On the 12th of October in 1492, Christopher Columbus discovered San Salvador, the Bahama Island's gateway to the Western Hemisphere. For the next three days he carefully recorded his landfall's characteristics for posterity, in particular the island's all-important harbor, which was large enough for "as many ships as there are in the whole of Christendom,” yet “no more disturbed than inside a well.” These two seemingly contradictory descriptions appear hyperbolic at first reading because it is physically impossible for a large body of water to remain as smooth as a well's surface, especially when almost constantly agitated by the unrelenting trade winds that sweep the Bahamas. The only logical conclusion is that Columbus must have been describing two distinct parts of that harbor; the first, an immense roadstead where ships could ride safely at anchor while awaiting their turn to enter the second part, a small inner harbor thoroughly sheltered from those pervasive trade winds and oceanic surges. In fact, Columbus sometimes did incorporate the outer roadstead when dimensioning a small protected inner harbor as demonstrated by his December 21st sizing of tiny “Puerto de la Mar de Santo Thomas” as “five leagues,” a span which does just happen to precisely fit the length of its protected, though unenclosed, outer roadstead.

While a number of the Bahama Islands have enclosed inner harbors snuggled behind large sheltered roadsteads, only a few of these are located near eastern approaches to this archipelago. For example, Abaco Island offers several suitable candidates, including Marsh Harbour and some of the island's off-lying cays. However, these Abaco harbors are all far north of the landfall latitude, and no reasonable track can be reconstructed from any of them to his subsequent discoveries. Far to the south of the landfall latitude, Cat and Long Islands each have several protected inner harbors located behind outer roadsteads, but it becomes even more difficult to establish a reasonable track from any of these. None of the favored landfall candidates, such as Watlings Island (“San Salvador”), Conception, and Samana Cay have harbors that come close to meeting the Columbus dual description. Some of the less known candidates, such as Mayaguana and the Plana Cays don't even have a harbor. 

Only one eastern Bahamas harbor satisfies both characteristics recorded by Columbus, and it's located within easy range of the landfall latitude on Eleuthera's Royal Island. This slender haven, shielded from the trade winds by large trees and limestone ridges lining both sides of its one-mile length, has a mirror-like surface that still beckons sailors to a serene respite from Atlantic storms. It's aptly described in “The Yachtsman's Guide” as “a beautiful, almost landlocked harbour that offers protection in any weather.” This description is in marked contrast to their observation that "There are no safe natural harbours on San Salvador,” whose Columbus candidate, the exposed Graham's Harbour, “always seems to carry a surge through it,” clearly a failure to match the smooth surface of a well.

The road stead fronting Royal Harbour also has room enough "for as many ships as there are in the whole of Christendom.” This centrally-located “laguna” offers ideal anchorage depths ranging between 10 and 20 feet over an area of more than 25 square miles, shielded to the east and south by Eleuthera to the north by a string of overlapping islets, and to the west by an almost continuous reef. This anchorage is actually much better protected than the smaller one on Watlings Island posing as “Graham’s Harbour.” Thus, Royal Harbour has a better match than Graham's Harbour with both parts of the Columbus description, an advantage enhanced by the following additional landfall evidence.

Landfall Latitude - According to his own Journal, accurate latitude sailing would have brought Columbus to northern Eleuthera, well within the 30-mile navigation error his friend Bernaldez cited as the absolute maximum limit for a competent pilot. An Abaco landfall would require twice this level of error, and it would have to be tripled to accommodate a landfall at Watlings Island.  

Juan de la Cosa Map 
A careful inspection of this small portion of the map will reveal 
that Juan de la Cosa used the native names for the islands. 

Juan de la Cosa’s Map - This earliest surviving map of the western hemisphere includes the only landfall image drawn by a voyage participant.  Despite its small size, his quarter-inch drawing of the landfall island reveals some unique congruences with Eleuthera's north coast, the route Columbus had to follow in his search for a safe anchorage. These important features include a narrow harbor entrance facing the trade winds (Harbour Island), the extensive shallows behind that entrance, and an equally-spaced triple-cusped shoreline matching Royal Island's unique northern coast along its exact bearing line.

Las Casas “Historia” - Unfortunately, Las Casas failed to include any description from that momentous night's circuit of Eleuthera in his Journal/ transcription. However, his later “Historia" does dimension the landfall island as "45 miles,~ an excellent match with the Eleuthera coastline Columbus would have viewed that night as he sailed to its first reef opening at Egg Island. Every other landfall candidate is far too small.

"una laguna in medio muy grande” - This simple Spanish description of the landfall island should be properly translated as "a large lagoon in the center,” a phrase strongly congruent with the centrally located road stead of northern Eleuthera. (This is not the only example of Columbus using "laguna. to describe a road stead.) There is no large lagoon on Watlings Island, and if any of its several lakes could be considered "central,” this condition would not have been evident to Columbus except from Indian maps, who's existence is incompatible with several other claims of the Watlings theory. For this reason, the many Watlings Island defenders have consistently pretended "laguna. is "lago~ (lake) in their attempt to force fit this important entry to their be ill-founded theory.

