Columbus’ first action on Caribbean soil was to plant a flag and claim the land in the name of King Ferdinand and Queen Isabella of Spain. This action was the first to take place with both Europeans and Taino present and both would have viewed the event in a completely different light. The Spanish would have seen the planting of the flag as very significant and reflective of the way in which the Feudal system of Spanish governance operated. This is evident in the special attention that is placed on the planting of the flag in the accounts of the occasion, in which particular emphasis is given to the King and Queen that the land is being claimed for. Columbus himself notes in his journal that he “had taken possession of the island … for his sovereigns.” This theme of claiming land and resources continues strongly through the Journals and they make many references to “Your Highnesses”, indicating that they were written for the Monarchy who had funded the voyage.The Taino, on the other hand, seemed to view the situation with initial curiosity and “swam out to the ship’s boats in which [the Europeans] were sitting”. After receiving “red caps, glass beads … [and] many other trifles” they appeared to view meeting the Spanish as a lucrative trade opportunity and “they willingly traded everything they had”. The Spanish had brought with them many things that the Taino had never encountered before and that would have represented a high market value for trade. While “glass beads, hawks and bells” would have seemed somewhat worthless to the Spanish, their rarity in the Caribbean made them worth a great deal to the Taino.

After this initial meeting and trading, Columbus was very concerned with fostering good will with the Taino to create a favourable impression among them. He writes “I was anxious that they should think well of us so that they may not be unfriendly when your Majesties send a second expedition here.” Columbus also made great efforts to open the communication barrier between himself and the Taino by “[taking seven Taino] aboard so that they may learn our language”. Unfortunately, until the Taino and Spaniards breached the language barrier there were some serious communication problems.

The main method of communication between the two groups was with “signs”. Signs, however lend themselves to subjective interpretation. In one such interpretation Columbus says “We understood them to be asking if we came from the sky”. This would be a fairly complicated concept to communicate in sign language, especially when between groups with significant cultural differences. The Taino in question could have been trying to communicate a great number of different concepts. Columbus’ interpretation gives us a good example of what Europeans might have thought about Non-European cultures with respect to their notions of spirituality or religion. It is unfortunately also an example of how limited the accounts can be in accurately depicting the culture and perspective of the Taino.

Columbus also states after his first encounter with the Taino that they “appeared to me to have no religion”. Like the assumption that the Taino believed the Europeans came from the sky, this also gives us a clue to what constituted religion to a European in 1492. While the Taino show evidence of being religious when Columbus discovers “many statues in the shape of a women, and finely crafted heads like masks”, they did not appear to worship in a church or create religious iconography that would be recognisable to a European.

Some of these attitudes regarding the Taino’s spirituality begin to change toward the latter half of Columbus’ voyage. When he discovers the statues in the shape of women and masks he cannot decide if they are for “decoration or worship”. Columbus even begins to doubt his interpretations of what the Taino have said to him, admitting “I do not know their language”[16]. It is especially interesting to note that towards the end of the journal entries Columbus doubts his ability to interpret the Taino language. In the letter he writes on his return voyage, however, he appears more convinced that his observations about the Taino with regards to the presence of gold, their belief in the Europeans as Gods and their suitability as Christians are correct, rather than taking his earlier doubts in the effectiveness of communication into account.

This is a major limitation of the Journals as a source of information on the Taino because they are written from a European perspective, which carries with it notions of what religion and civilization are. This is coupled by their inability to accurately communicate with the Taino. While the Taino had been settled in the East Indies for a long time, they were not settled or civilized to European eyes because the way that the Taino existed was radically different from that of Europeans.

The documents are also limited by the apparent European spirit of conquest. This is evident in the numerous references about the resources of the East Indies and their suitability for settlement that Columbus notes. On the first island that he encounters, Columbus dedicates an entire day to surveying its coastline “to decide where a fort could be built”. This seems to be another direct comment to Ferdinand and Isabella and he invests a great deal of time emphasising the Taino people as a resource in and of themselves. Columbus makes many comments about the suitability of the Taino as both slaves and Christians. In one journal entry he says that “I believe they would be easily made Christians” and in another (directly addressed to Ferdinand and Isabella) he says “All the inhabitants could be taken away to Castile or held as slaves on the island, for with fifty men we could subjugate them and make them do whatever we wish”. This is another clue about the European attitude towards Non-European peoples that designated them as a resource rather than people.

The comments about the Taino people are few compared the huge attention that Columbus pays to the resources available in the East Indies to cement their worth to the Spanish Monarchy. We can presume this was in order to secure funding for a return trip as special emphasis is paid to these resources in his letter to Ferdinand and Isabella. The most frequent resource discussed is gold; in fact the first Taino word to appear in the documents is “Nucay”, which is the Taino word for gold. In one of the biggest selling points of his letter Columbus speaks of an island the Taino tell him about “in which there is incalculable gold”. Gold, however, is not the only thing Columbus deliberately notes about the island’s contents.

Columbus makes many references to the abundant flora and fauna of the islands. He says that “it grieves me extremely that I cannot identify them, for I am quite certain that they are valuable”. In fact, so great is Columbus’ desire to find proof of the spices on the islands, when he discovers a spice he can identify, Aloe, he orders his men to collect all they can find.

This desperation to sell the value and profitability of the East Indies, coupled with a limited ability of the Europeans to communicate with the Taino forms the crux of the usefulness of these documents as a source on the interaction between the two cultures of the Tainos and Europeans. While we can certainly learn a lot about the Europeans, based on what observations they make in their accounts of the East Indies and the conclusions that they draw from them, we are limited in what we know about the Taino because of the subjective nature of these conclusions.

Disregarding these subjective conclusions, we are left with the observations that these conclusions arose from. If we are to learn anything about the Taino we need to separate these observations that the Europeans made from the opinions they offered to explain them. While we cannot avoid the cultural influences that coloured the Europeans view of the Taino, these journals and other personal accounts are all that we have left of these people. If we wish to learn about them we can only use the resources available to us and read them aware of the factors that may have influenced them.

Further Reading

• Cohen, J.M., (ed.) The Four Voyages of Christopher Columbus, Harmondsworth, Penguin, 1969, pp. 50-76.
• Cummings, John, The Voyage of Christopher Columbus, London, Wiedenfield and Nicholson, 1992, pp. 109-112.
• Jane, Cecil, The Journal of Christopher Columbus:
  , London, Anthony Blond, 1968, pp. 191-202

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