Lucayan island of the first recorded landfall on 12 October 1492. It is represented at modern San Salvador Island for orientation, but historians have proposed several Bahamian and Turks and Caicos candidates, so the identification remains disputed.
Christopher Columbus led a Castilian-sponsored fleet west from Palos de la Frontera seeking a maritime route to Asia. It did not reach Asia. The expedition crossed from the Canary Islands to Guanahani in the Bahamas, explored parts of Cuba and Hispaniola, established La Navidad after the loss of Santa María, and returned to Spain by way of the Azores and Lisbon. The Caribbean lands it entered were already inhabited by diverse Indigenous peoples, including Lucayan and Taíno communities.
Sources and further reading
Journal of Christopher Columbus (During His First Voyage, 1492–93), Cambridge University Press. Published edition and English translation of Bartolomé de las Casas’s abstract of the lost first-voyage journal; the principal primary narrative for dates, courses, landfalls, encounters, and the loss of Santa María, used with awareness of its textual history.
1492: An Ongoing Voyage, Library of Congress. Curated exhibition placing the encounter within the already populated Americas and describing the lasting contact, exploration, conquest, and acculturation that followed.