evidence of the exact site.

Location precision: The exact location of La Navidad has never been pinned down; the pin marks Caracol on Haiti's north coast, the area the article names.

Homeward, a storm forced Columbus into Lisbon, where he anchored next to a king's harbor patrol ship on 4 March 1493. Nearly a week of waiting brought a meeting with King John II of Portugal, who judged the voyage a violation of the 1479 Treaty of Alcáçovas.

Location precision: The sources name Lisbon but not the exact anchorage; the pin marks the Restelo shore of the Tagus.

Columbus arrived back in Palos on 15 March 1493. He brought back the previously unknown tobacco plant, the pineapple and the turkey. Spain had backed the voyage hoping for a western route to China and the East Indies, around Turkish and Portuguese control of the spice trade; he believed he had reached the Indies, which is why the Caribbean islands are still called the West Indies.

Location precision: The source names the port of Palos, not a quay; the pin marks the town.

Columbus then reported to Ferdinand and Isabella in Barcelona. He showed them small samples of gold, pearls, gold jewelry from the Natives, flowers, a hammock and a few Taíno he had kidnapped. The log he presented went to the queen, who ordered it copied; the original later disappeared.

Location precision: The sources name Barcelona, not the building; the pin marks Plaça del Rei, the old royal palace square.