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Ethnohistory 62:1 (January 2015) DOI 10.1215/00141801-2821644
Copyright 2015 by American Society for Ethnohistory
Mobility and Disdain: Columbus and
Cannibals in the Land of Cotton
William F. Keegan, Florida Museum of Natural History
Abstract. The premise of this contribution is that some of the observations regard-
ing the indigenous peoples of the Bahama archipelago (“Lucayans”) recorded in the
diario of Christopher Columbus’s rst voyage to America provide the opportunity
to infer precontact practices. Important observations in the diario for the Bahamas
are descriptions of exchanges between the Lucayans and the Spanish. These descrip-
tions indicate that cotton, parrots, and wood javelins were considered by the Luca-
yans to be appropriate “gifts.” This article explores the possibility that Lucayan/
Spanish exchanges refract traditional precontact exchange practices. In addition,
Columbus observed wounds on the bodies of the rst men he met. He interpreted
these wounds as resulting from incursions by a superior civilization that sought to
subjugate and enslave the “simple” and “naked” Lucayans. Throughout the diario,
Columbus maintains the belief that he had reached Asia, and the land of the Grand
Can (“Caniba”). These names and associated behaviors (anthropophagy) do not
represent or portray the native peoples of the Caribbean Islands. In contrast, the
wounds observed are interpreted as emblematic of the potential for hostilities that
permeate tribal exchange relations.
Keywords. Columbus, cannibals, pre- Columbian exchange
The diario of Christopher Columbus’s rst voyage includes various obser-
vations regarding the native peoples of the Bahamas. Some historians
attribute diario reports of hostile “Indios” in the Bahamas to the Island
Carib (Craton and Saunders 1992: 18, 400n17). Others have used these
descriptions to characterize Carib cultural practices (including cannibal-
ism) (Allaire 1996, 2013; Boucher 1992; Petitjean Roget 2013; Whitehead
1995; cf. Davis and Goodwin 1990; Reid 2009; Sued Badillo 1978; White-
Ethnohistory
Published by Duke University Press
2 William F. Keegan
head 2011; Wilson 2007). I have addressed this interpretation in previous
publications and concluded that the reports do not pertain to native Caribs
(Keegan 1996, 2007). Here I suggest that what Columbus interpreted to
be warfare was actually an element of native exchange relations between
the islands. I begin by briey discussing the documentary evidence for hos-
tile relations in the northern Caribbean. Next, I present evidence from the
diario that goods, particularly cotton thread, were produced primarily for
exchange. I conclude with a discussion of mobility and exchange to dem-
onstrate that the hostilities reported by Columbus are basic to traditional
practices of exchange. The goal is to create a more complete understanding
of cultural practices in the northern Caribbean, which is here dened as
the region encompassing the north coast of Cuba and Hispaniola and the
Bahama archipelago (g. 1).
To accomplish this goal, I rely on the exact transcription and transla-
tion of The Diario of Christopher Columbus’s First Voyage to America, 1492–
1493, prepared by Oliver Dunn and James E. Kelley Jr. (1989). It is gener-
ally accepted that Columbus kept a running journal of his rst voyage, that
the original was lost, and that a version of the journal was transcribed by
Figure 1. Map of the Bahamas. Courtesy of Joshua M. Torres
Ethnohistory
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Mobility and Disdain 3
Bartolomé de las Casas in 1530. “The [las Casas] manuscript consists of
seventy- six large- sized paper folios written on both sides in a small, cursive
hand, forty to fty lines to the page” (Dunn and Kelley 1989: 5). English
translations are quoted in the text, and the original Spanish for the most
important quotations is presented in notes.
Columbus and Cannibals
Conventional and popular history characterize the Caribbean islands as
populated by peaceful Arawaks (Taíno) and cannibal Caribs (Craton and
Saunders 1992; Michener 1989; compare Rouse 1992: 21–23). The basis
for this dichotomy is derived from the diario of Columbus’s rst voyage
(Dunn and Kelley 1989). In his initial encounters with the native peoples of
the Bahamas, Cuba, and Hispaniola, he repeatedly sought directions to the
city of the Grand Khan. Not only was he convinced that Cuba was tierra
rme, he also believed that he was only a short distance from the province of
this Asiatic ruler. Moreover, Columbus expected that such a powerful ruler
had a standing army that he used to subjugate the simple peoples Colum-
bus encountered in the islands. Columbus associated weapons (e.g., metal
swords and guns) and warfare (e.g., raiding to capture slaves) with civili-
zation. In his opinion, the people he encountered in the Bahamas were not
“civilized,” but they could be converted easily to the Christian faith and put
to work in the service of the Lord and the Spanish Crown (Colomb 1991, 12
October 1492; Dunn and Kelley 1989: 65, 67, 69).
