Pintona was apparently discovered by Columbus in 1495, when he landed at Cape Columbus. In 1501, settlers under Jorge Perez y Garcia founded a settlement on that bay, which is now Port Benedict. Spanish settlement was small and only about 300 people lived on the island. After the Napoleonic Wars, the Congress of Vienna awarded the islands to Britain. They resettled Pt. Benedict, which was given its name after the island's first governor, Sir William Henry Stanhope Benedict.