Rodrigo de Triana

Rodrigo de Triana (born 1469 in Lepe, Huelva, Spain and died in Maluku Islands in 1535) was a Spanish sailor, believed to be the first European from the Age of Exploration to have seen the Americas.

On October 12, 1492, while on Christopher Columbus' ship La Pinta, he sighted a land that was called Guanahani by the natives.

— The Diary of Christopher Columbus[1] After spotting the Bahamian island at approximately two o'clock in the morning, he is reported to have shouted "¡Tierra!

Columbus claims in his journal that he saw a light "like a little wax candle rising and falling" four hours earlier, "but it was so indistinct that he did not dare to affirm it was land.

The island was named by Christopher Columbus as San Salvador, in honour of Jesus Christ and the salvation that finding land implied after that long journey.