Description of Island III

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In the Diario, Island III is the best-described island in the Bahamas, and as such should be the easiest to identify.

Size

Before arriving at Island III, Columbus wrote that the island "may be" 28 leagues in length. After arriving at the island (but before actually exploring any of it) Columbus wrote that "I have seen quite 20 leagues of it and it does not end there."

Coastlines and the Movements of Columbus

Columbus arrived at a cape of Island III where the coast ran NNW and SSW. He marked time off this cape in the evening as natives came out in canoes to trade. The following morning, he sailed NNW along the coast runing NNW-SSE until he came to a harbor (see below). He tells us that the harbor is two leagues from the end of the island, but he does not say from which end the two leagues are measured. (A note here about Spanish usage: the phrase el cabo del isla means "the end of the island" but it can also mean "the cape of the island". So when Columbus says the harbor was two leagues from el cabo del isla, he might be referring to the cape at which he arrived. Or he might not.) When he left the harbor, his course along the island changes to NW. At some point thereafter, Columbus came to a coast that ran east-west. This is as far northward as he explored; at sunset on the night of October 17th, Columbus turned ESE under bad weather. The following morning, he continued trying to circumnavigate the island to the southward. He anchored that night at an unspecified place, but did not go ashore. To summarize, we have a cape with coastlines running NNW SSW; following NNW from there, a harbor 2 leagues from the end (or cape) of the island; from the harbor a coast runs NW until he sees a coast running east-west.

The Harbor

Columbus saw a "marvelous" harbor two leagues from the end of Island III, "with one entrance, or you might say two, because there is an isleo [small island] in its mouth. And both entrances are very narrow." Columbus at first thought the harbor was a river mouth, and sent boats into the harbor to look for fresh water. The harbor was not a river, and turned out to be too shallow to be very useful as a port.

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