LANDFALL During the night the ships had drifted a little with the current, and before the north-east wind.

When the look-out man on the Pinta first reported land in sight it was probably the north-east corner of the island, where the land rises to a height of 120 feet, that he saw.

The actual anchorage of Columbus was most likely to the westward of the island; for there was a strong north-easterly breeze, and as the whole of the eastern coast is fringed by a barrier reef, he would not risk his ships on a lee shore.

Finding himself off the north end of the island at sunrise, the most natural thing for him to do, on making sail again, would be to stand southward along the west side of the island looking for an anchorage.

The first few miles of the shore have rocky exposed points, and the bank where there is shoal water only extends half a mile from the shore.