As with most Caribbean islands, the island of St. Thomas was discovered by Columbus on his second voyage in 1493. Never-the-less, Amerindian settlers had been traveling the Caribbean for at least 5,000 years prior to that.
According to archaeological studies, there were two main migration periods. The first from Mesoamerica across the Gulf of Mexico probably between 4,000 and 2,000 b.c.e.