"Columbus:  The Light of 11 October, 1492"
 
by:   J. Marvel, QH TCI
 
in:   "The Islands' Sun"  (March/April 1990, pp. 6+)
 
      The light reported seen by Columbus and certain of his
companions on Santa Maria the night of 11 October has provoked
possibly more controversy and suffered more confusion of inter-
pretation than any other event connected with the Landfall.  Some
have declared it nonexistent, others have pronounced it
irrelevant and still others have translated it exclusively to a
spiritual plane.  This is simply an avoidance of the textual
record.  Properly researched, the incident of the light is
important both as a clue to the site of the Landfall and an index
of the character of the Discoverer.  The object of this study is
to show evidence that the light was real, was observed as well by
men on Pinta and possibly on Nina, was recognized as evidence of
land but was insufficiently clear to warrant ordering the fleet
to change course.  After considering other explanations, the
writer proposes that the light was caused either by discharges of
marine bioluminescence occasioned by waves breaking over exposed
rocks on a shoal or by discharges of autumnal tropical lighting
above a large and high landmass.  The writer anticipates
examining these possible causes scientifically this Fall.
      The episode of the light has an important bearing on our
perception of Columbus's character.  If the light were an inven-
tion, the Discoverer's claiming the Sovereigns' reward for first
sighting land was greedy and unfair.  If, however, the light can
be shown to have been real, his claim was warranted, honourable
and correct.  It is therefore appropriate to identify and examine
the contemporary textual accounts of the light.
      The light is reported in the Diario of Columbus transcribed
by Las Casas, the Historie of Don Fernando (Columbus's second
son, 1488-1539), the Historia of Oviedo (Spanish courtier, Crown
official, and first chronicler of America, 1478-1557), the
Historia of Bartolome de Las Casas (moved to Hispaniola in 1502,
became an eloquent and tireless defender of the rights of the
Indians, 1474-1566) and at least one proceeding of the Pleitos
Colombinos, the long lawsuit between the Crown and the heirs of
Columbus.  To these are added the Letters Patent of 24 May, 1493,
awarding Columbus an annuity for being the first to find land.
      The relationships amongst these sources are as follows. 
Both Don Fernando and Padre Las Casas appear to have had access
to one of the two copies of the holograph Diario ordered made by
the Catholic Sovereigns.  this copy appears to have descended
from the Admiral to Don Fernando to Maria de Toledo (the widow of
his first son) and finally to Don Luis (his grandson).  In 1554
Don Luis received permission from the Council of the Indies to
publish the Diario of the first voyage.  But alas for all Land-
fall researchers, it was never published.  What became of the
manuscript thereafter remains a mystery.
      Don Fernando's Life of his father was certainly completed by
1539, the year of his death.  It is unclear when it was begun. 
Las Casas commenced his Historia near Puerto Plata in Hispaniola
in 1527 and is generally believed to have given it its final form
between 1551 and 1566, the year of his death at the ripe age of
92.  It is evident that Las Casas had access to Don Fernando's
manuscript Life and Oviedo's printed Historia.  The Life has come
down to us in the form of the Historie, an Italian translation
published in Venice in 1571.  Oviedo's Historia was first pub-
lished in Seville in 1535.  It appears that this work was begun
well before 1523.  It does not appear probable that Oviedo had
access either to a copy of the Diario or Don Fernando's Life. 
His information was gathered preponderantly at Santo Domingo in
Hispaniola and in part from the recollections of Hernan Perez
Mateos.  The report in the Pleitos is taken from testimony given
by Mateos from information he first received from his cousin
Martin Alonso Pinzon.
      Hernan Perez Mateos (a1455-c1540), native of Palos and
captain on Columbus's Third Voyage, gained his knowledge of the
First Voyage directly from his first cousin, Martin Alonso
Pinzon, Captain of the Pinta.  In 1536, at the age of more than
eighty years he testified in the Columbus Lawsuit that in March
of 1493 at the port of Bayona in Galicia he encountered Martin
Alonso returning from the First Voyage.  At the cousins' reunion
Mateos declared that Martin Alonso "le hiso relacion de todo lo
que avia pasado . . ., made him a relation of everything that had
passed" . . .  Regarding the light, he stated:
 
      . . . and in this manner they navigated another seven
      days, and overnight they saw a fire on some land that
      was called the Princesses and now is called the
      Lucayos; and this is what they told this witness and
      what the said Martin Alonso and his brothers recounted.
 
