West Indies. 17th-century map of the West Indies and the islands of the Caribbean Sea, with the Tropic of Cancer. The West Indies was used to refer to the lands discovered by Columbus and other European explorers travelling west to what became known as the New World or the Americas. Major islands shown here include Cuba, Xamayca (Jamaica), La Espanola (Hispaniola) and San Juan (Puerto Rico). This map is from 'Descriptio Indiae Occidentale' in 'Nieuwe werelt' (1622), a Dutch republication of an earlier 1601 work by Spanish historian Antonio de Herrera y Tordesillas (1549-1626). This Dutch edition was published in Amsterdam by Michiel Colijn.