1741 "Columbian" (adj) = American

[Joel S. Berson]

Here, the earliest instance I find in EAN, is an antedating of
"Columbian", adj., OED 1757-.  This too is taken from the Gentleman's
Magazine (August, 1741).  It appears to be from the Debates in the
Senate of Lilliput, and is probably attributed to Samuel
Johnson.  The text reads like a transcription of a Parliamentary
speech (although probably it was mostly Johnson's construction of
what the speech may have been like, developed from notes taken by
someone attending the session).  Some names are disguised, but not
all (for example, the "Don Geraldino" below is unaltered: he was the
Spanish ambassador in London at the time).

"Nor was his Disregard of our Dominions less flagrant than that of
our Trade[;?] it was publickly declared by Don _Geraldino_, that his
Master would never give up his Claim to part of our _Columbian_
Colonies, which yet were neither fortified on the Frontiers, nor
supplied with Arms, nor enabled to oppose an Enemy, nor protected against him."

Boston Evening-Post, Nov. 30, 1741, page 1, col. 1.

The next I find is June 2, 1766, Newport Mercury, page 3.

The earliest instance of "Columbia" I find with EAN is from the same
BEP article of Nov. 30, 1741:  At the beginning, "Note, Columbia must
be taken for America, ...".

The next I find is in a poem, "The Lamentation of Harvard", Boston
News-Letter, April 26, 1764, page 3.

Joel

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