      Hernan Perez's testimony is not the only evidence of others
having seen the light, but in view of the politics of the dispute
between the heirs of Columbus and the Crown, it is very sig-
nificant.  Because of his connection with the Pinzon family and
the fact that he was a witness for the Crown, it is interesting
to compare his testimony with that of Francisco Garcia Vallejo, a
sailor on Pinta, whose deposition appears below.  One would not
expect Mateos to give testimony so supportive of Columbus's
version of the Landfall forty-three years after the event and
twenty years after Vallejo's deposition, unless it were true.
      Other witnesses are Pedro de Salcedo, Columbus's page, and a
sailor of Lepe deduced to be Pedro Izquierdo, one of four men
with criminal records on the First Voyage.  The incident is
recounted by Oviedo, who relates he heard it from Vicente Yanez
Pinzon and Hernan Perez Mateos:
 
      . . . And as night followed, he ordered the sails
      lessened and that they might run with only the low
      foresails; and going thus, a mariner of those who went
      on the flagship, a native of Lepe, said:  "Light...!
      Land...!"  And then a servant of Columbus, named
      Salcedo, replied, saying:  "This already my Lord the
      Admiral has spoken of"; and incontinently Columbus
      said:  "A while ago I spoke of it and saw that light
      which is on land."  And so it was, that one Thursday,
      at two hours after [sic] midnight, the Admiral called
      to a gentleman called Escobedo, repostero de estrados
      of the Catholic King, and said to him that he saw a
      light.  And next day in the morning, at day breaking,
      and at the hour that the day before Columbus had said,
      from the flagship was seen the island that the Indians
      call Guanahani, in the direction of the tramontane or
      north.  And he who first saw the land, when now it was
      day, was called Rodrigo de Triana, on the 11th [sic]
      October of the year already said of one thousand four
      hundred and ninety two . . .  And that sailor who first
      said that he saw a light on land, having returned
      afterwards to Spain, because they did not give him the
      reward, becoming enraged at this, betook himself to
      Africa and reneged his faith.  This man, according as I
      heard tell from Vicente Yanez Pinzon and Hernan Perez
      Mateos, who were present on this first discovery, was
      of Lepe, as I have said . . .
 
      Here then are accounts attributed to one sailor and a page
on Santa Maria and the captain of Pinta indicating that the light
was real.  Insofar as Oviedo relates that he heard the story of
Pedro Izquierdo from Vicente Yanez Pinzon (who died c1514) as
well, it would seem that the captain of La Nina did not disagree
that a light was seen.
      But not all the men who left a record of the night of the
Landfall mentioned the light.  Francisco Garcia Vallejo, a sailor
on Pinta, testified for the Crown at Palos in 1515 as follows:
 
      . . . Thursday the tenth [sic] of October the pilot
      Pero Nino spoke and said thus to the Admiral:  Senor we
      may not have this night to go because according as your
      book says, I find myself sixteen leagues from land or
      twenty at the latest from which the said Admiral had
      great pleasure and said that the reason he might say to
      Cristoval Garcia Xalmiento [Sarmiento], who was pilot
      of the Pinta, and he said it to Cristoval Garcia; and
      the said Cristoval Garcia said:  What do you command? 
      [Nino answered:] For my wont let us not set sails this
      night nor made for going as I find myself near to land,
      and the said Cristoval Garcia responded and said:  Then
      for mine set sails and go as much as we may and hence
      Pero Alonso Nino responded to him:  Do as much as you
      might wish, as I do not wish save to go behind you,
      when I were to see that you give voice, I have to leave
      me out. . . .  On This, that Thursday, in the night the
      moon became clear, and a sailor who was called Juan
      Rodrigues Bermejo, resident of Molinos, of the land of
      Seville, as the moon became clear, from the said ship
      of Martin Alonso Pinzon saw a white head of sand, and
      raised his eyes and saw land; and then rushed upon a
      lombard and it gave a report Land! Land! and they held
      the ships fast until day came.  Friday the eleventh
      [sic] of October the said Martin Alonso discovered
      Guanahani [the] first island and of this much he knows
      and he knows it because he saw it with sight of his
      eyes.
 
