MATERIAL, CULTURE OF THE INDIANS OF SAMANA 33 



pears in two volumes. The first Decade was published in 1511 and 

 is drawn from accounts and observations of Andreas Moralis, who 

 was sent by Governor Ovando, the successor of Christopher Columbus 

 as governor of Haiti, to explore the interior of the island. Much of 

 Martyr's work is pure gossip, for he admits that everyone who had 

 been to the Indies visited him. It is therefore unreliable, but so 

 far as it follows Moralis appears to be authentic. 



Fernandez de Oviedo y Valdez published his Natural History of 

 the Indies in 1526. Jefferys, in his Natural and Civil History, pub- 

 lished in London in 1760, follows Oviedo throughout in his descrip- 

 tions of the natives of Haiti. Oviedo was living in Haiti shortly 

 after Moralis explored the interior. A French edition of Oviedo 

 was published in Paris in 1556. Jefferys writes there were but 100 

 natives still living in Haiti in 1730 and but 4,000 in 1550. 



Girolamo Benzoni visited Haiti in 1541 and spent 14 years there. 

 His book, the History of the New World, had been translated and was 

 published by the Hakluyt Society of London in 1857. Benzoni lived 

 the simple life while in Haiti, even to the extent of making his own 

 cassava bread. His observations are therefore first hand. 



Charlevoix published his Historia de I'Isle Espagnole in 1730. It 

 is supposed that Charlevoix also borrowed from Oviedo. Charle- 

 voix's map, showing location of native Provinces, is particularly 

 valuable. 



Bartholomew de Las Casas is the apostle of the decline of the native 

 population and the principal accuser of Spanish misrule. Of all his 

 numerous writings, the two most important in American history and 

 West Indian ethnology are the Historia General and the Historia 

 Apologetica de las Inclias. Las Casas tells that he began this latter 

 work in 1527 while living in the Dominican monastery near Puerto 

 de Plata. It was not until 1875 that a complete edition of these two 

 works appeared in the Spanish press. 



Herrera's book, published in 1601, is to a great extent extracted 

 from the larger works of Las Casas. Both of these writers make 

 repeated reference to the Ciguayan Indians of Samana. In the 

 Journal of the First Voyage of Christopher Columbus appear in 

 detail the first-hand impressions of the admiral. This is a rather 

 complete account of his contacts with natives of Haiti, among them 

 those of Samana. Las Casas had access to it when he wrote his 

 history. He gives a full abstract, which was condensed by Herrera. 

 The Hakluyt Society published the Journal in English in 1893. 



MATERIAL CULTURE OF THE INDIANS OF SAMANA 



The material culture of the Ciguayan Indians of Samana is South 

 American in o»igin and, in a general way, in content. Relationship 

 is with the agricultural peoples of the tropical lowlands of the 