All indications of hostile encounters were attributed to the Caniba, the
people of the Grand Khan (Dunn and Kelley 1989: 217):
And they appear to mean that here behind this Hispaniola, which
they call Caritaba, there is a landmass of exceedingly large size. And
perhaps they are right, for they may be oppressed by cunning people,
because the people of all these islands live in great fear of those from
Caniba. And thus I say again how other times I said, he says, that
Caniba is nothing else but the people of the Grand Khan, who must be
here very close to this place. And they have ships and come to capture
the islanders, and since they do not return the other islanders think that
they have been eaten.
Ten passages in the diario mention “Caribes,” “Caniba,” “Canima,”
and/or “Cannibales” (Keegan 2007: 35). All of these are abstractions made
by las Casas, so it is possible the original text was altered (Henige 1991).
The characteristics repeatedly attributed to these Caribes describe a mythi-
cal being: “He [Columbus] understood also that, far from there, there were
Ethnohistory
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4 William F. Keegan
one- eyed men, and others, with snouts of dogs, who ate men, and that as
soon as one was taken they cut his throat and drank his blood and cut o
his genitals” (Dunn and Kelley 1989: 133). Accompanying this passage is
las Casas’s note in the margin: “Todo esto devian de dezir dlos caribes” (All
this must be said of the Caribes).
The most compelling evidence that Columbus imposed his expec-
tations on the situations he observed comes from his admission that the
native peoples originally identied him as a Caribe. Had the native peoples
truly known Caribes, they would not have confused them with the Spanish
(Dunn and Kelley 1989: 167):
And when they saw that he [Columbus] was taking this route [east
toward the land of the Caribe], he says that they could not talk, because
the cannibals eat them, and that they are people very well armed. The
Admiral says that well he believes there is something in what they say,
but since they were armed they must be people of intelligence; and
he believed that they must have captured some of them and because
they did not return to their own lands they would say that they ate
them. They believed the same thing about the Christians and about the
Admiral when some Indians rst saw them.
At this point in the voyage Columbus was o the north coast of Cuba.
He had changed direction and was sailing toward the east. Columbus does
not seem to have appreciated the geographical contradictions. He believed
that the islands he reached were o the east coast of Asia and that the Caniba
lived farther to the West. In contrast, the indigenous captives on board his
ship were frightened because Columbus was sailing east toward the land
of the Caribes. When Columbus departed for Spain from the east coast of
the Dominican Republic (Colomb 1991, 16 January 1493; Dunn and Kelley
1989: 353), he was “told” that to the east was the (mythical) Carib Island
(Keegan 2007: 41–42).
Columbus’s assertion that the Spanish were identied as Caribes and
cannibals was conrmed by the Jeronomite friar Ramón Pané in his account
of Macorix (some would say Taíno) beliefs recorded on the north coast
of Hispaniola circa 1498 (Arrom 1974; Keegan 1996, 2007; Oliver 2009;
Stevens- Arroyo 1988). Pané wrote (Bourne 1906: 334):
And they say that this cacique had armed that he had spoken with
Giocauuaghama [Yocahuguamá, or Yocahu in the vernacular] who
told him that whoever remained alive after his death should enjoy the
rule over them only a short time, because they would see in their coun-
try a people clothed which was to rule them and to slay them and they
Ethnohistory
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Mobility and Disdain 5
would die of hunger. At rst they thought these would be the Canni-
bales; but reecting that they only plundered and ed they believed
that it must be another people that the cemi spoke of. Wherefore they
now believe that it was the Admiral and the people he brought with
him.
By deconstructing entries in the diario, it becomes clear that Columbus
did not understand what the native peoples were trying to communicate:
“Also I do not know the language, and the people of these islands do not
understand me nor do I, nor anyone else I have with me, them. And many
times I understand one thing said by these Indians that I bring for another,
its contrary; nor do I trust them much, because many times they have tried
to ee” (Dunn and Kelley 1989: 183, 217). This situation leaves Columbus’s
interpretations of events in question. Nevertheless, insights are to be gained
by discounting his conclusions and emphasizing his observations. In other
words, more weight is given to passages where Columbus described what
he saw, and less credence is given to passages where he interprets what he
was told. The key observations for this article concern evidence for cotton
production and hostilities among the native peoples.