      Two other witnesses for the Crown testified at the same
interrogatory at Palos in 1515, who were not present on the First
Voyage but who had sailed with Vicente Yanez Pinzon on his first
independent voyage of discovery of 1499-1500.  These were Manuel
de Valdovinos and Diego Fernandez Colmenero.  Both gained their
information from Vicente Yanez and presumably other mariners of
Palos.  Manuel de Valdovinos testified:
 
      For what he knows of that contained [in the question]
      is that he heard tell from the said Vicente Pinzon and
      other men, residents of Palos, who went on the voyage
      that this witness went on with the said Vicente Yanez
      . . . that on the sun having set the said Colon
      [Columbus] said to all those who went there that they
      might look for land and that they would see it and that
      all the crew gone up by the tops and by the castles
      look until the sun occluded itself, and that no man of
      all the ships saw land save the same Colon at the
      setting of the sun, and he says that they said to each
      other:  Do you see it, Don't you see it? and that never
      did any one of those who went with him see it; and that
      at the changing of the first watch, the said Colon
      ordered watches made in the prows of the ships, and
      that going navigating at the next watch one Juan
      Bermejo de Sevilla saw the land, and that the first
      land was the island of Guanahani.
 
      Diego Fernandez Colmenero, who was Vicente Yanez's nephew-
in-law, having married Mayor, daughter of Martin Alonso Pinzon in
1496, testified as follows:
 
      He heard what is contained in the said question from
      the same ones who came from the said voyage, and that
      from the ship of the said Martin Alonso a sailor who
      was called Juan Bermejo saw the land of Guanahani first
      before another person, and that he asked the Captain
      Martin Alonso Pinzon for a reward; and that thus he
      discovered the land.
 
      It is necessary to remark on the organization of night
watches on the fleet to explain these differences in testimony
between Hernan Perez Mateos and Francisco Garcia Vallejo.
      In the Diario three watches are mentioned by name; quarto de
prima, quarto de la modorra and quarto del alba, the first, the
"drowsy" and the dawn watches.  Several passages in the Diario
allow us to reconstruct their schedule:
 
      07:00 PM - 11:00 PM  quarto de prima
      11:00 PM - 03:00 AM  quarto de la modorra
      03:00 AM - 07:00 AM  quarto del alba
 
      A text from a description of Magellan's circumnavigation of
the globe, 1519-1522, gives further information:
 
      Three shifts of watch were made each night:  the first,
      at nightfall; the second, called "medora" at midnight,
      and the third before dawn.  All the crew was divided
      into three shifts:  the first, at the orders of the
      captain; the second, at those of the pilot; and the
      third, at the orders of the bosun.
 
      This being the case the three captains would have been on
duty during the first watch, the three pilots during the second,
and the three bosuns during the third.  Hence if Vallejo were on
duty during Pinta's second watch, it would explain his not men-
tioning the light.  The Captain's watch being the first accords
with Mateos's account that Martin Alonso saw it.
      In collaboration with the Hayden Planetarium Admiral Morison
calculated that on the night of 11 October the moon, past full,
rose at about 11 PM.  He adds:
 
      At 2:00 AM it was riding about 70 degrees high over
      Orion on the port quarter, in a position to illuminate
      anything ahead of the ships.  Jupiter was rising in the
      east; Saturn had just set, and Deneb was nearing the
      western horizon, toward which all waking eyes were
      directed.  There hung the square of Pegasus, and a
      little higher and to the northward Cassiopeia's Chair. 
      The Guards of Polaris, at 15 degrees beyond "feet,"
      told the pilots that it was two hours after
      midnight. . . .
 
