Chapter 30
The Lucayo and the Taino, 12 K
(FL, Bahamas, Hispaniola, 1380)
The copper sent down for me to take was in thin sheets, apparently the preferred form. There was a fair amount of it, but remembering that it had to cross an open ocean I pared it down to a few horse loads. I kept it hidden away since I didn’t want to be trading my way to the southern end of the peninsula. The first leg of the journey was along the fringes of the lands loyal to Albayamule. These people had been friendly before, and nothing had changed as we circled their little bay and continued east. Some of the people had deserted to the Pigeon Ordu, but no one seemed to mind yet. The next lands we passed through were those of the town called Pensacola that had not been too receptive to our overtures. We only stopped to camp, and I kept sentries vigilant, but there was no disturbance. The proximity of the Pigeon Ordu and the size of my escort were enough to give anyone pause.
Once we left their lands, we found a number of smaller settlements of people who mostly utilized the sea but also planted some crops. All were friendly, and I recruited among them, but could get no commitments or even observers. Eventually we came to the lands of the A’palachi. I sent word to Kushiksa of our arrival. He came to meet us. He said that he wanted to confederate with us, but he felt he should bring his difficulties with his northeastern neighbor to a conclusion first. Since we insisted on approving any hostilities among our allies, he thought it might cause a problem.
“How long has this quarrel been going on?” I asked.
“Some four or five years,” he answered pleasantly.
“Do you have any particular reason,” I pursued, “for thinking you will be able to bring it to a conclusion in the near future?”
“Yes, I do.” He beamed. “As soon as enough of my men have completed training with you, we should be able to wipe them out.”
“That is not our intention”—I was irritated—“when we train your people. They were accepted with the understanding that you would join us. We will not help you conquer your neighbor, unless you join us and he attacks you fully aware that you have joined us. We go around recruiting promising no duplicity and no involvement in old quarrels. I will have to send word to have your people dismissed.”
“Surely you are overreacting,” he protested. “Does your Khan really care what happens to this miscreant neighbors of ours?”
“Our Khan very much cares if he is being used,” I said darkly.
“You can’t expect me to give up.” He reddened. “My own father was killed by them.”
“If you wish,” I suggested, “you can ally with us, and I can tell them that you have. If they still wish to fight you, we will help you wipe them off the face of the land. If they choose peace, however, you must honor that. We do not tolerate duplicity, and it is instantly punished once discovered. If you want personal satisfaction over your father’s death, issue a personal challenge to whoever killed him or ordered him killed. If they accept, your satisfaction is in your hands. If they refuse, they admit they are cowards and all will despise them.”
“Very well,” he said after a long pause. “I accept your suggestions. Consider us your allies.”
“I will go to your neighbors then,” I said, “but remember, there can be no further provocation from you or your people. The others must freely make the decision to fight us. Is that understood?”
“Yes,” he reluctantly replied.
I wasn’t at all sure of his resolve, but decided to go ahead and see the neighbor again. The situation might be fluid enough to induce them to join us also. That would be truly interesting. Just in case there might be some misunderstanding, I sent word that I was coming to confer with them and bringing my escort with me since they had not been too friendly during my last visit. I also sent out scouts to make sure we weren’t walking into a trap. Shortly after we entered their territory, the scouts flushed out a few of their scouts. These were brought to me, and I asked them separately what their leader’s intentions were. One said he was sent to make sure the enemy was not with us. The other said he was sent to see how many of us there were. I told them to look us over openly and report back to their leaders. I also told them to warn their leaders that hostile activities against us had already been shown not to be prudent.
Our scouts flushed out a few more of their sentries as we continued, but there was no ambush. As we broke through the woods and approached their first town, I let the sentries go. They ran ahead to the town and soon a small procession came out to meet us. It consisted of the usual fanfare: musicians, guards, escorting elites, and a litter bearing the same chief I had talked to earlier. He looked as haughty as ever as he alighted from his perch and approached me.
“I already told you,” he sneered, “that we were not interested in joining you. What do you want now?”