The Land of Cotton (and Javelins)
Columbus encountered only shing villages along the north coast of Cuba
(the larger settlements were located on the hillsides above the coast), where
he observed nets and hammocks made of cotton (Dunn and Kelley 1989:
131). He sent two emissaries to visit a large village, which they reported as
twelve leagues (about forty- eight miles) inland, that reportedly had fty
houses and a thousand inhabitants: “And they saw a large quantity of cotton
collected and spun and worked; and in a single house they had seen more
than 500 arrobas (11–12 kg/arroba), and that one might get there each year
4,000 quintales” (about 85,000 kg) (139).
For Columbus, this truly was a land of cotton. Cotton appeared to
grow naturally, uncultivated, “and I believe that they have cotton to pick
in all seasons because I saw open pods, and others opening and owers, all
on one tree” (135). Moreover, cotton literally rained from the sky: “There
grow in the mountains very large trees of it” (139). These trees were likely
the ceiba, or silk cotton (Ceiba pentandra), which grow to more than thirty-
three meters tall with buttresses more than ten meters wide at the base of the
trunk (Keegan and Carlson 2008: 112–13). The tree produces long, ellipti-
cal fruits seven to fteen centimeters long. These fruits contain many seeds
surrounded by a dense mat of cottony bers. The tree gets its common name
Ethnohistory
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6 William F. Keegan
from these bers, which rain from the tree when the fruits ripen. The bers
are almost pure cellulose, buoyant, and impervious to water, but they can-
not be spun and do not lend themselves to the manufacture of thread.
Columbus was repeatedly impressed by the volume of spun cotton
oered by the natives: “They brought balls of spun cotton and parrots and
javelins and other little things that it would be tiresome to write down, and
they gave everything for anything that was given to them” (Dunn and Kelley
1989: 71). “I even saw 16 balls of cotton given for 3 Portuguese çeotis [cop-
per coin], which is a Castilian blanca. And in them there was probably more
than an arroba [eleven to twelve kg] of spun cotton” (73).
The production of cotton in such large quantities was clearly a com-
mercial enterprise (Morsink 2012). Environmental conditions in the
Bahama archipelago are especially well suited to cotton cultivation. Dur-
ing the plantation period after 1798, European planters emphasized cot-
ton while their Caribbean neighbors focused on sugarcane. Their endeavors
were quite protable until boll weevil infestations and several hurricanes
destroyed the cotton plantation economy (Craton and Saunders 1992).
European planters independently re-created the agricultural practices of
the indigenous Lucayans, with whom they apparently had no contact.
The prestations (gifts) of cotton thread in large balls, parrots, and
javelins identies these as important items of production for exchange. The
presence of objects made from cotton and the storage of balls of cotton
thread in a house in Cuba and later in Hispaniola (Keegan 2007: 33) sug-
gest that cotton thread produced in the Bahamas was destined for manufac-
turing enclaves in the Greater Antilles. When Columbus sought directions
to the province of the Grand Khan, gold, and merchants, he was repeat-
edly directed toward Cuba. At a village on the north end of Long Island,
Bahamas (Fernandina), he was “told” to round the island to the north and
then sail to the southwest (Dunn and Kelley 1989: 91). A storm prevented
him from taking that course, and instead he sailed to the east- southeast o
the east coast of Fernandina until he reached Crooked Island, which his
Lucayan captives called Samoet and he renamed Isabela (95). Here “The
Indians that he brought said that from the islands to Cuba was a journey of
a day and a half in their dugouts” (115).
With regard to indigenous vessels (canoa): “They came to the ship with
dugouts that are made from the trunk of one tree, like a long boat, and all
of one piece, and worked marvelously in the fashion of the land, and so big
that in some of them 40 and 45 men came” (69).
