The Life and Voyages of Christopher Columbus, vol 2 | Page 4

region of Xaragua, in one part of which Indian traditions placed their
Elysian fields. They had heard much, also, of the beauty and urbanity
of the inhabitants: the mode of their reception was calculated to
confirm their favorable prepossessions. As they approached the place,

thirty females of the cacique's household came forth to meet them,
singing their areytos, or traditionary ballads, and dancing and waving
palm branches. The married females wore aprons of embroidered
cotton, reaching half way to the knee; the young women were entirely
naked, with merely a fillet round the forehead, their hair falling upon
their shoulders. They were beautifully proportioned; their skin smooth
and delicate, and their complexion of a clear agreeable brown.
According to old Peter Martyr, the Spaniards, when they beheld them
issuing forth from their green woods, almost imagined they beheld the
fabled dryads, or native nymphs and fairies of the fountains, sung by
the ancient poets. [5] When they came before Don Bartholomew, they
knelt and gracefully presented him the green branches. After these
came the female cacique Anacaona, reclining on a kind of light litter
borne by six Indians. Like the other females, she had no other covering
than an apron of various-colored cotton. She wore round her head a
fragrant garland of red and white flowers, and wreaths of the same
round her neck and arms. She received the Adelantado and his
followers with that natural grace and courtesy for which she was
celebrated; manifesting no hostility towards them for the fate her
husband had experienced at their hands.
The Adelantado and his officers were conducted to the house of
Behechio, where a banquet was served up of utias, a great variety of sea
and river fish, with roots and fruits of excellent quality. Here first the
Spaniards conquered their repugnance to the guana, the favorite
delicacy of the Indians, but which the former had regarded with disgust,
as a species of serpent. The Adelantado, willing to accustom himself to
the usages of the country, was the first to taste this animal, being kindly
pressed thereto by Anacaona. His followers imitated his example; they
found it to be highly palatable and delicate; and from that time forward,
the guana was held in repute among Spanish epicures. [6]
The banquet being over, Don Bartholomew with six of his principal
cavaliers were lodged in the dwelling of Behechio; the rest were
distributed in the houses of the inferior caciques, where they slept in
hammocks of matted cotton, the usual beds of the natives.

For two days they remained with the hospitable Behechio, entertained
with various Indian games and festivities, among which the most
remarkable was the representation of a battle. Two squadrons of naked
Indians, armed with bows and arrows, sallied suddenly into the public
square and began to skirmish in a manner similar to the Moorish play
of canes, or tilting reeds. By degrees they became excited, and fought
with such earnestness, that four were slain, and many wounded, which
seemed to increase the interest and pleasure of the spectators. The
contest would have continued longer, and might have been still more
bloody, had not the Adelantado and the other cavaliers interfered and
begged that the game might cease. [7]
When the festivities were over, and familiar intercourse had promoted
mutual confidence, the Adelantado addressed the cacique and
Anacaona on the real object of his visit. He informed him that his
brother, the admiral, had been sent to this island by the sovereigns of
Castile, who were great and mighty potentates, with many kingdoms
under their sway. That the admiral had returned to apprise his
sovereigns how many tributary caciques there were in the island,
leaving him in command, and that he had come to receive Behechio
under the protection of these mighty sovereigns, and to arrange a
tribute to be paid by him, in such manner as should be most convenient
and satisfactory to himself. [8]
The cacique was greatly embarrassed by this demand, knowing the
sufferings inflicted on the other parts of the island by the avidity of the
Spaniards for gold. He replied that he had been apprised that gold was
the great object for which the white men had come to their island, and
that a tribute was paid in it by some of his fellow-caciques; but that in
no part of his territories was gold to be found; and his subjects hardly
knew what it was. To this the Adelantado replied with great adroitness,
that nothing was farther from the intention or wish of his sovereigns
than to require a tribute in things not produced in his dominions, but
that it might be paid in cotton, hemp, and cassava bread, with which the
surrounding country appeared to abound. The countenance of the
cacique brightened at this intimation; he