On August 3, 1492, Columbus set sail from Spain to find an all-water route to Asia. On October 12, more than two months later, Columbus landed on an island in the Bahamas that he called San Salvador; the natives called it Guanahani.On May 30, 1498, Christopher Columbus left Sanlúcar, Spain with six ships for his third trip to the New World. ... Columbus sailed to the Portuguese island of Porto Santo, then spent some in Madeira with the Portuguese captain João Gonçalves da Camara. He arrived at Gomera in the Canary Islands on June 19.