“Your neighbor”—I remained impassive—“the one you’ve been fighting for several years, has decided to join us. Therefore, it is only fair that we warn you any further hostilities initiated by you will result in your destruction. If you wish to now end your quarrel, you may. The A’palachi will not be allowed to initiate any hostile action against you.”
“Humph!” He grimaced in disgust. “The cowards are hiding behind you now?”
“Not really.” I shrugged. “If you wish to cease hostilities, Kushiksa challenges whoever killed his father to single combat. If you want us to destroy you, that won’t be necessary.”
“How should I know who killed him?” he reddened.
“I’m sure he bragged about it,” I replied. “On the other hand, Kushiksa was willing to fight whoever ordered the killing.”
“I didn’t order anyone in particular to be killed.” He was becoming agitated. “We fight these skirmishes and some kill and some are killed. Surely you realize that?”
“I don’t really care,” I continued. “If you want to end hostilities, send out whoever might want to take credit for the slaying to do single combat with Kushiksa. Otherwise, we will assume you wish to fight our ally and, therefore, us. Surely you realize it is better to risk losing one man than to guarantee losing all of your people?”
“How do I know,” he nearly shouted, “that will be the end of it? What will prevent them from starting something and claiming we did?”
“Once people join us,” I layered it on, “they have no further thought of petty squabbles. One can go from one end of the land to the other with no fear for his safety from any man. Adventures never dreamed of await those courageous enough to grasp for them. Besides, one of our Ordu could annihilate all of your towns in two or three days. Two of them could be here in two weeks if I called for them. In other words, you are far too insignificant for the A’palachi to notice now that they have joined us.”
“Can they really get here that soon?” He was visibly shaken. “Wouldn’t their advance be resisted?”
“No one has ever interfered with the advance of an Ordu.” I smiled grimly. “If you ever saw one coming toward you, you would hole up in your towns and pray to all your gods that it was merely passing through. Resisting its advance would not even occur to you.”
“How would the single combat take place?” he asked quietly.
“I’m sure you can arrange it to your mutual satisfaction,” I replied. “I can send your terms to him and he will reply. From now on, your people are at peace. That should make the exchanges simple.”
He wanted a well-witnessed duel at a specific clearing near their mutual frontiers. It would take place in about a week. I returned to Kushiksa with the news and the proposal. He agreed and withdrew to get himself ready. I left a small group to make sure all went as advertised and continued on my journey. Kushiksa was a fine warrior in superb condition, and I found out later that he had prevailed against the other chiefdom’s champion although he was seriously wounded and took a while to recuperate.
We wended our way through the peninsula, on much the same track I had followed two years earlier. I renewed old acquaintances on my way and pressed those who had sent observers for a decision on alliance with us. To my amusement I found that all they were waiting for was to hear that one of their neighbors had joined. Once the Yustaga heard that the A’palachi had allied with us, they also joined. That induced the Utina to join, which, in turn persuaded the Ocale and so on, all as confederates. The chiefs who had initially rebuffed my overtures now all cheerfully sent observers. This continued until we reached the Hobe. They as well as the Wacata and Tekesta would only join if the Calusa joined.
When we reached the Tekesta, I asked them to contact Cuchiyaga, the Calusa chief, for me again and also expressed my interest in visiting the large islands with some trade goods. The chief said that he had nothing to trade at this time and wouldn’t want to go empty handed. I explained that I had copper to trade and would gladly pay for transport to the islands with some of the copper. That piqued his interest, but he next said he couldn’t take all my men. I replied that they would not be going; only a handful would make the journey. Now he wanted to know how much copper I had. I didn’t say until we had agreed on the transport price. Once that was settled, he wanted to start right away, but I wouldn’t go until I had heard from the Calusa. He had to admit that was best.
