https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Voyages_of_Christopher_Columbus
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First landing in the Americas
After 29 days out of sight of land, on October 7, 1492, the crew spotted "immense flocks of birds", some of which his sailors trapped and determined to be "field" birds (probably Eskimo curlews and American golden plovers). Columbus changed course to follow their flight.
On October 10, Columbus quelled a mutiny by sailors who wanted to abandon the search and return to Spain. On the next day, they saw several artefacts floating up the sea, which caused them to believe that land was nearby. Columbus changed the fleet's course to due west, and sailed through the night, with many sailors looking for land. At around 10:00 pm on 11 October, Columbus thought he saw a light "like a little wax candle rising and falling". Four hours later, land was sighted by a sailor named Rodrigo de Triana (also known as Juan Rodríguez Bermejo) aboard the Pinta. Triana immediately alerted the rest of the crew with a shout, and the ship's captain, Martín Alonso Pinzón, verified the land sighting and alerted Columbus by firing a lombard. Columbus would later assert that he had first seen land, thus earning the promised annual reward of 10,000
maravedís.
They landed on the morning of October 12. Columbus called this island San Salvador; its Indigenous name was Guanahani. The modern San Salvador Island in the Bahamas is considered to be the most likely candidate for this island.
Columbus wrote of the Natives he first encountered in his journal entry of 12 October 1492:
Many of the men I have seen have scars on their bodies, and when I made signs to them to find out how this happened, they indicated that people from other nearby islands come to San Salvador to capture them; they defend themselves the best they can. I believe that people from the mainland come here to take them as slaves. They ought to make good and skilled servants, for they repeat very quickly whatever we say to them. I think they can very easily be made Christians, for they seem to have no religion. If it pleases our Lord, I will take six of them to Your Highnesses when I depart, in order that they may learn our language.
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