Guacanagarí

Taino tribal leader

• Born: c. middle fifteenth century
• Birthplace: Hispaniola (now Haiti and the Dominican Republic)
• Died: c. early sixteenth century
• Place of death: Hispaniola (now Haiti and the Dominican Republic)

Guacanagarí befriended Christopher Columbus during his first voyage to the New World. When Columbus returned to Hispaniola and faced difficulties with the Caribbean Indians, Guacanagarí remained loyal, yet the two eventually lost trust in each other. Guacanagarí is also remembered for his failure to join an alliance of Indian tribes against the Spanish.

Early Life

Guacanagarí (gwah-kah-nah-gawr-EE) was a cacique (tribal leader) who ruled a Taino cacigazco (chiefdom) on the northern coast of Hispaniola. Archaeologists believe that the Taino, an indigenous people of Hispaniola in the Caribbean, did not have slaves, but they did have social classes, including classes of caciques (tribal leaders), nitainos (nobles), commoners, and naborias (laborers).

Caciques were treated royally, lived in distinguished houses, often had multiple wives, and sometimes spoke through elder intermediaries only. Caciques directed labor in their communities, and when supplies of food accumulated they were in charge of its distribution. The batey (ceremonial ball court) was located outside the home of the cacique, and ball games played between different villages had political significance. Areytos (ceremonial dances) were also held in the batey. Canoes were important to the Taino, and as a cacique, Guacanagarí traveled in the best and largest canoe.

Guacanagarí led a peaceful community dedicated to agriculture, hunting, and fishing. According to some scholars, the peace in Guacanagarí’s community was interrupted by attacks from neighboring Caribs. Nevertheless, in general, the Tainos under the leadership of Guacanagarí led a life of sufficiency and cooperation.

Life’s Work

While the main part of Guacanagarí’s life was dedicated to leading his community, he is remembered because of his contacts with Christopher Columbus .

During Columbus’s first voyage to the New World, he was greeted by a friendly and generous Guacanagarí. In his journal entry for December 22, 1492, Columbus reported that a large canoe with numerous Tainos approached the ship Santa Maria, and a representative of Guacanagarí, the principal chieftain of the region, offered gifts, including an ornamental belt and a mask with inlaid gold to denote facial features. Guacanagarí’s representative issued an invitation for Columbus to moor his ship near the cacique’s village and make a formal visit, but Columbus first sent several men to evaluate the cacique’s town. The Spanish visitors were received as distinguished guests, and the visit revealed that the town was orderly and the largest of any encountered during the voyage. The Tainos offered gifts of cotton garments but expected nothing in return. When Columbus and his crew departed, Guacanagarí sent parrots and gold as gifts to the admiral, and tribal members in canoes escorted the visitors to the Santa Maria.

Late on December 24, a fatigued Columbus, seeing that the sea was calm, left control of the Santa Maria in the hands of its steersman, who, also tired, in turn left a boy in control. Deceptive sea currents soon lodged the Santa Maria on a sandbar, and Columbus was unable to set the ship afloat. Notified of Columbus’s plight, Guacanagarí sent his people and all the tribe’s canoes to unload the ship. The cargo was brought to shore safely and was protected by Guacanagarí’s people. Guacanagarí set aside three houses to store the goods and to house the Spaniards.

On December 26, with Columbus on board the Niña, Guacanagarí paid a visit to console the admiral. After dining with Columbus, the cacique invited him to visit the chieftain’s town, taste indigenous foods, explore the surrounding groves, and witness ceremonial dances and games. After enjoying these displays, Columbus instructed one of his shipmen to display his archery skills and ordered the firing of several cannon shots. Impressed, the Tainos were reassured to learn that Columbus promised to be their ally against any invasions from troublesome Caribs.

Within ten days, and with the assistance of Guacanagarí’s people, Columbus’s crew converted the materials from the wreck of the Santa Maria into a small fort. Columbus made another display of military power for the Tainos, and confident of their cooperation, he left thirty-eight men at the fort, instructing them to behave harmoniously and to stay within Guacanagarí’s territory. Columbus set sail for Spain, promising to return with ample reinforcements to the area he named La Navidad.

On November 27, 1493, Columbus returned with numerous ships to the waters near La Navidad, but signals to the fort received no reply. A canoe approached the Spanish ships, and a person who claimed to be the cousin of Guacanagarí met with Columbus. Communications were limited, but Columbus learned that the fort at La Navidad had been destroyed and all the Spaniards who had stayed behind were dead. Guacanagarí, who had fought to resist an attack led by Caonabo, a cacique from the interior, was wounded and was recuperating in a nearby village.

