On Christmas eve, 1492, while most of the crew of the Santa Maria were asleep, an inexperienced helmsman grounded the ship on a shoal. A cacique named Guacanagari from a nearby village helped in salvaging the wreck, and trust in his hospitality allowed Columbus to leave thirty-eight crewmembers behind while he sailed back east.
Guacanagari’s people came very quickly with a fleet of large canoes and ferried the cargo of the Santa Maria to shore. The Alguazil reported that Guacanagari wept on hearing the news and periodically through the night sent his relations and lieutenants weeping to Columbus to console him. The rescue was more effective than anything Columbus could have hoped for, and the contents of the Santa Maria were quickly shuttled to shore and piled on the beach. Guacanagari cleared out two very large houses in his village for the Spaniards use. Columbus was royally treated upon visiting Guacanagari’s village, with a feast, and the gift of a carved mask, with gold ornaments as eyes. Over the nest few days a "genuine and remarkable rapport" developed between the two men that would last for several years.
In part because of Columbus’ vulnerability after the sinking of the Santa Maria and in spite of their almost complete inability to communicate verbally, Guacanagari and Columbus relationship emerges as one of "near-parity and mutual respect and acceptance." In the rest of the brief contact period on Hispaniola, this kind of alliance was almost unknown.
Columbus returned east, leaving his detachment of 38 men behind at the new Spanish settlement. When he returned, they had been killed, and the settlement had been destroyed.
Guacanagari gave his account of the situation, as recorded by Pietro Martyr d’Anghiera: “There are on the island, which is very large, a number of kings, who are more powerful than Guacanagari; two of these, disturbed by the news of the arrival of the Spaniards, assembled considerable forces, attacked and killed our men and burned their entrenchments, houses and possessions; Guacanagari had striven to save our men, and in the struggle had been wounded by an arrow.”
Columbus and his fellow conquistadores were masters at displaying the superiority of Iberian civilization, through elaborate landing parties and rituals at each island they reached.
According to Las Casas, “The Admiral took weapons and went to shore in his armed boat, taking all the people it could hold. The Admiral took the royal banner, and the two captains carried banners with the green cross which they flew on their ships as their emblem—with an F which stood for king Don Fernando, and and I, for queen Dona Isabel, and above each letter a crown, one on one tip of the cross, one on the other.”
As for the Tainos, they too gave immediate indication of their future ability to resist conquest and conversion in their first impression on the Spanish.
Again according to Las Casas: “The Indians, who were present there in great numbers, were astounded watching all of these actions by the Christians, and were taken aback by their beards, white skin, and clothes.” As for the Indians, “...the Christians advanced to look at the Indians, no less amazed than the Indians were to look upon them; so great was their gentleness, simplicity, and confidence among people they had never known, despite their wild looks, and they could as easily have taken fright and fled from the Christians; it was marvelous how they walked among the Christians as if they were fathers and sons; how they walked about as naked as when their mothers had bore them, with such nonchalance and simplicity.”
Columbus describes the Tainos: “They do not have weapons, or even know about them, because when shown a sword they grabbed it by the blade and cut themselves out of ignorance. They do not have iron; their arrows are a kind without metal, and some of them have points made from the tooth of a fish. They are fairly tall and good looking, well made. They should be good and intelligent servants, and I believe that they could be converted into good Christians, for it does not appear that they have any other religion.”
References:
Hispaniola: Caribbean Chiefdoms in the Age of Columbus
Author: Wilson, Samuel Meredith 1957-
Published: Tuscaloosa : University of Alabama Press, c1990
Thief, Slave Trader, Murderer:Christopher Columbus and Caribbean Population Decline Authors: Tink Tinker and Mark Freeland
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