74 HISTORY OF THE [BOOK i. 



order of nobles, or the nature and extent of their sub- 

 ordinate jurisdiction. 



i 



The whole island of Hispaniola was divided into 

 five great kingdoms ;f of two of which, when Co- 

 lumbus first landed, Guacanahari and Behechio were 

 absolute sovereigns. A third principal cacique was 

 Cuanaboa, whose history is remarkable: He had 

 been originally a war captain among a body of Cha- 

 raibes, who had invaded the dominions of Behechio, 

 and, on condition of preventing the further incursions 

 of his countrymen, had received his sister, the beau- 

 tiful Anacoana, in marriage ; together with an extent 

 of country, which he had converted into a separate 

 kingdom. The establishment of this leader and his 

 followers in Hispaniola, had introduced into this part 

 of the island the Charaibean language, and also 

 the use of the bow and arrow ;J a weapon with the 

 practice of which the natives of the larger islands 

 were generally unacquainted. Cuanabba however 

 still retained his ferocious disposition, and having been 

 accused by Guacanahari before Christopher Columbus, 

 of murdering some of the Spaniards, was ordered by 

 that commander to be sent to Spain: but the ship pe- 

 rished at sea. The sad fate of his unfortunate widow, 

 the innocent Anacoana, who was most atrociously 

 murdered in 1505, by Ovando, the governor of Hi- 

 spaniola, for no cause that I can discover, but her 

 fond attachment to Bartholomew Columbus, having 



f- Oviedo, lib. iii. c. iv, 

 J Oviedo, lib. iii. 



