The Great Name Exchange: Columbus, Watlings, and the Identity of San Salvador
For over four centuries, the identity of the first land sighted by Christopher Columbus in the New World remained a subject of cartographic confusion and historical debate. Today, the island officially known as San Salvador in the eastern Bahamas bears a name that, for most of post-Columbian history, belonged to its neighbor to the northwest: Cat Island. The legislative "swapping" of these names in 1926 represents one of the few instances where a nation’s geography was officially reconfigured to align with a historical theory.
1. The Original Identity: Guanahani and San Salvador
On October 12, 1492, Christopher Columbus made landfall on an island the native Lucayan people called Guanahani. In his journal, Columbus recorded that he renamed the island San Salvador ("Holy Savior") in gratitude for a safe crossing. He described it as a "small island," very flat, with "many waters and a very large lagoon in the middle."
However, as the Spanish focused their colonial efforts on the larger islands of Hispaniola and Cuba, the exact location of Guanahani faded from official records. By the time the British colonized the Bahamas in the 17th century, the original "San Salvador" had been lost to the fog of history.
2. The Reign of Cat Island (The "Old" San Salvador)
From the 17th century until the early 20th century, Cat Island was widely identified on European and American nautical charts as San Salvador. Several factors contributed to this:
Size and Prominence: Cat Island is one of the larger islands in the archipelago and features the highest point in The Bahamas (Mount Alvernia). Early explorers assumed the first landfall would have been a significant landmass.
Cartographic Tradition: Once an early mapmaker labeled Cat Island as San Salvador, the error was duplicated for centuries.
The Name "Cat": While many believe the island was named for its feline-like shape or the domestic cats left by settlers, it is more likely named after Arthur Catt, a British pirate who frequented the island’s shores.
By the 1800s, historians like Washington Irving and Alexander von Humboldt firmly supported the "Cat Island Theory," cementing its status as the site of the Great Discovery in the public imagination.
3. The Rise of Watlings Island
While Cat Island held the title, a small, bean-shaped island to its southeast was known as Watlings Island. Named after the pious buccaneer George Watling—who famously forbid his crew from pillaging on Sundays—this island remained a relative backwater.
The tide began to turn in 1793 when the Spanish historian Juan Bautista Muñoz suggested that Watlings Island actually fit the descriptions in Columbus’s journal better than Cat Island. Throughout the 19th century, researchers applied modern navigation techniques to "dead reckon" Columbus’s route from the Canary Islands. They found that:
The Lagoon: Columbus described a large central lagoon. Watlings Island has a massive interior lake system (Great Lake) that occupies nearly a third of its landmass; Cat Island does not.
The Approach: Log entries regarding the directions sailed after leaving the first island matched a departure from Watlings toward Rum Cay much better than a departure from Cat Island.
4. The 1926 Legislative Act: A Geographical Shift
The movement to officially recognize Watlings as the true San Salvador was spearheaded by Father Chrysostom Schreiner, a Benedictine monk who lived on the island. Schreiner was an amateur historian and navigator who spent years obsessively tracing Columbus’s logs. After being saved from a shipwreck off the coast of the island, he vowed to dedicate his life to its people and its history.
Schreiner’s lobbying was successful. In May 1926, the Bahamian Parliament passed the Bahamas Act No. 27. The law officially:
Renamed Watlings Island to San Salvador.
Renamed the "old" San Salvador back to Cat Island.
This was a seismic shift for residents. Bahamians born on Cat Island before 1926 still have "San Salvador" listed on their birth certificates. To this day, the small cay just off the coast of Cat Island is still named Little San Salvador, serving as a geographic ghost of the island's former identity.
5. Modern Controversy and Alternative Landfalls
Despite the official name change, the "Landfall Controversy" is far from settled. While San Salvador (formerly Watlings) remains the most widely accepted site—marked by four different monuments and a white stone cross at Long Bay—other theories persist:
Samana Cay: In 1986, a major study by National Geographic used computer models to argue that Samana Cay was the most likely landfall, suggesting Columbus’s logs accounted for different current drifts.
Grand Turk: Some historians argue that Columbus’s description of the "light in the distance" before landfall matches the geography of the Turks and Caicos better than the central Bahamas.
Plana Cays: More recent archaeological and navigational studies have pointed to the Plana Cays as a "perfect fit" for the distance and descriptions provided in the Diario.
Conclusion
The relationship between Watlings, Cat Island, and San Salvador is a testament to the power of historical narrative. Whether or not the 1926 Act "corrected" history or simply moved a label to favor a popular theory, it transformed San Salvador into a global historical landmark. Today, the island stands as a quiet memorial to the moment two worlds met, while Cat Island retains its rugged beauty and a name that whispers of its pirate past.
