Taino (44 page)

Signed,

Guaikán

(Diego Colón, adopted son of the Great Admiral)

Two hundred twenty-six.
A letter from Las Casas, the New Laws.

[Editor's note: Lastly, Diego Colón's papers included the following letter to Diego from Father Las Casas, some four years after his last testament. A partial reply was written by Diego on the backside of the same letter. Apparently, it was never sent.]

May 20, 1543

Dieguillo, old friend,

Last night I faced the evening breeze here on the coast of Barcelona. The coast and its smells reminded me of you, and I realized I have forgiven your actions toward me on the closing days of the Enriquillo war.

Furthermore, I want to apologize to you for my harsh words so many years ago. I have crossed the ocean time and again since then, and as they say, “Much water has passed.” I remember those first days, too, when you were the first Indian I ever saw, there at Seville, you and your parrots. And that was more than fifty years ago! Certainly, I hope you still have your health and that your marriage to Doña Catalina Diaz has gone well.

Facing the ocean here in Barcelona, I realize also that I miss our conversations about the early days and about the Indian causes. It was precisely that breeze from the ocean, the one you always said spoke to you, that seemed to carry the memory of your face and words to me. I realize, too, how much your smile back then as a boy has stayed with me. In some hidden way, I believe the hand of God guided my eyes to that smile, which to this day represents the Taíno smile, the Taíno character to me. It was that quality in your island people that always tugged at me, eliciting finally from my heart a pledge to assist your race. This I have continued to do, since I have seen you last, and the urge is upon me to inform you about it. Again, I see the Lord's mysterious mind at work in my actions.

Since last I saw you I have traveled once to Panama and to Nicaragua, where I have seen the most dismal conditions endured by your mainland relatives. Thus the work on the mainland on behalf of the Indian communities is quite dramatic. I was engaged in attempting to curtail the wars of conquest on the tribes. There I did travel among the Maya Caxiqueles and Kekchies and developed a way of singing to them in order to obtain a peace without horror, without the war. This went well for a time, until certain conquistadors argued that it was not proper, as their rights of tribute and slavery they can obtain only through a war of conquest, thus peaceful conquest they considered high treason.

(The law they don't respect in its spirit but will twist at will, if allowed by its language and interpretation. But then, you always told me that!)

I was run out of Nicaragua, and in Guatemala, Pedro de Alvarado conspired to have me assassinated. The wheel repeats itself, dear Diego and the abuses and cruelties suffered by your people in the islands are continuing here. I abhor it all, my Dieguillo, as I have seen again the new slave markets of Panama and Nicaragua, where your copper people are herded by the hundreds, nay, by the thousands, branded, distributed, and sold, mother torn from infant, husband from wife. Pity the mainland Indians, Dieguillo. The conquest continues.

To Peru I tried to sail, but the winds would not carry me, though I certainly have all the needed testimony to condemn Pizarro and all his henchmen, how they have tortured and quartered those innocent towns of the mountains. To be sure, the methods of conquest used on the islands they have refined on the mainland, where everything is bigger and more abundant.

The war of Enriquillo, dear Diego, was one great mark. I see now how it set a standard for caution, for the option other than war. Men like Fuenleal (remember him?) have continued their magistries in Mexico, Yucatán, and Guatemala—men who knew the suffering of the island Taíno—and who could see that a second generation could still rebel and dangerously assail the Spanish cause. This is of some help now, as I campaign here at the court, petitioning the sovereigns and the Holy Pontiff himself, Pope Paul III, on behalf of the Indies.

Allow me to outline some recent changes that have me highly enthusiastic for a new chapter and many new verses with which to curtail abuses and protect the Indian.

In 1537, after much lobbying, the pope issued his Bulla Sublimis Deus, a bull upholding the rationality of Indians. It rebukes those who argue that the Indians are “beasts of burden that talk,” by proclaiming, as we have so many times, “all the peoples of the world are men.”

