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claimed the land for Spain. Inhabitants of the
island, who did not understand Columbus’s
declaration that they were now Spanish sub-
jects, gathered on the beach, and the first awk-
ward communication between Europeans
and the people of the Americas began.
Columbus offered trinkets such as beads,
hawks’ bells, and red caps. The islanders
replied with gifts of “skeins of spun cotton,
and parrots, and darts” and told the Spaniards
that their island was called Guanahaní.
Columbus gave it the name San Salvador
(Holy Savior). Despite later controversy over
which island in the Bahamas group Columbus
first encountered, it is generally agreed that it
was the island that still bears the name San
Salvador.
The people of the island were Arawak-
speaking Taino. All were “naked as their moth-
ers bore them,” Columbus wrote, noting that
they were physically attractive and “the color
of the Canary Islanders, neither black nor
white.” Some wore ornamental body paint.
Others showed battle scars. When Columbus
inquired in sign language about the wounds,
the Taino replied that the scars were the result
of fighting off slaving raids from neighboring
islands. Trying to please his royal sponsors,
Columbus wrote:They ought to be good servants and of good
skill, for I see that they repeat very quickly
what was said to them. I believe that they
would easily be made Christians, because it
seemed to me that they belonged to no reli-
gion. I, please Our Lord, will carry off six of
them at my departure to your Highnesses,
that they may learn to speak [Spanish].Although he clearly had not reached a
wealthy Asian empire, Columbus noticed the
Taino custom of wearing small gold nose pen-
dants. Upon leaving Guanahaní, Columbus
determined to search for gold and planned his
route accordingly.[T]hose whom I captured on the Island of
San Salvador told me that there they wore(^28) B Discovery of the Americas, 1492–1800
The Native peoples Columbus encountered while
on his initial voyage included both the Taino and
the Carib. Columbus described the Taino as a
peaceful people and believed their claims that
the Carib were vicious and prone to aggression.
This 1880s engraving is of a Carib woman.
(Library of Congress, Prints and Photographs Division
[LC-USZ62-108522])
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