The early years of Bahamas

Columbus first landed in the New World somewhere in The Bahamas on October 12, 1492. He landed on an island called “Guanahani” by the local inhabitants, who were Arawak Indians known as Lucayans. Columbus renamed the island San Salvador. Over the years, exactly which island Columbus landed on has been much disputed. Recent research places the first landing on Samana Cay, 105km (65 miles) southeast of the island that today is known as San Salvador. (Just to make things more confusing, San Salvador is also sometimes called Watling Island.) The Lucayans Columbus encountered are believed to have come to the islands from the Greater Antilles in the eighth century A.D. They were seeking refuge from the Carib Indians then living in the Lesser Antilles. The Lucayans were peaceful people who welcomed the Spaniards and taught them a skill soon shared with the entire seafaring world: how to make hammocks from heavy cotton cloth.
The Spanish conquistadors, who claimed the islands for their king and queen, didn’t repay the Lucayans kindly. Finding neither gold nor silver mines nor fertile soil, the conquistadors cleared out the population of the islands, taking some 40,000 doomed Lucayans to other islands in the Spanish empire to work in mines or dive for pearls. Ponce de León voyaged here in 1513 looking for the legendary Fountain of Youth. His journey led to the European discovery of Florida and the Gulf Stream — but not the magic fountain. Ponce de León’s historian described the waters of the Little Bahama Bank — just north of Grand Bahama — as bajamar (pronounced “bahamar,” which is Spanish for “shallow water”). This word seems to be a reasonable source of the name “Bahamas.” Other than this mention, however, practically no references were made to the islands first discovered by Columbus for 135 years.