very big bracelets of gold on their legs and
arms. I well believed that all they said was
humbug in order to escape. However, it was
my wish to bypass no island without taking
possession.Despite having kidnapped his Taino
guides, relations between Columbus’s expedi-
tion and the people of each Bahamian island
hevisited were peaceful and friendly. Colum-
bus was eager to impress his Spanish sponsors
ofhow they might profit from his finds, but his
journals also reflect his appreciation of the
natural beauty of his discoveries. Of one small
island, for example, he wrote:
[T]he large groves are very green. Here are
some great lagoons, and around them, on
the banks, the verdure is marvellous; and
round about there is a marvellous amount
ofwoodland, the grass like April in Andalu-
sia, and the singing of the little birds such
that it would seem that man would never
wish to leave here; and the flocks of parrots
obscured the sun.... Furthermore—it has
trees of a thousand kinds, and all have their
kinds of fruit, and all so fragrant.The Taino told Columbus of a large island
they called “Colba.” From their descriptions,
Columbus was sure that it must be Japan—in
fact, it was the island of Cuba—and set sail in
its direction. The expedition did not find
Asians or much gold when it reached Cuba,
but Europeans who went ashore did notice
Taino men and women inhaling smoke from
lit bundles of “herbs,”called tobaccos.This
custom of smoking tobacco, which was then
unknown outside of the Americas, later
spread throughout the world.
The arrival in Cuba marked the first of many
future challenges to Columbus’s leadership.
When Martín Alonso Pinzón, the captain of the
Pinta,learned that gold might be found on an
island to the east, he disappeared with his ship,
without informing Columbus. The remaining
ships sailed southeast along the coast of Cuba’s
Oriente province. Because of its size, Columbus
concluded that Cuba was not an island but a
peninsula attached to China, somewhere to the
west. Deciding that he would return in the
future to explore this theory, he continued east,
reaching the island that would one day be
divided into the countries of Haiti and the
Dominican Republic. He named it La Isla
Española (The Spanish Island), a phrase that
was eventually contracted to the name by
which it is known today, Hispaniola.
Columbus considered Hispaniola to be the
most beautiful and peaceful of the islands he
had yet encountered. “In all the world, there
can be no better or gentler people,” he wrote
of its inhabitants. They also woreplentiful
gold jewelry, which did not go unnoticed. The
sailors were happy to celebrate with their
Indian hosts, who threw elaborate feasts for
all to enjoy. Near the present-day northern
Haitian city of Cap Haitien, Columbus
received an invitation to visit a cacique, or
tribal leader, named Guacanagarí. Columbus
mistook the name of Guacanagarí’s chiefdom,
Cibao, for Marco Polo’s name for Japan,
Cipangu. Certain that he had at last reached
his goal, Columbus ordered the Santa Maria
and the Niñato sail along the coast to meet
Guacanagarí. On Christmas 1492, disaster
struck.
That night, against orders, an exhausted
sailor handed the Santa Maria’s steering tiller
over to an inexperienced ship’s boy, who let
the ship drift onto a reef. Coral tore through
the ship’s planking, and seawater gradually
filled the Santa Maria.With Indian help,
Columbus’s men were able to unload all of
their supplies and get them ashore before
being joined by the Niña.The Four Voyages of Columbus B 29