Eventually, word came from Cuchiyaga in the form of his brother Chekika, who had gone with us as an observer during our last visit. He was delighted to see us again and wanted to take us to meet his brother. He would only take Smoking Mirror and me, of course, so I told the men to go do some hunting and fishing while we were gone. We rode a moderate distance inland and then switched to boats for the rest of the journey. At dusk we would pull into a nearby town for the night. Each town seemed to be marked by a huge pile of shells. The houses were wooden with thatch roofs. The sides were largely open, and the floor was a few feet above the ground to accommodate flooding. The houses had furniture made with woven mats. The Calusa seemed to have an artistic bent as their tools and weapons were imaginatively carved and decorated with beads and shells. They were also much given to bangles made of wood and inlaid with shells, tortoise shell, beads, and bones, and sometimes were even painted. They also carved animal heads with moving parts attached with leather strips, and odd part-animal and part-human figures. After a few days, we arrived at a moderately large town. It had a few of the flat-topped mounds with buildings on top, and we repaired to one of these.
Chekika proudly introduced his brother, Cuchiyaga. The latter was taller and more powerfully built than the former. He was also even more heavily bedecked with ornaments. He carried a flat war club that was studded with shark teeth in rows along the edges. Their spear and arrow tips seemed to be sharp bone fragments. He bid us sit down and the usual weed was lit and passed around. He thanked us for our hospitality to his brother and felt from Chekika’s report that we were a great and powerful tribe well worth cultivating. Still, he felt quite secure in his environment and doubted if our horses or weapons would do him much damage here. I pointed out that we were more interested in an alliance with him to mutual benefit than we were in attacking him. I agreed that he would have little need or use for the horse, but he could surely see the value of our iron for tools and weapons.
He agreed that the knife his brother had brought back with him was quite sharp and seemed to hold the point better than bone, but they had done quite well without it for many generations. I suggested that as experts in warfare in a swamp area, they would have much to teach us and would be held in esteem in our Khanate, much as the Anishinabe were for teaching us forest warfare. He was intrigued that we had to learn forest warfare since we had proved so devastating at it. Would we actually set up one of our Ordu here in the swamp if he allied with us? I said that we would more likely put it on the northern fringe of the swamp, so that we could still make use of our horses while learning to fight in the swamps. He wanted me to again go over the confederation option. I did so at length also pointing out honestly that while it had caused some of the tribes to lose people, the happier ones had not lost a man. In fact, some of them had to expand to accommodate all their people. I suggested that his people would likely prefer to stay with the tribe and prosper under confederation.
He next wanted to know why we were interested in the offshore islands. I answered that it was mostly out of curiosity. We wondered what the people were like and wanted to offer them confederation also. He asked if I had any idea how many islands there were. I replied that I did not. He said that there were two very large islands and two more not as large and a host of smaller ones. They ran in a line from west to east from some distance south of the peninsula. There was also a group of smaller flatter islands east of the peninsula. These were more sparsely populated by a weak offshoot of the island tribe. The latter were divided into many chiefdoms led by chiefs called caciques. The chiefdoms were either loosely connected with each other or, more rarely, at war. They usually settled their differences with a gamelike contest with a black spherical object. This object was hard but bounced, and they would bounce it around a field. It sounded vaguely like the game the southeastern tribes all played, although the ball was larger from the description, and they didn’t use sticks to propel it. I mentioned the latter game, but he insisted that this one was very different. Only a few would play on a side, rather than the whole tribe, and it ended when one side had scored the agreed-on number of scores.
I asked about the tribe on the western end of the large island, the Ciboney. He said that they did not plant crops but only hunted and fished. They lived on the tiny islands offshore or on swamp hummocks inland. They had no real organization but lived in family groups. They lived in areas where the Taino would not live, since the latter relied heavily on their crops. There was no point in trading with them since they had nothing to trade, except for some pearls, and who needed them? They also lived on the western edge of the second large island. I asked what the Taino planted, and he said it was mainly a kind of root called yoca that they made into a flat bread called cazabi, although they also raised other tubers, the mondamin grain (which they call ector), beans, squash, and the fiery pods used for flavoring. I pointed out that the Calusa did little planting and mostly hunted and fished. He pointed out that the swamps were hardly suitable for planting crops. I agreed, but suggested that it was odd that he seemed to have no use for the Ciboney since they were more like the Calusa than the Taino were. He rejoined that the only problem with the Ciboney was that they had nothing worth trading and therefore were of no use to the Calusa. It was a long trip to the islands and had to be worthwhile in order to be undertaken. I had to admit that he was right, but was still curious about the Ciboney. I asked if the Taino and the Ciboney were enemies, but he said that they had nothing to fight about since they lived in areas of no interest to each other. Or, at least, the Ciboney lived in areas of no interest to the Taino, and the latter were too strong for the former to attack.