It was this bull allowed us to contain Pedro de Alvarado in Guatemala, finally. Pedro Alvarado, who was branding and selling Indians in a wide open slave trade, was opposed by Bishop Francisco Marroquin, also a protector of the Indians. We petitioned also and the
oidores
agreed to let me attempt a peaceful conversion for five years.

Thus it happened, Diego. You should have been there to see it. We wrote songs of peace in the Indian languages, and our merchant friends, Indian, mestizo, and white, sang to the tribes along the rivers, telling of the One True Lord and his Gift of Redemption.
Cacique
after
cacique
came into the fold, Dieguillo, all happy to be baptized. Juan of Atitlan was first in July 1537, but by January 1538, most of the Kekchi
caciquedoms
were with us, what we named the Verapaces, the True Peaces.

This is where everything went bad and the
encomenderos
began attacking me in earnest. This is where they declared it their right to make war on the Indians, even if the innocents had come to offer peaceful tribute! But these new conquistadors are evil men, Dieguillo, raping and killing at will, and they must be stopped before the whole continent is consumed, as were the islands, before a whole race of people is exterminated.

Thus now I can write that we have the New Laws, which passed by the court in 1542. The New Laws completely prohibit Indian slavery and even disallow the
encomienda
. This is the victory we have sought from the Crown, a sword with which to apply the final remedy, a remedy that should not drag on forever but must be followed up with vigor and be decisive!

Thus, Dieguillo, you can see that we are finally gaining the proper resources for our campaign. It pays to persist in one's commitments, for the justice of our One True Lord turns slowly but it turns.

You will hear a great deal about these New Laws in years to come. They go on and on and will protect every facet of Indian existence and will be the backbone of our decisive campaign.

I hope this letter finds you well and you will consider the importance of the work of redemption for our human condition.

Your friend in Christ,

Father Las Casas

Two hundred twenty-seven.
A note for Las Casas.

[Editor's note: What appears to be a response from Diego is found on the back of the three pages of Father Las Casas's letter. Dated in 1546 and titled “A note for Las Casas,” it is indecipherable in parts.]

Once again, I reread the good friar's letter, now three years in my possession. I wish I could speak to him. I had the opportunity two years ago, when he came through, but I did not seek it. I had not the heart nor the time for a meeting. Catalina was dying then, and I had not the inclination to shift my attention from her.

…[illegible]…, they were pelting him with stones, hating him as never before. His monks, those that did not desert him right away, could find no food in town and were jeered whenever they appeared on the streets…[illegible]…then, last year, his flounted New Laws were revocated. In Mexico and Peru, the colonists rebelled against the Crown of Spain. “Don't take away our Indians” was one of their banners. The other one was: “Without Indians to work, the conquest means nothing.”

Oahh,
guatiao
Las Casas, everything you do is good and yet does nothing! So how am I to respond?

I have no health, I would say. Catalina is buried, I would say. Like the final grains of the
ampolleta
, my remaining suns are counted. Our world as we knew it is destroyed, our people are one in one hundred of what they once were. Such is what I would say.

Of our Indian boys and girls, some farm the land, others have gone back to the bush. Three young
guaxeri
Catalina took in. I have taught them what I know of the tracking cure and they trail the spirit like Taíno…I am proud of those boys…[illegible]…“Each of you teach three more,” I told them.

Two hundred twenty-eight.
They will remember, my young generations.

