For emphasis.............



Most people are aware that Christopher Columbus landed at San Salvador on October 12th, 1492, thus "discovering" the New World for Spain. Less known is that his second land fall was at Mole St. Nicholas, Haiti on December 1492, or that the first settlement in the New World was La Navidad, on Haiti's north coast. This settlement, which housed sailors from the Santa Maria which sank off Haiti's coast, was founded on December 24th, 1492.
Columbus did not discover a lost or unknown land. There was a flourishing civilization of native Americas. The primary group was the Arawak/Taino Indians. Arawak is the general group to which they belong, and describes especially the common language that this group of native Americans shared. They ranged from Venezuela through the Caribbean and Central America all the way to Florida. However, the particular group of Arawak-speaking people who lived on the island of Hispaniola was the Taino Indians. To keep both names before us, I'll use the term Arawak/Taino to refer to them.