      At 10 that evening Columbus observes the light.  At 2 in the
morning Juan Rodriguez Bermejo de Triana on Pinta spies land. 
Santa Maria joins up with her, strikes all her sails except for
the main course, is put bow to the wind and marks time until day. 
Parallel texts in Don Fernando Colon and Bartolome de Las Casas
suggest that the fleet's position may have been maintained by
tacking to windward, but, as remarked above, Vallejo recounted
that "they held the ships fast until day."  In either case no
gale wind or rough sea is implied.  There is no record of sound-
ings between sighting land and anchoring.
      Anchoring and landing take place on 12 October.  Events in
the Diario and Historie imply that this occurred late in the day. 
Other than the ceremony of taking possession, no reconnaissance
on shore is recorded.  The fact that the Indians swam out to the
departing ships' barks with parrots and balls of cotton impels
one to conclude that the sea was calm the day of the Landfall.
      But all had not been calm on board the flagship.  On 10
October the patience of the men had all but given out:
 
      . . . Here the crew already could not endure it, they
      complained of the long voyage, but the admiral en-
      couraged the best he could giving them good hope of the
      profits they could have.  And he added that it was in
      vain to complain since he had come to [seek] the Indies
      and thus had to prosecute until finding them, with the
      help of Our Lord.
 
      Nevertheless, the next day brought new hope:
 
      . . . They saw petrels and a green rush near to the
      flagship.  Those of the Caravel Pinta saw a cane and a
      pole, and they took another little pole worked at what
      seemed with iron and a piece of cane, and another herb
      that grows on land, and a small plank.  Those of the
      Caravel Nina as well saw other signs of land and a
      little pole charged with periwinkles, with these signs
      all breathed and rejoiced.
 
      Having now set the stage, let us turn to the description of
the light in Las Casas's paraphrase of Columbus' Diario, Don
Fernando's version in Ulloa's Italian and Las Casas's novel
explanation in his Historia.  These are followed by the Letters
Patent awarding the annuity to Columbus.
      Translation of the Diario, 11 October, 8r35-43; 8v1-20:
 
      . . . And because the Caravel Pinta was a better sailor
      and went ahead of the Admiral, she found land and made
      the signals that the Admiral had ordered.  A sailor who
      was called Rodrigo de Triana first saw this land,
      although at the tenth hour of the night the Admiral
      being on the sterncastle saw a light, though it was a
      thing so occluded that he wished not to affirm that it
      might have been land.  But he called to Pero Gutierrez,
      the King's repostero de estrados and said to him that a
      light appeared, that he might look and thus he did and
      saw it, he as well said so to Rodrigo Sanches de
      Segovia whom the King and Queen sent on the fleet as
      veedor, who did not see anything because he was not in
      a place where he might be able to see it.  After the
      Admiral said it, it was seen once or twice; and it was
      like a little candle of wax which was being lifted up
      and was rising, which to few might appear to be an
      indication of land.  But the Admiral held [it] for
      certain to be near to the land.  Wherefore, when they
      said the salve which all sailors are accustomed to say
      and sing in their manner and all are present, the
      Admiral asked and admonished them that they might keep
      good watch at the fo'castle and look out well for the
      land, and that to him whom he might say first saw land
      he would give on the spot a doublet of silk, besides
      the other presents that the sovereigns had promised,
      which were ten thousand maravedis of annuity to him who
      first might see it.  At the second hour after midnight
      there appeared the land from which they were about two
      leagues. . . .
 
      Translation of Don Fernando's Historie, (1571), Cap. xxi,
50r, & v:
 
      . . . And this said, two hours before midnight, the
      Admiral being on the sterncastle, saw a light on land,
      but he says that it was a thing so occluded that he
      dares not affirm it might be land; still, he called one
      Pietro Guttieres, Credentiere to the Catholic King, and
      told him to look if he might see said light and he
      responded that he saw it, so immediately they called on
      Rodrigo Sanches de Segovia that he might look towards
      that part, but he could not see it because he did not
      climb up so quickly to where it might be seen.  Nor did
      they see it thereafter, save once or twice; because of
      this they reckoned that it could be a candle or torch
      of fishermen or travelers who were raising and lowering
      the said light, or that haply they were passing from
      one house to another; whereas it disappeared and re-
      turned suddenly with such quickness, that few by this
      sign believed [it] to be near land.
 