He finally decided that he would think on the confederation option while I was visiting the south islands and would give me his decision when I returned. Chekika led me back the next day along the same route. I asked him if he thought his brother would join us, but he wasn’t too sure. He hoped he would and intended to urge him to do so. The Tekesta were glad to see me return so they could launch the trading expedition as soon as possible. The boats we would be using were fairly large, easily accommodating twenty or so men. I took Smoking Mirror and eighteen others with me while the Tekesta included twenty men. We would be taking two boats, so I split my men and the copper between the boats. The boats had a crude sail made from a kind of bark that was used when the wind was favorable. The basic mode of propulsion was the paddle. We would all take turns paddling in shifts of ten. There was a strong ocean current offshore that flowed north, and the winds tended to blow southwest, so we would get little help from either and would have to paddle toward the southeast in order to reach our first stop, a small island to the east.
We left before dawn and seemed to be going at a good clip. It was impossible for me to measure the distance we were traveling or the speed, but from the compass I could tell that we were heading southeast at first. Once we hit the current, we were sharply pushed toward the north, but our furious paddling kept us on a generally eastward heading. Somewhere along the way, I suddenly realized that this was the first time I had ever been on the ocean out of sight of land. The sea was fairly smooth, so I wasn’t uncomfortable, but still the idea was a bit disquieting. Fortunately, it was soon my turn to paddle, and I got too busy to dwell on the matter. We finally broke free of the current and our “pilot” felt that we had held our course fairly well and only needed to continue eastward to reach the island. Toward evening we could finally just make out the long shore of the island ahead. We reached it just before dark, and some of the men set out to get water while the rest of us set up camp. I looked around a bit while the light permitted. The “island” seemed to be a small group of islands. The one we were on was several li long but only a few hundred feet wide. To the northeast was a shorter but wider island that might have been connected to our landfall, but I couldn’t tell. To the southeast there was a longer and wider island. The three islands seemed to form a lagoon of sorts that was also dotted with islands heavily covered with mangroves. Our landfall was more like a barrier island. I could just see some distant campfires, and the Tekesta said that the island was inhabited, but that the locals weren’t worth bothering with since they wouldn’t have much to trade.
The next morning, we set out south along the shore, turned around the south end of the island and headed southeast to our next landfall. The ocean water was very clear and shallow enough that we could see the white sandy bottom below the boat as we paddled. There was no noticeable current here, and neither was there much wind except that generated by our motion. Occasionally, fish with wings could be seen flying above the surface of the water. We caught one of them, and I could see that they were more like long fins than wings, but they were remarkable, and I had never seen anything like it before. As the sun sank low in the west, we finally could see the shore of a large island before us. We came ashore and quickly set up camp. The island was inhabited, but not near our landfall. The Tekesta said that we would go visit the locals the next day. It would give us a welcome rest and perhaps we might find something worth trading.
The next day, we rowed around the northern end of the island and turned south along the eastern shore. We went along the shore for some distance passing some settlements, until we finally turned in toward the shore near the southern end of the island. We beached the boats and went inland along a trail until we came to a moderately sized village. The houses were circular and made of cane with thatch roofs. They were arranged around a large open space in the middle. There was a large lake or lagoon beside the village. The people were lighter skinned than the Tekesta, but not by much. They were also quite nude except for some elaborate and colorful feather accessories. To my surprise, even the women were nude and none were self-conscious either. They were very friendly and welcomed us heartily. As usual I aroused some interest, but so did Smoking Mirror and some of the others. Their language was a complete mystery, but the Tekesta could speak it and interpreted for us.