A subsequent inspection of La Navidad confirmed that the report of destruction was accurate. Testimony revealed that the Spaniards who remained on the island argued amongst themselves, abused local women, and wandered into the territory of Caonabo, instigating revenge. A visit to the wounded Guacanagarí confirmed initial reports of the disaster, but some Spaniards doubted the cacique, believing that he was not truly injured and charging that he himself was guilty of treachery.

Columbus, however, retained faith in Guacanagarí and invited the cacique to board his ship. Impressed by the anchored fleet and stunned by the array of domestic animals the Spaniards had on board, especially horses, the cacique reaffirmed his belief that Columbus came from heaven. Columbus also had on board several indigenous women, however, and Guacanagarí took special notice of one of them. Trust between the cacique and the Spaniards weakened, and Guacanagarí returned to the island.

The next day, Guacanagarí’s brother appeared and exchanged gifts with the Spaniards, but he also took time to converse with the captive women before returning to land. At midnight, the women slipped off the ship, swam three miles to shore, and, except for four who were retaken, escaped into the forest. The next day on shore all signs indicated that Guacanagarí and his tribe were gone. Apparently, all had slipped away to the interior.

In September of 1494, Columbus returned from his voyages to Cuba and Jamaica but was seriously ill. Eager to see the admiral, Guacanagarí appeared, reasserted his loyalty, and informed Columbus of an alliance forming among the caciques on the island. He offered to Columbus the services of his warriors. With this intelligence and pledge of allegiance, Columbus sought to establish orderly relations with the Indians, but the future proved to include war and subjugation.

Columbus had been drawn from the territory of Guacanagarí because of duties in other parts of the island and because of problems he had to deal with in Spain, so Guacanagarí faced Spaniards who did not recall or did not know of the cacique’s kindness and loyalty. His people endured the same subjugation as other Indians. Bullied by the Spaniards, hated by the caciques whose alliance he rejected, and troubled by the misery of his subjects, Guacanagarí retreated to the mountains, where he died.

Significance

Guacanagarí represents the idyllic sense of the peace and humble prosperity of the pre-Columbian Caribbean world. His kindness, generosity, and sympathy to Columbus show the cacique’s noble character. Indeed, the idea of the noble savage might have originated after European contact with the Caribbean Indians.

Because Guacanagarí’s cacigazco faced incursions from Carib warriors, his initial connection and loyalty to Columbus may have been a strategy to establish his own security. Guacanagarí’s loyalty, however, is not to be written off so easily.

Despite his constancy, he faced the devastating consequences of the arrival of Spaniards other than Columbus, and his failure to join the Caribbean Indian alliance forever stains his reputation.

Bibliography

Columbus, Christopher. The Journal of Christopher Columbus. Translated by Cecil Jane and edited by L. A. Vigneras. New York: Clarkson N. Potter, 1960. This translation of Columbus’s journal features many illustrations, some in color. Entries in the journal refer to Guacanagarí, and the text includes Columbus’s letter, which summarizes the journal and comments on the Tainos. An appendix is titled “The Cartography of the First Voyage.”

Columbus, Fernando. The Life of the Admiral Christopher Columbus by His Son Ferdinand. Translated by Benjamin Keen. New Brunswick, N.J.: Rutgers University Press, 1959. This life of Columbus draws from the original journal and refers to the meetings of Columbus and Guacanagarí. Includes “The Relation of Fray Ramon Concerning the Antiquities of the Indians, Which He, Knowing Their Language, Carefully Compiled by Order of the Admiral,” which gives a firsthand account of the lives and customs of the Tainos.

Las Casas, Bartolomé de. History of the Indies. New York: Harper & Row, 1971. An elaborate commentary on the conquest of the Tainos.

Morison, Samuel Eliot. Admiral of the Ocean Sea: A Life of Christopher Columbus. Boston: Little, Brown, 1942. This biography reports on the contact between Guacanagarí and Columbus.

Redmond, Elsa M. Chiefdoms and Chieftaincy in the Americas. Gainesville: University Press of Florida, 1998. A general view of American Indian leaders.

Wilson, Samuel M. Hispaniola: Caribbean Chiefdoms in the Age of Columbus. Tuscaloosa: University of Alabama Press, 1990. This archaeological study analyzes Taino life and customs during the first contact with European culture and reports on Guacanagarí’s activities.

Wilson, Samuel M. The Indigenous People of the Caribbean. Gainesville: University Press of Florida, 1999. Offers broader views than Wilson’s volume.