ABSTRACT
In 1493, during Columbus’s second voyage to the Caribbean, the fleet briefly dropped anchor at the mouth of what is now the Salt River on St. Croix Island. The local inhabitants—Carib Indians, who had long before displaced their Arawak predecessors—discouraged an extended visit, though not enough to keep Columbus from claiming for Spain the island and its neighbors, the westernmost Lesser Antilles. He named these islands Santa Ursula y Las Once Mil Vírgenes (St. Ursula and The Eleven Thousand Virgins), later abbreviated to the Virgin Islands.
