In the Wake of Columbus: Islands and Controversy (TERRAE INCOGNITAE) - Hardcover

De Vorsey, Louis Jr. & Parker, John - Editors

9780814317860: In the Wake of Columbus: Islands and Controversy (TERRAE INCOGNITAE)

Hardcover

ISBN 10: 0814317863 ISBN 13: 9780814317860

Publisher: Wayne State university Press, 1985

The question of exactly which island in the Bahamas chain was the first New World landfall of Columbus has fueled numerous debates and fascinated generations of scholars. In fact, controversy has characterized discussions of the site since they began in earnest in the nineteenth century. In 1884, J. B. Murdock concluded that the location was Watlings Island. The late Admiral Samuel Eliot Morison supported Murdock's view and, largely as a result of Morison's reputation, the view became generally accepted.

In 1947, an alternative landfall-Caicos- was proposed by the late Commodore P. H. G. Verhoog. When Verhoog presented his views to The Society for the History of Discoveries in 1980, his
questions stirred other scholars and shortly the Society was at the center of a revisionist debate on the matter. This volume contains the results of those inquiries. In their research, the contributors employed a variety of techniques and perspectives from the fields of computer programming, navigation, history and linguistics as well as ecology and geography. Aiding their investigation was a new and corrected transcription of the only extant version of Columbus's journal, which in reality is an early abstract made from the navigator's own fuller but now lost account of his voyage and discoveries. A portion of that transcription, covering the period from October 10 to December 6, 1492, completes this volume.

As the quincentennial of Columbus's first voyage approaches, scholars and general readers alike will find in this book a number of thought-provoking viewpoints in the continuing debate over which island Columbus named San Salvador.

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Book Description:

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About the Author:

Louis De Vorsey, Jr., is professor of geography at the University of Georgia, Athens, and past president of The Society for the History of Discoveries. John Parker is curator of the James Ford Bell Library at the University of Minnesota in Minneapolis. He has been both secretary and president of The Society for the History of Discoveries.

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