Columbus’s vessels were certainly unusual, but they pale in comparison
to the indigenous dugout canoes. For example, the Niña was approximately
15 meters (50 feet) in length on deck and carried approximately thirty- nine
Ethnohistory
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Mobility and Disdain 7
men. The native canoes observed in the Bahamas and Cuba were larger and
carried more men. In Cuba, the diario states: “Near one stream they saw a
handsome dugout or canoe 95 palmos in length [approximately 73 meters
or more than 150 feet], made of a single timber; and in it a hundred and fty
persons would t and navigate” (Dunn and Kelley 1989: 189). Columbus
also reported that these dugouts could be paddled as fast as a caravel could
sail (about six knots per hour). Because he was an experienced sailor, there
is good reason to accept the veracity of his observations (see Callaghan
2013). His two caravels (the Santa María is described as a nao or carrack)
reect modications to the Roman galley, which is basically a dugout canoe
with extended freeboard, multiple decks for rowers, and a platform deck
for artillery and soldiers. Galleys were important vessels of war until the late
sixteenth century. Some achieved enormous size and had as many as three
banks of oars (“trireme”). It is likely that Columbus was familiar with such
vessels and therefore accurately described native dugouts. In other words,
the indigenous maritime technology was to be expected for any maritime
civilization. It supported his belief that he was close to Cipango and in the
territory ruled by the Grand Khan.
In contrast, the subtext of historical discourse is that Spanish tech-
nology was so superior to anything in the islands that the Lucayans cowered
before their visitors (Dunn and Kelley 1989: 74), “giving thanks to God,
throwing themselves on the ground.” This perspective is often supported
by Columbus’s assertion that one old man who boarded his ship called out
to the others (75): “Come see the men who came from the heavens. Bring
them something to eat and drink.” However, “heaven,” if Columbus accu-
rately translated this man’s utterances, had a very dierent meaning to the
Lucayans. In the native language, objects from “heaven” (turey) also meant
anything that came from over the horizon (Granberry and Vescelius 2004;
Keegan 2007: 30). Yet the people repeatedly swam and paddled to Colum-
bus’s ships, which indicates that they did not fear the Spanish. An alterna-
tive explanation is that the Lucayans were behaving as they normally would
when a trading vessel arrived from foreign lands.
Exchange was an important element of Lucayan life. Objects made from
nonlocal materials have been recovered from archaeological sites through-
out the Bahama archipelago (Berman, Gnivecki, and Pateman 2013). These
artifacts include pottery with igneous and metamorphic inclusions (temper)
and igneous and metamorphic stone tools. The Bahamas have an entirely
carbonate matrix (Sealey 1985); thus igneous and metamorphic materials
had to be transported to these islands. They do not occur naturally any-
where in the Bahama archipelago. In addition, archaeological evidence for
contact between the Bahamas and Cuba has been found in the Jumentos
Ethnohistory
Published by Duke University Press
8 William F. Keegan
Cays located 100 kilometers west of the Bahamas and 150 kilometers north-
east of Cuba (Keegan and de Bry 2013). The archaeological evidence sup-
ports the interpretation that the indigenous Lucayans directed Columbus to
Cuba, the larger island with which they were aliated.
Columbus’s rst encounters with the indigenous Bahamians (Luca-
yans) reect native exchange practices upon the arrival of trading canoes
from other islands. Men carrying spears met the arriving party on the
beach. Goods were oered by each party and were either accepted or
rejected in whole. The exchange could end peacefully with both parties sat-
ised, while unsatisfactory exchanges could result in an immediate ght or
delayed retaliation.
Mobility and Disdain
Columbus named the rst island he visited San Salvador. The native Luca-
yans, who lived on this island at the eastern range of the central Bahamas,
called it Guanahaní (Dunn and Kelley 1989: 65, 67):
Later they came swimming to the ships’ launches where we were and
brought us parrots and cotton thread in balls and javelins and many
other things, and they traded them to us for other things which we gave
them, such as small glass beads and bells. In sum, they took everything
and gave of what they had willingly. But it seemed to me that they were
a people very poor in everything. All of them go around naked as their
mothers bore them; and the women also, although I did not see more
than one quite young girl. And those that I saw were young people, for
none did I see of more than 30 years of age.
Their javelins are shafts without iron and some of them have at
the end a sh tooth and others of other things. All of them alike are
of good- sized stature and carry themselves well. I saw some who had
marks of wounds on their bodies and I made signs to them asking what
they were; and they showed me how people from other islands nearby
came there and tried to take them, and how they defended themselves;
and I believed and believe that they come from tierra rme to take them
captive.
