On Thursday, February 29, 1504, when I was in the Indies on the island of Jamaica in the port which is called Santa Gloria, . . . there was an eclipse of the Moon, and because the beginning was before the Sun set, I was able to note only the end, when the Moon had just returned to its brightness, and this was most surely after two and one-half hours of the night had passed by, five sandglasses most certainly.

—CHRISTOPHER COLUMBUS, LIBRO DE LAS PROFECIAS