They called themselves Lucayo, and they were a bit more loosely organized than their southern neighbors were. They cheerfully fed us, and I traded a little copper for some bright pink feathers that came from a cranelike bird with an odd-shaped beak. I gave them my usual recruitment speech, and they said they would be delighted to join us if we could protect them from the cannibals. I asked them where these cannibals of theirs were. They said the cannibals were from the south and had chased them from their homes along a chain of islands to the southeast. I asked if they meant the Taino on the large islands. They shook their heads emphatically and said that the Taino were related to them and peaceful. The southern cannibals were tall and dark and vicious. Of course, I was used to the hyperbole reserved for enemies, but I knew better than to argue. I told them that as soon as we could get established in the area, we would protect them from their enemies. They were very grateful and wanted to shower me with presents. They promised to send some of their men to the mainland for training and to spread the word among the islands.
The Tekesta were not too pleased that I had turned the trading trip into a recruiting trip, but only complained a little. They didn’t want to be held up while I went to every island. I assured them I would only recruit when we happened to encounter people. The Lucayo slept in a bed they called a hamaca. It was a piece of woven cloth made of heavy cotton twine, hanging loosely between two poles in the houses. It was quite comfortable, and I got one from them. The next morning we departed heading due east. Not far offshore, the bottom of the sea fell away becoming too deep to see, and then about midday we could see the floor again. Late in the day, we came to a long chain of small islands leading a little east of south. We continued along the chain until it was almost dark and then put into one of them. This particular island was not inhabited, but there was water, and we could see campfires on a nearby island. The next morning, we continued along the chain that seemed to be turning a little more to the east. The water near shore was a remarkable light blue-green color, becoming more blue away from shore. Late in the day, we reached a large island and went along its shore until dusk when we put in near a large group of locals who had just returned from fishing. Again we were cheerfully received and fed, and I traded more copper for pink feathers. I recruited again and got much the same enthusiastic reaction. I asked the Tekesta about these alleged cannibals, but they knew nothing of them, except what the Lucayo had said. These Lucayo also promised to send young men to the mainland for training and to spread the word about us.
We left early again the next morning turning due southeast. The water remained relatively shallow as we headed for our next landfall. This proved to be a very long narrow island with a small peninsula jutting out from the southern half. We headed for the southern end of the island, so we had to detour a little to miss the peninsula. We arrived at a settlement late in the day and again were warmly received. Trading and recruiting went just as before. It occurred to me that we had been gone six days already and were still not at the large islands yet. I asked the Tekesta why they had told me two years before that we could get to the islands and back in perhaps a week when that was obviously not true. They replied that since we had copper to trade, we were going to the greater chiefdoms in the eastern large island called Aiti. The western large island called Cuba could be reached in less time, but Aiti was better for trading. Besides, we could always visit Cuba after Aiti if I wanted. I had to admit that my intention was to see as much of the islands as I could, but wondered how much longer it would take to reach Aiti. They said three more days.
Indeed, the next day, we again headed southeast passing over deeper water briefly this time before coming to another long thin island blocking our path. We slipped around its western tip and camped on its southern shore. The following day, we again headed southeast finally reaching a large island and skirting around its eastern tip near a small island before stopping at a settlement on its southern shore. Our reception was the same, and they too were receptive to recruitment although they urged me to recruit the chiefdoms on Aiti also. The next morning, we set off toward the southeast again crossing over some really deep water. We could see large fish and sea turtles during this passage. The Tekesta said that sometimes they saw whales along here, as well as along the coast of their peninsula. I told them about the people who hunted the whales along the coast of the western sea, and they were truly impressed. They merely scavenged beached whales. Around midday we could see clouds ahead. As we went on, we could see that they shrouded mountains that grew ever larger as we approached. We passed to the east of a long flat island and headed for shore near the mouth of a small river. The river was full of boats heading upstream toward a large town. We joined them and put into shore with them.