Caribbean archaeologists have devoted considerable attention to the
movement of raw materials and nished goods throughout the islands
based on the identication of sources and culture- specic motifs (e.g., Hof-
man and Bright 2010; Hofman et al. 2008; Mol 2013; Morsink 2013; Rouse
1992). However, the organics of protean exchange relationships are di-
Ethnohistory
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Mobility and Disdain 9
cult to specify in the absence of ethnographic and/or ethnohistoric obser-
vations. The quote that begins this section records that young men armed
with spears challenged Columbus and that their bodies exhibited wounds
from hostile encounters. Columbus interprets their gestures as indicating
that they were wounded when their superior enemies (Caniba) came to the
island to capture them. An alternate interpretation is that these wounds
were obtained during trading expeditions.
I specically chose the word disdain to highlight the negative side of
mobility and exchange. The movement of people and goods from one loca-
tion to another is often expressed as a relation of push and pull. Both are
part of the same cost/benet equation. The attraction of a new location is
weighed against the negative qualities of the prior location. In other words,
the target is promoted through disdain for the source (Keegan 2010).
The fundamental exchange in all societies is marriage (Leví- Strauss
1969). The exchange of spouses is supposed to formalize relations between
kin groups to promote a peaceful relationship. However, even this most
basic alliance is fraught with mistrust and disdain (Helms 1998), even to the
point of anes portrayed as enemies (Brown 1964).
As social relations expand from this smoldering core, the potential
for agonistic relations increases. In fact, the ethnographic literature sug-
gests that many tribal societies are in a near constant state of warfare with
their neighbors (e.g., Ember 1974; Haas 1990). Nowhere is hostile postur-
ing more evident than in nonmarket and nonbarter economies where presta-
tions are oered and either accepted or declined (Mauss 1990). There is no
negotiation of price; no give- and- take; exchange is one- and- done.
Exchanges often are choreographed as ritualized battles (Rubel and
Rosman 1978). The most relevant examples for the present case are the
Kula and related interisland exchange networks in Melanesia (Malinowski
1922), where going to trade was the equivalent to going to war (Macintyre
1983). In sum, trading and raiding are basic elements of exchange relations.
I am not suggesting that all exchanges were hostile. The point is that the
potential for hostilities always was present. Columbus’s observations sug-
gest that hostilities were a component of indigenous exchange relations in
the Bahamas.
Conclusions
When Columbus arrived in the Bahamas, he believed he had reached islands
o the coast of Asia. Immediately he sought directions to the province of
the Grand Khan. Young men carrying spears met Columbus on the beach at
Guanahaní. A sucient number of them displayed wounds for Columbus
Ethnohistory
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10 William F. Keegan
to make note, which led him to conclude that the Caniba, “the people of
the Grand Can,” were attacking them and taking them captive. In this ini-
tial encounter, Columbus introduced a name that later was interpreted as
indicating that the islands were inhabited by cannibals. However, Caniba
and cannibal are distinct and unrelated concepts (Keegan 1996, 2007).
Furthermore, Robert A. Myers (1984) reviewed the available documentary
evidence for cannibalism in the Caribbean, including the Lucayans with
wounds, and concluded that there was no solid evidence for anthropophagy
in the islands (also see Arens 1979; Whitehead 2011).
Columbus’s initial interactions with the native Lucayans were repeated
on every island that he visited in the Bahamas. The native peoples made
prestations of valued commodities (e.g., cotton thread, parrots, and jave-
lins) and received objects of European origin in return. Although the Span-
ish placed little value in the objects they oered (e.g., broken crockery,
coins of small denomination), the relevant comparison is the value attrib-
uted to these exotic objects by the Lucayans.
The signicance of these exchanges is the documentation of native
exchange practices that are archaeologically invisible. They demonstrate
that the Lucayans produced cotton, parrots, and javelins; that these were
considered appropriate for exchange with native groups living in Cuba and
possibly Hispaniola (Morsink 2012); and that they maintained large vessels
(dugout canoes) to facilitate long- distance voyages of exchange. Moreover,
these exchanges included both the positive and negative components of tra-
ditional praxis in which the receivers demean the quality and quantity of
the goods oered in relation to the return gift (Mauss 1990). In nonmar-
ket and nonbarter economies, either prestations are accepted as oered or
the exchange ends in a ght. Episodes of exchange that ended badly could
account for the wounds observed by Columbus.