Sunday's rowing expedition to survey the harbor - His final day on the landfall island, Columbus organized a rowing expedition to survey for himself how well this important harbor would serve future Spanish needs. “I looked over the whole of that harbor and afterwards returned to the ship and set sail.”  His Egg Island anchorage was three miles from Royal Harbour, so a complete survey on its inner harbor would require less than eight miles of rowing, comfortably within the capabilities of a crew that had not exercised the required muscles for over a month. The postulated rowing route at Watlings Island is 21 miles plus another six or more to “look over the whole of that harbor.” The limited time span available for this inspection trip implies that a relentless Columbus would have driven his tired crewmen at three knots or more for a good part of the day at Watlings Island.

“went north northeast the length of the island....” - This harbor rowing expedition was launched from his anchorage near the south end of Egg Island, so Columbus had no choice but to follow the full length of its (exact) NNE coastline. In marked contrast, the proposed rowing route at Watlings is almost due north and only follows half the island's length. This appears to be the reason Watlings advocates has consistently misrendered “al luenga de la isla" as merely “along the island.”

“...to see the other part which was the eastern part, which it has.” This immediately following text accurately describes his dory's arrival at nearby Royal lsland, “the other part which was the eastern part, which it has.” The Watlings theorists can't fit this precise description to their candidate, so they have conveniently omitted the last part of the phrase in order to pretend that Columbus was merely describing the eastern end of their solitary island. Clearly, Columbus understood that every island has an eastern side, so he wouldn't have appended the specific “que habia” unless he intended to convey a more restrictive meaning - one that only fits the Egg-Royal combination.

“some of them brought us water" - For the first time the Indians of Royal Island offered the Spaniards some of their potable water that was copiously available on Royal Island, where they lived, but not on rocky Egg Island, where they first greeted Columbus. In contrast, there's no apparent reason for the Indians on Watlings Island to have avoided offering water to these “men from heaven” until they were supposedly rowing towards Graham's Harbour.

“called to us in loud voices to come ashore. But I was afraid, seeing 'una grande restinga de piedra' that encircled that island" - “Una grande restinga de piedra" is a large rock ledge, usually above water, but sometimes below water, if very close to shore.  Almost all of Royal Island's coast is a 6-foot-high ledge of jagged aolian limestone markedly differing from Egg Island's more hospitable shore. Ironically, this darkened limestone ledge must have reminded Columbus of Cabo Restinga's volcanic ledge in southern Hierro, his very last view of the Old World. Royal's jagged surface will still cut through shoe leather, so it surely was threatening enough to keep Columbus from accepting the native's invitation. The case for an underwater ledge at Watlings Island is weak because its broken reef clearly wouldn't have kept Columbus from coming ashore, even if he actually had been stubborn enough to row outside it instead of taking the shorter and easier route within its protective barrier.

"y entremedias queda hondo y puerto” - Translation of “entremedias” as “halfway” graphically pinpoints Royal Harbour's entrance as midway down the island's southern coast. Watling's supporters prefer to render this word as a fuzzier "between" the reef and the shore, even though the missing word for "shore. must be inferred here and such fuzzy descriptions were uncharacteristic of Columbus.

"and the entrance to it is very narrow” - The narrow entrance to Royal Harbour is less than 100 yards wide; the entrance to Graham's Harbour is more than a mile in width.

"to see where a fort could be made. And I saw a piece of land formed like an island, although it was not one, on which there were six houses; it could be converted into an island In two days" - While rowing back to the ship, Columbus noticed that Rat Cay, a three-acre islet Iying about 50 feet from the west end of Royal Island, was a strategic location for a fort. But while it was "formed like an island” its surrounding waters were so shallow that an enemy could easily wade across to a future fort. However, he must have observed that the channel bottom was soft marl in giving the very credible estimate that "it could be converted into an island in two days.” The Watlings candidate for this "island” is a mile-long treeless limestone peninsula that couldn't be separated in less than two months, even with dynamite and modern earth-moving equipment. Worse yet, this interpretation is based entirely on Las Casas' marginal note “peninsula.” Both Las Casas and the Watlings theory have ignored the simple fact that Columbus surely included this word within his extensive geographical lexicon, and, if appropriate, would have used it instead of his prolix 13-word description of Rat Cay's quasi-island status.

“near said islet, there are the loveliest group of trees that I have ever seen”- At the west end of Royal Island there are now several acres of coconut palms in an area protected from the trades winds and flat enough to store its copious rainfall. Five hundred years ago its indigenous trees clearly impressed Columbus and its fresh water was within 200 yards of those six houses on Rat Cay. In marked contrast, Watlings' windswept peninsula is treeless, and the potable water needed at those six native dwellings is available only from modern wells.

The evidence tying Columbus' harbor to Royal Harbour is strong and clear. Correction of the historical record requires a new translation of the Columbus Journal by unbiased scholars, and interpretation of that translation by competent yachtsmen.