FDWKEsJ ( ULTT'RE AREAS IX THE WEST IXPIES 243 



found the natives living in houses, making use of hammocks of cotton 

 and palm fibers, and {possessing stone idols and carved ^YOoden masks. 

 Columbus learned from them of a ruler, whom he called king, of a 

 country to the south, which was rich in gold. Xothing is said in his 

 diary of the natives to the west of the landfall, but he sailed westward 

 a few leagues along the northern shore without finding people worthy 

 of special mention. Later, turning back, he rounded Cape Maysi 

 and examined a section of the southern coast, but was not attracted 

 farther toward the west. On this side of Cuba he again heard of 

 the wealth of the Indians of the south. The implication is that the 

 people of eastern Cuba knew of the Haitians and recognized that their 

 culture was superior to that of the western end of their own island. 

 They held out no inducement to Columbus to extend his explorations 

 westward, as we might susi^ect they would have dgne had there been a 

 superior race in that end of the island. 



The great (xenoese returned to Cuba on his second voyage and 

 explored the entire southern shore. Bernaldez, to whom we owe 

 an account of this visit, scarcely mentions the Indians in this part 

 of the island, although he describes the Jamaicans in some detail, 

 regarding them a highly developed race. Many native fishermen 

 were seen along the shore, but they were evidently lower in develop- 

 ment than the Jamaicans, whose canoes (according to Bernaldez) 

 were jjainted. better made, and more luxuriantly ornamented than 

 those of the Cubans. 



Numerous references might be quoted from the writings of those 

 who followed Columbus, showing that the i)rehistoric customs and 

 languages of the natives of the eastern and western ends of the island 

 were not the same. In the judgment of many of the Spanish con- 

 querors, among whom Diego Velazquez may especially be mentioned, 

 the natives of Cuba were more susceptible to Christianity than the 

 other West Indians, but they say that this docility was not true of 

 all the Cubans, some being less tractable than others. The extreme 

 we-stern end of Cuba was said to have been inhabited by barbarous 

 Indians similar to those living in Guacayarima,"' the Province at the 

 western end of Haiti. The Spanish writers declare that these natives 

 could net speak: by which is probably meant that their language was 

 different from that of any otiier Indians of these islands. Bachiller y 

 Morales says that the Cruanahatebeyes (Guanacahibes), who li\ed in 

 the interior of Cuba, were savages who did not treat with the other 

 Indians. He adds that they lived in caves, which they left only to 

 go fishing, and quotes from older writers"^ that there were other 



"' A town on the island of Trinidad, where survivors of the Indians still live, is called 

 Arini:i. There is another Trinidad village called Naparinia. 

 "' Cuba Primitiva, p. 2ii0. 