Fray Remigio is here. He brings me plantain, rice, and beans, and I have my
yucca
patch. Now I give the friar everything, all the pages to put away. It is time he took them. Now I draw this sketch, what my father taught me, the real message of our people. Someday they will remember it, my young generations, someday in dreams its meaning will return to them…[illegible]…that way, because in the black of our eyes we were good…it does not die…

Postcript

The treaty with Enriquillo resulted in the settlement of the Indian community at Boyá, in south central Hispaniola. About four thousand Indian people settled at the free Indian community, where Enriquillo officiated until his death, a year later. The Boyá community persisted, and although intermarriage and migration eroded the Indian jurisdiction, factors of Indian ancestry remain in the families of the region today. Around the time of the settlement with Enriquillo, other Taíno groups in Cuba, Santo Domingo and Puerto Rico sought refuge in the mountains of their respective islands, and thus small enclaves of Taíno ancestors survived, some into the twenty-first century. Of course, the Taíno people, in intermarriage with Iberians and Africans, are a major genetic and cultural root of the contemporary Greater Antillean population. The greater Caribbean islands were under Spanish domination until the end of the nineteenth century. About Diego Colón nothing more is known.

Glossary

adelantado.
Spanish military title of forward commander

alguacil.
Marshal or policeman

ampolleta.
Hourglass filled with sand, turned over every half hour to keep time on long voyages

Anacaona.
Taíno
cacica
of the Xaraguá region, sister of Bohechío and wife of Caonabó

areito.
(Taíno) Traditional dances and recitations among the Taíno
caciques
and
behikes

ascendado.
The owner of a hacienda, large ranch, or farm

Asturias.
Region of Spain

axí(es).
(Taíno) Pepper (
Capsicum
spp.)

axiaco.
Taíno-derived word, still in use, for a Caribbean pepper- and corn-based soup always mixed in with
yucca
, ñame, and other island root crops

Bahuruku.
Mountain range in the southwest peninsula of Española, 150 km of coast and 100 km into land. According to Las Casas, it contained a mountain made of salt. It also contains present-day Lake Enriquillo.

Baibrama.
Taíno ceremonial
cemi
and spiritual entity associated with fertility of crops, particularly manioc

Baigua.
(Taíno) A plant used by fishermen to drug fish in the water

Baiguanex.
Medicine man, or
behike
, of Enriquillo

Baracoa.
Taíno word meaning, “existence by the sea,” describes a town in the northeast coast of Cuba

barbacoa (barbecue).
(Taíno) A method of cooking and drying foods by stacking the raw foods in grates and adding tomatoes, peppers, and other condiments

batéy.
(Taíno) A plaza or ceremonial field where
areitos
and ball games were celebrated

Bayamanacoel.
Taíno ancestral character who assisted in the creation of the islands by spitting a
guanguayo
on Deminán

Bayamo.
A large town in eastern Cuba named for its old
cacique's
name

behike.
(Taíno) Medicine man or healer

bejuco.
(Taíno) Various types of vines used as medicinal purgatives and as cord rope for tying and construction

Bohekio.
Cacique
of the Xaraguá region of Española

bohío.
(Taíno) Home or house; also the island of Española

Boricua.
Person or object of Puerto Rican origin

Borikén.
(Taíno) “Land of the valiant
cacique
”; Puerto Rico

brujo.
(Castilian) Male witch

cacicasgo.
Hispanicized Taíno word for the territory or court of a
cacique

cacique.
(Taíno) A regional chief

cagüayo (a).
(Taíno) A longish tree reptile; word still in use in Cuba and Puerto Rico

Caiçiju.
Taíno grandfather of Guarionex, noted for his prophesy of the coming of the Spanish

caimán.
(Taíno) A swamp crocodile endemic to Cuba

cajaya.
(Taíno) Shark

Camagüey.
(Taíno) Sun-drenched savanna; region, province, and city in central eastern Cuba

caona.
(Taíno) Gold

Caonabó.
Taíno or Ciguayo chief of the region of Maguana, in Española

caracol.
(Taíno) Spiraled seashell

Caréy.
(Taíno) Large sea turtle (
Chelonia imbricata
); used here as a personal name

Carib.
Caribbean Indian people from the Lesser Antilles, a term chosen by the Spanish for people reputedly cannibalistic

cassabe.
(Taíno) Tort made from
yucca
or manioc root; word still in use

Castilian.
The language or a subject of Castile, a kingdom (now region) of Spain

ceiba.
(Taíno) Silk cottonwood, a sacred tree; name of Diego's first wife

cemi.
(Taíno) Wooden and stone statuettes representing various spiritual entities

