Countless years ago, a great mountain range stretched north from what is now the highest coast of South America. The range was in a constant state of upheaval, lashed by continuous rains, swept by storms, with fire springing from every peak, eventually the mountains fell beneath the sea, calming most of the volcanoes. The exposed peaks were covered in fantastically beautiful greenery, and left these peaks above the sea to form the West Indian island chain we know today. Although they were islands surrounded by the Caribbean Sea and nowhere near Asian India, they were still considered the islands of the West Indies. So why the West Indian concept, we ask? Christopher Columbus, who discovered these islands, can surely explain why he gave such a name to islands that were never of Indian origin. Discovered in 1492 by Christopher Columbus, the Antilles received this name because he wrongly believed he had reached the Indies, and he himself wrote about them as Las Yndias Ocidentales, called the Accidental Indies. Once the error was realized, they were later called Antilles to distinguish them from the East Indies. At the time, in the 16th century, they were known as the Lesser Indies, while the East Indies were called the Greater Indies. The indigenous inhabitants of the West Indies and America were called Indians because of the same mistake. To distinguish them from the inhabitants of India, they had to be called Native Americans or Red Indians. The islands are divided into three large groups: the Bahamas, the Greater Antilles and the Lesser Antilles. The Greater Antilles include Cuba, Hispaniola, Puerto Rico and Jamaica, and all others except the Bahamas are included in the Lesser Antilles group and were also called the Caribee Islands. The name Antilles is often loosely applied to the continental territories of South and Central America (the Spanish territory) and, in the past, was even applied to those in North America. The name America was used to include the West Indies. The British use of the Windward Islands and Leeward Islands has caused confusion. The Spanish aptly called all the eastern islands of the West Indian chain the Windward Islands, Islas de Ballovento, and the smaller islands near the northern coasts of South America the Leeward Islands, Islas de Sotavento..