It's considered, Christopher Columbus and his crewmen were probably the first Europeans to see and taste turkey. During his trip to the coast of modern Honduras in 1502, friendly locals offered Christopher Columbus and his crew a dish that contained a meat which the Spaniards called gallinas de la tierra or "land chickens". In 1519 Hernando Cortes saw them at the markets of Mexico. Furthermore, in the early 1500s Spain became the first European country that received turkey from the New World. Ironically, turkey eventually made the full-circle of travel back to America with English settlers when they brought it to Virginia in 1584. Nevertheless, turkey was recognised as the central dish of the Thanksgiving festival as quickly as the late 18th century. Eventually, turkey gained such great popularity that legend says that President Benjamin Franklin complained about the selection of the bald eagle as the US national symbol.