Numerous publications on the (Island) Carib begin with Columbus
(e.g., Allaire 1996, 2013; Hulme and Whitehead 1992; Myers 1984; Petit-
jean Roget 2013). However, Columbus’s descriptions of his encounters with
the Lucayans and related experiences across the northern Caribbean are
completely unrelated to the people we today call Carib (Keegan 1996).
Notes
1 For other translations and interpretations of Columbus’s diario, see Christophe
Colomb 1991; Robert H. Fuson 1987; David Henige 1991; Samuel E. Morison
1942; and Consuela Varela 1984.
2 Excellent examples of how the information has been distilled for brief encyclope-
dia entries are Simone Dreyfus 1992 and William C. Sturtevant 1992.
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Mobility and Disdain 11
3 “Y dizean q la isla de bohio era mayor q la juana a q llamã Cuba y q no esta
çercada de agua y paraçe dar a entender ser trra rme qs aqui detras desta espa-
ñola a q ellos llama caritaba y q es cosa Innita /. Y quasi trae razõ qllos sean
trabajados de gente astute /. Porq todas estas islas biven co gran miedo dlos de
Caniba /. Y asi torno a dezir como otras vezes dixe ^ q Caniba no es otra cosa
sino la gente dl grã Can q deve ser aqui ^ vecino . y terna navios y terna na[v?]
y vernã a captivarlos y como no buel ve creen q se los comido” (Dunn and Kelley
1989: 216).
4 “Entedio tãbien q lexos de alli avia hobres de vn ojo / y otros con hoçicos de
perros q comian los hobres : y q en tomãdo vno lo degollavã y le bevian la sangre :
y le corta van su natura” (Dunn and Kelley 1989: 132).
5 “Y desq vireo q lleva este camino diz que no podian hablar : prq los comian : y q
son gente my armada /. El almi dize q bien cree q ay
[?] algo avia algo dllo : mas
q pues erã armados se ria gente de razo : y creya q avrian captivado algunos y q
porq no bolvian a [?] sus trras : dirian q los comian /. Lo mismo creyan
dlos xpia ños y dl almi al prinçipio q algunos los vieron /” (Dunn and Kelley
1989: 166).
6 Slightly dierent translations of this passage can be found in J. J. Arrom 1974;
Antonio M. Stevens- Arroyo 1988; and Neil Whitehead 2011. Cemí is the name
given to deities in the pantheon of indigenous gods and to their physical represen-
tations (e.g., sculpted stone, wood, and cotton). The word is translated as “sweet-
ness” and expresses supernatural (numinous) control of the native world (Oliver
2009: 59).
7 “Y tãbien no se la lengua y la gente destras trras no me entienden ni yo ni otro
q you tega a ellos / y estos yndios q yo traygo muchas vezes le entiendo vna cosa
por otra al contrario : ni o mucho dllos / porq muchas vezes an provado a fugir”
(Dunn and Kelley 1989: 182).
8 “Los quales despues venian a las barcas dlos navios adonde nos estavamos
nadãdo : y nos trayan papagayos y hylo de algodon en ovillos y azagayas y otras
cosas muchas y nos las trocavan por otras cosas q nos les davamos como cuente-
zillas de vidro y cascaveles /. En n todo tomavã y davã de aqllo q tenian de buena
volutad ./. mas me pareçio q era gente my pobre de todo /. Ellos andan todos des-
nudos como su madre los pario : y tãbien las mugeres : avnq no vide mas de vna
farto moça /. Y todos los queyo vi eran todos manc[e]bos q ningu vide de edad
de mas de .XXX años /” (Dunn and Kelley 1989: 64, 66). Dunn and Kelley (67n1)
note that the word mancebos is masculine in Spanish, but masculine plurals can
refer to both male and female youths. They recognize that the relative numbers
of men and women cannot be determined from the language of the diario. Never-
theless, others concur that Columbus mentioned one young girl to indicate that
the others were men (Power 1983: 156).
9 “Sus azagayas son vnas varas sin erro y algunas dellas tienen al cabo vn diente
de peçe y otras de otras cosas /. Ellos todos a vna mano son de Buena estatura
de grandeza y Buenos gestos bien hechos /. Yo vide algunos q tienen señales de
feridas en sus cuerpos y les hize señas q era aqllos : y ellos me amostrarõ como
alli venian gente de otras Islas q estavã açerca y les querian tomar y se defendian
y yo crey e creo q aqui viene de trra rme a tomarlos por captivos /” (Dunn and
Kelley 1989: 66).
Ethnohistory
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12 William F. Keegan
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