ETHNOLOGY OF THE CIGUAYAN INDIANS 29 



their weapons. Two bows were purchased by members of the crew, 

 two others having previously been purchased from the Indian who 

 had been aboard the Niiia. The natives soon took alarm and rushed 

 to their weapons. The boat's crew defended themselves and wounded 

 two of the natives, but w^ere restrained by the boat's pilot from 

 inflicting further injury on the Ciguayans and urged to return to 

 their ship. This hostile encounter occurred on Sunday the 14th of 

 January, 1493. The following day the Indians, who had fled when 

 the Spanish had wounded two of their number, returned in large 

 numbers. Their cacique, Mayobanex, was with them, together with 

 three of his attendants. The Indian who had been aboard the Nina 

 the day before again came aboard with the cacique Mayobanex and 

 his attendants. Columbus invited them to lunch with him on honey 

 and ship's biscuit. The cacique Maj^obanex presented Columbus with 

 a necklace of shell beads before being rowed to the Nina, and on his 

 arrival at the ship Columbus gave him and his attendants red caps 

 and bits of cloth and beads. When Mayobanex returned to his village 

 on the north shore of the peninsula the following day he sent to 

 Columbus by messenger a " coronet " of gold. 



Because of the hostile attack of the Ciguayan Indians with their 

 bows and arrows on the Mth of January, Columbus named the small 

 bay where he lay at anchor the " Bay of Arrows " (Golfo de las 

 Flechas). Tradition places this bay a short distance eastward from 

 the town of Santa Barbara de Samana, on the north shore of Samana 

 Bay. The inlet is still named " Golfo de las Flechas." The bows 

 used by the Ciguayan Indians of Samana were of a hard wood, black 

 in color, probably lignum vitae. The bows were reported to be 

 almost as long as those used by the French and English archers. 

 Arrows were provided with foreshafts of hard wood which were 

 attached to reed shafts about 1 meter long. The foreshaft was 

 hardened in fire and tipped with a fish tooth or bone splinter and 

 then dipped in a poison. Some writers speak of the natives of 

 Samana as having had spears like poles, long and heavy. Their war 

 club was a sword-club of hard palm wood, flat in section, and must 

 have resembled the typical war club still used by the Indian tribes 

 of the tropical lowlands of northern South America. 



The costume of the Samana Ciguayans was negligible. The hair 

 was worn long and tied in a bunch at the back of the crown of the 

 head, giving an effect " as the women of Spain wear it." Plumes of 

 parrot feathers and of other birds were inserted. No mention is 

 made by early writers of a headdress of feathers arranged in the form 

 of a crown wherein each feather was attached at the base of the quill 

 to a woven band. This form of headdress is characteristic of the 

 Arawak and Carib Tribes of northern South America. 

 44055—29 3 