      Padre Las Casas, Historia, Lib. I, Cap. xxxix, gives a most
original explanation of the light:
 
      This night after the sun set, he navigated to the west,
      the course he always steered from the Canaries, and he
      went 12 miles per hour, and up to the second hour after
      midnight they went about 90 miles, which 22 and a half
      leagues.  Christopher Columbus being on the sterncastle
      (with his eyes, quicker than any other's, ahead, as the
      most attentive would have, because it concerned him
      more than anyone else) saw a light, although so
      occluded or obscured, that he did not wish to affirm
      that it might be land, but called secretly to Pero
      Gutierrez, Repostero de Estrados to the King, and told
      him that there appeared a light, so that he might look
      at what had appeared to him; [Pero] looked at it and
      said that the same appeared to him to be a light; he
      called as well to Rodrigo Sanchez de Segovia, whom the
      Sovereigns had given charge of being Veedor to all the
      fleet, but this one could not see it.  Afterwards it
      was seen once or twice, and he says that it was like a
      small candle that was being raised and lowered. 
      Christopher Columbus did not doubt its being a true
      light and, in consequence, his being near land, and so
      he was.  And what I feel about this is that the Indians
      at night throughout these islands, as they are tem-
      perate without any cold, go out or used to go out from
      their straw houses that they call bohios at night to
      comply with their natural necessities and take in hand
      a firebrand, or small torch, or a chink of pine or of
      another very dry and resinous wood which burns like a
      torch, when it is dark night, and with which they guide
      themselves back again, and in the manner could be seen
      the light which Christopher Columbus and the others saw
      the light three or four times. . . .
 
      In 1825, Don Martin Fernandez de Navarrete transcribed the:
 
      Letters Patent of an annual ten thousand maravedis to
      the Admiral Don Christopher Columbus lasting his life,
      for having been the first who saw and discovered the
      land on the first voyage.  Dated 24 May, 1493.
           We the King and the Queen make known to you our
      Accountants major, that at the time that we commanded
      to send and sent D. Christopher Columbus, our Admiral
      of the Indies which are in the Ocean Sea, to discover
      the Islands and Mainland that have been discovered in
      the said Ocean Sea in the direction in the Indies, we
      did and do promise to the said Admiral or to whichever
      other person who might see or discover first the said
      Islands, or some of them, to make him payment of ten
      thousand maravedis in payment for life:  and because
      first of any other the said Admiral D. Christopher
      Columbus has discovered the land of the said Islands,
      and we are certain and assured that he was the first
      who saw and discovered the said Islands:  therefore our
      pleasure and will is that the said Admiral D.
      Christopher Columbus have and hold from us the said ten
      thousand maravedis for life in every single year
      throughout all his life, . . .
 
