A flock of black-necked stilts glides over the waters surrounding Long Island in the Bahamas. Considered to be the third island that Columbus charted during his first voyage to the New World in 1492, he named it La Fernandina, perhaps after his illegitimate 4-year-old son or after the Spanish monarch who helped finance his voyage.

(Text adapted from and photograph shot on assignment for, but not published in, "Where Columbus Found the New World," November 1986, National Geographic magazine)