The town was rather large. There were a few hundred of the houses arranged around the large open space in the middle. Our reception was friendly, but a bit more formal than on the islands. We were taken to the house of the chieftain. He came out and welcomed us, ascertained that we were there to trade, and put a few houses at our disposal. He invited us to join him for our evening meal. I noticed that he and some of the others wore what looked like gold ornaments. At the evening meal, the chieftain wore a feather cloak and a woven belt of cotton trimmed with gold. He sat on a carved wooden seat. They also used the nawak’osis, but they rolled up the broad leaves of the plant tightly to smoke it instead of grinding it up and using pipes. They called this rolled-up leaf form tobaco. Our meal was a sort of stew with some of the fiery condiment. It took some getting used to but was quite tasty. The meat in the stew was something like rabbit in texture and appearance, and some of the vegetables were familiar except for an odd sort of tuber. They also served a kind of flat starchy bread to dip into the stew. I asked if the meat was rabbit, but found out it was agouti, an odd creature that looked something like a rabbit except for the ears. Some of them were kept as pets.
I told my host about the Mongols, since he asked and broached the subject of his joining us. He listened intently to the offer but replied that such a decision was not his to make. I would have to see his cacique, Hatuey, who alone could make such an alliance. He said that this Hatuey could be found inland about two days’ journey to the south. My Tekesta interpreters weren’t too upset with this since they wanted to trade there anyway. The chieftain went on to say that there were five caciques on this island, and perhaps I should talk to them all. The Tekesta were not pleased with that prospect. I asked if there was a central location where I could meet with all of them. He said that each cacique was fairly independent and had to be approached diplomatically with presents and lavish praise. I replied that it was neither our custom to give presents nor to praise people we didn’t know. Surely these caciques would understand that. He wasn’t sure they would, but promised to send a message and try to smooth my way with his cacique. He in turn could decide how or if to contact the others.
I thought that since they had gold, they wouldn’t want copper, but they liked it because of its color. It seemed that they really didn’t prize pure gold, but preferred a form of it they called tumbaga. It looked like some sort of alloy, but at the time I didn’t know with what. I later found out it was a copper alloy of gold. In any case, they readily traded gold for copper. I only took a little, however, since it is rather heavy, and we didn’t have that much use for it. They also had some strange-colored feathers, which I knew would be popular back home. I also got some of their cotton cloth.
The next morning, we were awakened before daybreak by a dreadful wailing coming from all around. Our Tekesta guides told us it was just the way they greeted the sun. Indeed, once the sun rose, the wailing gave way to happier shouts and wild dancing. Then the chief quieted them down and gave everyone his assignment. I wandered around a bit and found extensive fields just beyond a screen of trees surrounding the village. They were mostly growing the plant called the yoca. The plant was a kind of bush that had long thin leaves and long thick roots. They grated the roots, then put them in a long tubular basket type of container called a matapi. This was attached to the roof pole at the top and to another pole on the bottom. The bottom pole was then bounced by children to squeeze out the juice from the grated roots. It seemed that the juice was poisonous until it was boiled down into thick syrup. I could see why this thing never caught on in the mainland. They also made attractive, imaginatively decorated red and white pottery and carved figures and shapes in stone and shell. There seemed to be much reverence given to what looked like a piece of shell in the form of a cone. It turned out that their principle god, Yocahu, was what sounded like a volcano god from their description. I was surprised to hear that there were volcanoes on these islands, but was told that the volcanoes were on smaller islands far to the east. They would also put a face on the base of the volcano to depict their god. They said that Yocahu had given them yoca. They also had a female goddess called Atabeyra, a fertility figure, and a dog god called Opiyel-Guaobiran, who guided the dead to the next world.
I got a chance to see them practice the ball game they called batey. The field was about one hundred feet long and forty feet wide. Stone markers surrounded it. Some of the players wore a carved stone belt to help them propel the ball farther. The object was for a team of three or so to bounce the ball from one end of the field to the other without using their hands or arms. Meanwhile the other team would try to prevent them from doing so and instead get the ball back to the other side. The ball itself was black and hard but did indeed bounce, especially on a hard surface. It was a curiosity, but all they could tell me was that it came from the south. Around midmorning we set out for the town of the cacique Hatuey.