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Atlantis in the West Indies
Having reached this far, it now seems certain that Plato's Atlantis
was thought to have been located on the western Atlantic seaboard, plausibly
in the vicinity of the Hesperides, the ancient name for the Caribbean.
This seems affirmed in the Commentaries on the Timaeus of Plato by Proclus
Daidochus, a philosopher, poet and scientist of the fifth century AD.
Among the evidence he presents for the existence of Atlantis are fragments
from a book entitled Ethiopic History by Marcellus, a Greek geographer
who lived around 100 BC. He had asserted that `in the external sea':
… there were seven islands … in their times, sacred to Proserpine,
and also three others of an immense extent, one of which was sacred
to Pluto, another to Ammon, and the middle of these to Neptune [the
Roman name for Poseidon], the magnitude of which was a thousand stadia
[184 kilometres]. They also add, that the inhabitants of it preserved
the remembrance from their ancestors, of the Atlantic island which existed
there, and was truly prodigiously great; which for many periods had
dominion over all the islands in the Atlantic Sea, and was itself likewise
sacred to Neptune.
As long ago as 1962, historical writer Geoffrey Ashe associated Marcellus'
seven islands sacred to Proserpine with the principal islands of the
Lesser Antilles. He also went on to identify the three islands of `immense
extent' as Cuba, Hispaniola - which includes Haiti and the Dominican
Republic - and Puerto Rico. The middle of the three, Hispaniola, was,
he said, `approximately a thousand stadia - i.e. a hundred miles [160
kilometres] or a little over - from side to side'.
As we have seen, in the Timaeus Plato tells us that the Atlantic island
was situated within easy reach of 'other islands' that acted like stepping
stones for ancient voyagers wishing to reach 'the opposite continent'.
Such terminology could not describe the island chains of the Caribbean
more accurately. The islands, banks, reefs and cays that stretch from
Central America towards the Greater Antilles form a near continuous
chain. Similarly, the Bahamas provide a stepping-stone route that links
Florida with Cuba and Hispaniola. Moreover, myths and legends from all
over the Caribbean and Bahamas talk of a former age when the archipelagos
were one single landmass that split apart, leaving only the islands
and cays we see today, following an almighty cataclysm involving a sudden
inundation of the sort described by Plato in his Atlantis account. Other
more detailed stories speak of this event occurring after either the
`ole moon broke' from its position or a fiery serpent fell from the
sky.
That Atlantis might have been located in the Caribbean is a revolutionary
idea, although it is by no means now. Before the publication in 1882
of Atlantis - The Antediluvian World by ex-US congressman Ignatius Donnelly,
which promoted the view that Atlantis was a now sunken landmass in the
Mid-Atlantic, many historians had come to this same conclusion. In fact,
the idea that Atlantis was Hispaniola would appear to have been first
proposed as early as 1798 by Italian scholar Paul Cabrera, (it has been
tackled again more recently by Emilio Spedicato, the Professor of Operations
Research at Bergamo University). It Cabrera's opinion:
I am confirmed in my selection of this island [i.e. Hispaniola] from
among the many dispersed throughout the Atlantic, not only on account
of its position and magnitude exceeding all the others, but also, from
its fertility and numerous navigable rivers…
Let us examine Cabrera's statements to see whether he is justified in
making such assertions. Plato informs us that `the district [of Atlantis]
as a whole, so I have heard, was of great elevation and its coast precipitous',
suitably describing Hispaniola's mountainous coastline. However, the
island would have had no strategic importance to ancient seafarers.
Neighbouring Cuba, on the other hand, has a large number of lobe-like
bays along its coast, making it a better choice for the establishment
of ports or places of refuge. Furthermore, Cuba's coastal waters guard
both the northerly and southerly entrances into the Gulf of Mexico,
making it an ideal staging post for maritime journeys to Mexico and
the Gulf coast of North America. In addition to this, by using the Bahaman
and Mid-Caribbean island chains a vessel can easily travel from Cuba
to the coast of Florida and the Mosquito Coast of Nicaragua. It was
for these reasons that soon after the time of the Conquest Cuba became
known to Spanish explorers as the `Key to the New World'. There is no
way that Hispaniola can be awarded this same title, suggesting that
Cabrera might have got it wrong.
Cabrera also claimed that Hispaniola was in `magnitude exceeding all
the others'. This is blatantly untrue. At around 640 kilometres in length
and 256 kilometres in width, Hispaniola is around two-thirds the size
of neighbouring Cuba.
In addition to these points, Cabrera further adds that Hispaniola was
the most important of the islands because of its `fertility'. Once again,
this is completely false. Because the island is dominated by extensive
mountain ranges that engulf much of the island, crop cultivation is
difficult. It is Cuba that is the most fertile island of the Caribbean.
Its fertile plains produce the tobacco for Havana's famous cigars. Moreover,
they once produced more sugar cane than any other country. With the
help of Cuba's rich red calcareous loam, its cane yields a higher content
of sugar than anywhere else other than Mexico, a fact that led to it
becoming known as the `Pearl of the Antilles'.
Lastly, it is not only Hispaniola that has extensive `navigable rivers'.
Cuba also has a series of mighty rivers that cut deep into the interior
of the country and rise in the central mountain ranges.
All this suggests that if Atlantis was located in the Caribbean, then
it addition to Hispaniola, Cuba becomes an even more likely candidate
for the same title (Emilio Spedicato's own points in favour of Hispaniola
being Atlantis are discussed in GATEWAY TO ATLANTIS). So which of these
great islands might have been the true location of lost Atlantis?
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