 The European association of the Maya with eschatology dates back to the time of Christopher Columbus, who was compiling a work called "Libro de las profecías" during the voyage in 1502 when he first heard about the "Maia" on Guanaja, an island off the north coast of Honduras.Influenced by the writings of Bishop Pierre d'Ailly, Columbus believed that his discovery of "most distant" lands (and, by extension, the Maya themselves) was prophesied and would bring about the Apocalypse.End-times fears were widespread during the early years of the Spanish Conquest as the result of popular astrological predictions in Europe of a second Great Flood for the year 1524.