of the world to be replaced by cargoes of sugar and other 

 products of the island. At the street crossings we stepped 

 over the barrels of old cannon, now being utilized as curb- 

 stones. 



It did not take us long to discover that although Cap 

 Haitien is a city rich in history, there are few landmarks 

 left of its early days. A brief review of the island's stormy 

 past soon told us why. 



Navidad, Columbus's first settlement in the New 

 World, was created of necessity following the loss of the 

 Santa Maria. It did not endure very long, for when Colum- 

 bus returned from Spain the following year with ships and 

 men to reinforce the Spanish colony, he found that tlie 

 colonists he had left behind had been massacred and the 

 town destroyed. He then selected a location farther east 

 along the coast in what is now the Dominican Republic, 

 nearer the region where gold was to be found. Thus the 

 white man's occupancy in the area of Cap Haitien died a 

 quick death. 



Unbelievably, within fifteen years of the Spaniards' 

 arrival, all but a few thousand of the three hundred thou- 

 sand Indians who had inhabited the island had been en- 

 slaved and destroyed. Western Hispaniola, with its rugged 

 mountain terrain, became a neglected land, for as soon as 

 the quick fortunes to be obtained from gold and enslaved 

 manpower began to dwindle, the bulk of the Spanish ad- 

 venturers moved on to the riches of Mexico and South 

 America. 



It was inevitable at this time that pirates should ap- 

 pear in adjoining seas to harry the richly laden ships which 

 sailed constantly for Spain. Tortuga Island, with its un- 

 approachable shores and mountain fastnesses, became a 

 haven for the rough characters who manned the pirate 

 ships. Wandering to the shores of Hispaniola in search of 



Search for the Santa Maria 173 