      It would appear from the Letters Patent that the Catholic
Sovereigns accepted wholly the veracity of the Admiral's account. 
The choice of words:  "y somos ciertos y certificados que el fue
el primero que vio e descubrio las dichas islas," "and we are
certain and assured that he was the first who saw and discovered
the said Islands" does not leave doubt that the Admiral saw
before he discovered and that what he saw meant land.
      In the Diario the phrase "q se alcava y levatava," "which
was being lifted up and was rising" is an interesting expression
to describe the appearance of the light, likened to that of a
small was candle.  It suggests that the light, which was inter-
mittent, appeared to emanate from a point source and gave the
appearance of ascending higher and higher.  Note that both Don
Fernando and Las Casas describe it as being raised and lowered,
which is quite different from the text of the Diario.  This
effect could as well be the result of fluctuations in intensity
perceived at a distance.  Possibly the analogy to light from a
small wax candle implies that it fluttered like the flame of a
small candle guttering in a draft.  Most importantly, after its
first sighting it was seen but once or twice (three or four times
as Las Casas notes) and then disappeared.
      It would seem that the only possibilities which might
satisfy this description are a light or fire on land, a light or
fire on a vessel or an incidence of marine bioluminescence of
sufficient intensity to be seen at a distance.  A remote pos-
sibility is the incidence of autumnal tropical lightning above
the peaks of a distant, high and relatively large landmass.
      Besides the disarmingly original speculation of Las Casas,
which can be dismissed on the basis of distance from land, the
possibility of a fire on land was explored by Ruth G. Durlacher
Wolper in 1959.  The Smithsonian Institution published the
results of her experiments five years later.
      After consulting with astronomers at the Hayden Planetarium
to choose a night during which the position of the moon was
similar to that of the night of 11 October 1492, Mrs. Wolper
embarked the evening of 21 October, 1959, aboard M/V Drake, a
motor vessel of 110 feet.  Cruising due east in the latitude of
High Cay, one of the Hinchinbroke rocks off the southeastern
coast of Watlings Island, Mrs. Wolper estimated her position at
9:45 that evening to be 29 nautical miles east of her objective.
      At the same time she had ordered her men to construct and
ignite a bonfire at the top of High Cay, with a measured height
reported to be 114 feet above sea level.
      Mrs. Wolper reported seeing "two bright flashes" seconds
after 9:45, a "white circle" at 10:05 and a "bright light,"
"another light" and "another" at 10:15.  The drawings of her
perceptions of the light are preserved in the cited article.  Two
other lights were seen which disappeared at 10:40. these un-
planned lights had been lit by natives in front on their houses
on top of Breezy Hill against the sandflies.  The photograph of
the light which Mrs. Wolper included as figure 4 in her article
appears to be a time exposure and portrays a most curious image
resembling a curve tube of a sea worm.
      She reported that the light from the lighthouse at the
northeast part of the island was not seen until midnight.  She
gave its elevation as 163 feet.  In 1942, Admiral Morison gave
its intensity as 400,000 candlepower and its height as 170 feet.
      By prearranged plan at 9:45 Sabal palmetto leaves were
thrown on fire.  Mrs. Wolper concludes that this occasioned the
flashes she observed at that time.  Perhaps the most interesting
inference drawn as a result of this experiment is that a rising
mist of salt spray from the surf breaking against the rocky coast
and reefs in front of High Cay seems to have reflected the light
of the fire, allowing it to be seen at so great a distance.
      A difficulty in Mrs. Wolper's thesis is her extraordinary
assumption made concerning customs of the aborigines of Watlings
Island in lighting a fire on High Cay.  This is, of course,
countered by the sighting of the two fires lit by natives on
Breezy Hill.  But Columbus does not report more than one point
source of light at any one time.  Nor does he report seeing the
light later on that night as he sails towards the west.  This is
damaging to Mrs. Wolper's thesis as she describes a continuous
sighting of the light from her High Cay fire from 9:45 until
11:15.  The two other lights she reported, which had been lit on
Breezy Hill, were described simply as "disappearing at 10:40." 
She makes no mention of when they were first seen.
      A defect in Mrs. Wolper's method is that she did not venture
far enough out to sea.  The Diario indicates that the light was
first seen at ten in the evening.  The velocity of the fleet is
given as twelve Columbus miles per hour, or three Columbus
leagues per hour.  The total distance from "after the sun set" to
the second hour after midnight is given as ninety miles or
twenty-two and one half leagues.  Time of sunset was about 5:30. 
"After the sun set" could be any time up to 6:30.  This time is
implied by Las Casas's calculation of the fleet's velocity. 
Assuming that Columbus was using the Geometric League (of 2 2/3
nautical miles), twelve miles per hour equates to a speed of
eight knots.  Therefore the distance covered between Columbus's
sighting the light at 10:00 in the evening, and the men on Pinta
sighting land at 2:00 AM must be at least 12 Columbus leagues or
32 nautical miles and an even greater number if a larger conver-
sion factor between Columbus leagues and nautical miles is used.
      The Diario also indicates that when Pinta gave the signal
for land she was about two leagues off it, presumably to wind-
ward.  Therefore this 32 mile distance must be increased by
another five miles, for a total distance of 37 nautical miles. 
Those who argue that the fleet would have benefited from the flow
