Departing Chief Guacanagarí and the ruins of Navidad, in December 1493 Columbus’s fleet sailed back east along “Española’s” northern coast, searching for the optimal site to establish a permanent coastal base from which to launch the island’s invasion and conquest. He...

On November 28, 1493, 528 years ago, a search party dispatched ashore reported to Columbus that Navidad had been burned to the ground. As recounted in Columbus and Caonabó, Columbus soon would confront Chief Guacanagarí, who would deny responsibility and blame Chief...

As the moon rose on November 27, 1493, 528 years ago, Columbus recognized the landmarks indicating that the fleet approached Navidad, including the great cape to the west he’d named Punta Santa (Point Picolet, at Cape Haitien, Haiti), the line of reefs upon which the...

Columbus’s fleet departed Samaná promptly after the sailor’s burial on November 23, 1493, sailing west for the settlement he’d named Navidad on the first voyage (near the modern town of Bord de Mer de Limonade, Haiti). He’d left a garrison of men there with Chief...

Columbus’s fleet sailed from Boriquén (Puerto Rico) to “Española” on November 22, 1493, and last rites were given the sailor most seriously wounded on St. Croix. The next day, 528 years ago, the ships anchored briefly off Española's mountainous Samaná peninsula...

On departing St. Croix, Columbus’s fleet coursed east over the next few days toward “Española.” While primary sources differ, my estimation is that Columbus now held almost thirty indigenous people seized or taken aboard at Guadeloupe and St. Croix. Some were Caribes,...

After Guadeloupe, the fleet explored the archipelago of islands to the north. Columbus named one for the Virgin of another Spanish monastery, Montserrat, a second for the Virgin who worked miracles in Seville’s cathedral, Saint Antigua, and a third—as the day of...

At last! Columbus and Caonabó: 1493–1498 Retold goes on sale today! See the reviews of historians and others under Reviews, as well as purchase links to Amazon, Barnes & Noble, iBooks, and IndieBound (you select your participating independent bookstore)!

After Dominica and Marie-Galante, Columbus’s fleet anchored for a week (November 4–10, 1493) at the twin islands close to Marie-Galante that the Kalinago or Caribe inhabitants called Caloucaera and Couchoalaoua. Columbus named them as one—Santa María de Guadalupe...

At 5 a.m. on November 3, 1493, 528 years ago today, a lookout on Columbus’s flagship, the María Galante, sighted a volcano topping the sea mist in the moonlight. By dawn, islands of the archipelago now known as the Lesser Antilles came into view, and Columbus directed...