Cibanakán.
(Taíno) A center stone

Çiboney.
(Indo-Antillean) A people in central and western Cuba and in the southern Cuban cays

çibucán.
(Taíno) Net sack used to squeeze juice from the scraped
yucca

Ciguayo.
A tribe of Indians from north and eastern Española; a captain under Enriquillo

cimarrón.
An African escaping slavery who joined the Taíno mountain camps, or
palenques

Coaybay.
Taíno place of the dead

Coatrisquie.
(Taíno) A female spiritual leader of rainy winds at sea

cohoba.
The ground up dust, or snuff, used by the
cacique
,
behike
, and ni-Taíno to enhance their visions and to communicate with the ancestors and other spirits (
Piptadenia peregrina
); the ceremony of
cohoba

Cohobanax.
Fictional name with the word
cohoba
as root and
nax
added to describe an elder in that ceremony

conuco. (
Taíno) A planted field of
yucca
and other crops; an Indian homestead

converso. (
Castilian) A converted Jew

copei (copai).
A tree on whose broad leaves a message could be written

coxibá.
(Taíno) Tobacco plant

Cubanakán.
(Taíno) “Center of the island” (of Cuba)

cucuyo (cocuyo).
From the Taíno word for the Antillean lightning bug. Oviedo notes the
cucuyo
was used for nighttime travel. A hunter of mosquitoes, the
cucuyo
was also introduced under netting and in
bohíos
at night as a form of pest control.

Deminán.
Taíno ancestral character, one of the four directions and four winds, an adventuresome creator of much of the Taíno cosmological world

digo.
(Taíno) A plant whose root and leaf produces a cleansing lather used by the Taíno to bathe

dragas.
“Little people”; word used by Iberian (Gallego) peasantry

duho.
(Taíno) Ceremonial seat or stool low to the ground and fashioned from wood or stone

encierro.
The gathering of the bulls prior to a bull run

encomienda.
Spanish system of giving Indian villages to specific Spanish conquistadors or grandees to whom the Indian community was
encomended
to be Christianized in return for their land and their free labor

Enriquillo
. Taíno
cacique
(d. 1535) whose thirteen-year war is described by Diego in the present journal

escarmiento.
(Spanish) A serious warning or lesson

Española.
Present-day Haiti/Santo Domingo, variously known as Bohío and Quisqueya and renamed Isla Española by Columbus. The word is also anglicized to
Hispaniola
.

fascineroso.
(Spanish) A torrid or agitated person

Fernandina.
Christopher Columbus's early attempt to rename Cuba

goeiz (a).
(Taíno) “Spirit of (in) a living person”

Gonzalo.
A captain under Enriquillo

Guaikán.
(Taíno) A remora, pilot fish, or sucker fish; Diego Colón's Indian name

Guamax.
Taíno
cacique
of Baracoa area of eastern Cuba

Guamíquina.
(Taíno) Chief or head man; the name given to Columbus by his early hosts

Guanahabax.
Name combining
Guanahaní
, “the island,” and
bax
, “principal man”

Guanahaní.
Indian name for the Bahamian island first sighted by Columbus

Guanahaníkan.
Name combining
Guanahaní
(the name of the island) with
kan
, Taíno for “center,”(as in Cubanakán, an Indian region in central Cuba)

guanguayo.
(Taíno) Spittle of mixed
cohoba
and tobacco juice; spat on Deminán's back by Bayamonacoel

guanin.
(Taíno) A shiny metal or copper

guarikén.
A Taíno expression, registered by Las Casas, meaning “Come look and see”