of the Antilles current (estimated for the purpose of argument to
be .3 knot) would require adding another mile to this total to
arrive at an adjusted estimate of 38 nautical miles.  This com-
puted distance is nine miles farther than the farthest point Mrs.
Wolper reported M/V Drake from her bonfire.  Given the vagaries
of Discovery Period measurement, Mrs. Wolper must be judged to
have been at least five miles short of her mark--a point cor-
roborated by Lt. Commander L.T. Gould, Landfall of Columbus,
Geographical Journal, May, 1927, in which he observes:  "Judging
by the speed of the ships, as given in the journal for the night,
the light must have been some 35 miles or so eastward of the
landfall, and well to windward of it . . . ."
      Although many have proposed that the light may have been
seen in a direction other than towards the west, Mrs. Wolper
dismisses such theories with the argument that if such were the
case the fleet would have turned towards it.  Others have argued
this point as well, but in light of the textual record it must be
judged unsound.  Ordering the fleet to turn would certainly have
been warranted if the light had been clearly perceived, but all
accounts derived from the actual copy of the Diario refer to it
as "so occluded a thing," and therefore insufficiently clear to
order changing course, even though the Admiral "held it for
certain to be near to the land."
      In 1829 the distinguished historian D. Martin Fernandez de
Navarrete published a special commentary on the first sighting of
land of the New World.  In this he posed the intriguing question
of whether the light might have been a sighting of the binnacle
of one of the caravels which were in advance of the flagship.  To
this very original supposition the writer proposes that for
thirty two days the sluggish Santa Maria had lagged behind the
fleeter caravels, so that it would appear most unlikely for the
Captain General of the fleet to make such a mistake.  Other
proposals that the light may have emanated from a torch held by
natives fishing at night can be quickly dismissed on the basis of
the impracticality of late night fishing in the bottomless sea by
canoe some thirty five miles to windward of land.  There is as
well the question of whether it was customary for the Lucayans to
carry materials for making fire in their individual canoes. 
Columbus notes their tendency to overturn, so it would appear
that, as a matter of practical necessity, baggage was kept to a
minimum.  With New England humour Admiral Morison pooh-poohed the
theory of Indians torching for fish--"why not lighting a cigar?"
      The next possibility is that the light may have been caused
by discharges of marine bioluminescence.  Anyone who has lived or
sailed in the Tropics has remarked the magical displays of marine
phosphorescence in bow waves, wakes, trails of fish near the
surface and on reefs and shores.  There are many varieties of
marine organisms which give off light.  Two which give off light
near the surface are the Bahamian fire worm, Odontosyllis, and
blooms of tiny organisms called dinoflagellates.  Of these
Noctiluca or Ceratium become visible as a glow when disturbed by
a ship's bow, a swimmer or a wave breaking against a reef or on
shore.  In some varieties of Gonyaulax emission of light has been
noted to follow a circadian rhythm, with the greatest quantity
occurring just after midnight.
      The possibility that the light was caused by a swarm of
luminous Syllids was raised in a 1935 article in Nature by L.R.
Crawshay.  The point of Dr. Crawshay's article is that
Odontosyllis, the Bahamian fire worm, swarms in limited numbers
during certain months of the year, October being one, whose
activity is heightened during the third quarter of the moon,
which appears to have been the case on 11 October, 1492, and
accompanies its secretions of sperm and eggs with brilliant and
intermittent displays of luminescence.  According to Dr.
Crawshay's observations, the Bahamian Odontosyllis only swarms in
regions of relatively shallow water.  The latest recorded display
of light emitted by these organisms was observed by Dr. Crawshay
off Abaco Island at 8:30 PM.  Given the details in the Diario,
Dr. Crawshay proposed that a luminous display of Odontosyllis off
the northern reef of Watlings Island would be suitably situated
to accord with a landfall at Cat Island some four hours later. 
He does not consider the similar geographical location of the
Mouchoir Bank with respect to the Turks Islands.
      The writer, who has lived on Providenciales for almost four
years, has observed the fiery spirals of light made by
Odontosyllis in the early evening, but has never remarked them to
occur in sufficient number near the Caicos Bank to produce a
light of remarkable intensity.  However, at about ten at night he
has seen displays of phosphorescent light of extraordinary
brightness and duration emitted by blooms of dinoflagellates
agitated by waves breaking against the hull of his vessel
anchored on the Turks Bank east of Cotton Cay during the latter
part of the month of October in 1987.  On the basis of this
observation it would seem most probable that the same occurs on
the rocks of the Mouchoir Bank which just break the surface. 
Given the peculiar property of airborne salt spray noted by Mrs.
Wolper, it would seem possible that reflected light from marine
phosphorescence on the Mouchoir might be visible at a distance of
some seven miles.  It therefore remains to test this hypothesis
with a trip to the Mouchoir Bank in the Fall.
      The possibility that the light may have owed its cause to
distant lightning is a novel one to the writer, who for two years
has dismissed accounts of sightings of lightning above Hispaniola
made from the island of Grand Turk as too unlikely to be con-
sidered the phenomenon reported by Columbus.  Nevertheless it is
worth an inspection.  Accordingly it is proposed to test this
theory during the hurricane season this year as well.
 
 
 
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