| In Ayiti Tainos settled especially close to the coasts. Those which lived in the Western part of the island spoke a language that the interpreters Arawaks de Colomb did not understand, Marcorix, signs that they had taken a certain distance with their branch of origin. They were considered peaceful, in any case than the tribes of the oriental party who, having always to fear the invasions of Karibs, via Puerto Rico, remained on the war footing. They practised agriculture (manioc), lived in villages - yukatekes-organized around a place which was useful, according to the occasion, of playing field or place of worship. The religious ceremonies were accompanied by songs - areytos - and dances carried out around the effigy of the one their Gods - zemes.
The population, which could border 500.000 inhabitants, were divided into five kingdoms controlled by the caciques ones.
Colomb built small extremely one far from Cape-Haitian (strong Navidade) where it left some men before returning to Spain. On its return, they found the massacred fort destroyed and its inhabitants, the natives having badly supported their exactions. Then begin the true exploitation of the island which passes by the complete tender of the Indians and their setting in slavery.
The Haitians preserved the memory of the cruelty of the Spaniards, symbolized by the history of Anacaono, the princess-poet, that Nicolas de Ovando made hang after having been his guest. In 1607 there remained hardly a thousand of Indians on a population of a half - million on arrival of Colomb.
The thirst for gold attracting the Spaniards in the oriental party, the west became, during the XVII E century, the paradise of oxen and the wild pigs. |
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