by Andrew Rowen | | Dominican Republic, Haiti
Martín Alonso Pinzón and the Pinta sailed for Baneque (Great Iguana Island) after deserting the expedition in November (see November 21). There’s no preserved ship’s log recounting the route or what transpired, but the Pinta reached the Taíno Haiti’s northern coast...
by Andrew Rowen | | Haiti
As the Santa María and Niña continued east along the Taíno Haiti’s northern coast, word traveled among the locals that it was safe to meet the pale beings. On December 16, likely near modern Port-de-Paix, more than five hundred Taínos gathered at a beach to behold and...
by Andrew Rowen | | Haiti
Columbus brought the Santa María and Niña to anchor—in his view—in the greatest harbor he had yet entered (Baie de l’Acul, Haiti), perhaps the most populated area in Guacanagarí’s chiefdom of Marien. Columbus named the harbor Mar de Santo Tomás as the day was the...
by Andrew Rowen | | Haiti
Guacanagarí dispatched a canoe with nitaínos (Taíno noblemen) to invite Columbus to meet in Guacanagarí’s village. In the Taíno tradition described in Encounters Unforeseen, he sent as a gift a face mask inlaid with gold and woven to a tightly knit cotton girdle...
by Andrew Rowen | | Haiti
Guacanagarí’s noblemen offered to guide the Santa María and Niña to his village. But the wind was too weak to sail, and Columbus dispatched an embassy in the ship’s launch led by the expedition’s royal secretary to accompany the noblemen back to meet Guacanagarí....