Guarionex.
Taíno
cacique
of the region of Magua, in Española

Guarocuya.
Enriquillo's Taíno name; also, an earlier Taíno rebellious
cacique

guásima.
Cuban “tree of life,” sacred to Taíno and their
guajiro
ethnic and cultural descendants

g
uatiao.
(Taíno) Friend, particularly one with whom a name has been exchanged

guaxeri (later guajiro).
(Taíno) “One of our humans,” or countryman

guayaba.
(Taíno) A sweet fruit with high ceremonial importance; guava (
Psidium guajava
)

güira.
(Taíno) Gourd (
Crescentia cujete
)

Hatuey.
“Certainty of Sun in the Sky”; Taíno
cacique
from Española who fled over to Cuba, warning of Spanish lust for gold

hicara.
(Taíno) Receptacle made out of a gourd

hicotea.
(Taíno) Freshwater turtle

higüe.
(Taíno) “Little people” who normally live around a stream or spring

himagua.
(Taíno) Twin

hutía.
Rodent of the West Indies (
Solenodon paradoxus
), eaten by early Taíno and present-day
guajiro

hyen.
(Taíno) The poisonous juice of the
yucca
after it's squeezed from the scraped pulp

iguana.
(Taíno) A large, edible lizard (
Iguana tuberculata
)

inriri.
(Taíno) Woodpecker (
Melanerpes portoricensis
)

Itiba Cahobaba.
Taíno female deity, mother of the four creator twins, including the one named Deminán

jaba.
(Taíno) Sack or bag

jaguajiguatu.
Reconstructed Taino word meaning “fire in the loins”

kaçi.
(Taíno) Moon

Kwaib.
Term used by contemporary chiefs of the Carib territory in Salybia, Dominica, to describe their people

lucayo.
Taíno-derived word for the Taíno inhabiting the small Bahamian islands

macana.
War club made of the palm tree

macanear.
To hit (common verb in West Indies); from the Taíno word for “war club” or “coral ax,”
macana

Macorixe.
A little-documented Caribbean indigenous people identified at various times in Española, Jamaica, and Cuba, noted for their archery

macoutí.
(Taíno) “Without feet”; back sack

maguacokío.
(Taíno) “Covered men with swords that can cut a man in half with one strike”

Maguana.
Taíno
cacicasgo
in south central Española led by
cacique
Caonabó at contact

mahá.
(Taíno) The largest nonpoisonous snake in the Greater Antilles

maize.
Taíno-derived word for corn; Maisí Point, easternmost point in Cuba

mamey.
(Taíno) A tropical fruit

manatí.
Antillean sea cow, or manatee (
Trichechus manatus
)

manaya.
(Taíno) Stone hatchet

manigua.
(Taíno) High grass country; also wild country

mánso.
(Castilian) Tame; an Indian living in the Spanish hold

maraca.
(Taíno) Rattle made from a gourd

maravedí.
Spanish copper coin with limited purchasing power

Marién.
A chiefdom and territory of Española

Matinin
ó
.
Caribbean island(s) reputedly inhabited by Amazonian women

Mencia.
Wife of
cacique
Enriquillo, a leader of noble Taíno lineage

naboria.
(Taíno) A class of workers, not clearly slaves, that served Taíno society in domestic and field work, likely from earlier migrant groups to the islands

ni-taíno.
(Caribbean Indian) The rank of principal people, council of elders, just under the
cacique
families; the more constant form of
Taíno
used throughout history

ñame.
Likely Taíno word for edible sweet tuber, or sweet potato; there is dispute as to the Amerindian or African origins of this word.

oidor.
(Castilian) A type of judge or “hearer” in the colonial Spanish legal system

opía.
(Taíno) The spirit of the human and animals after death

Opiyelguobirán.
Taíno
cemi
and guardian spirit of the Spirit World

repartimientos.
The act of giving out or splitting of lands with Indians attached to form
encomiendas

Romero.
A captain under Enriquillo

sinrazón.
(Castilian) Action, usually brusque, “without reason”