Spanish colonists began to reach beyond the island
of Hispaniola. B y this time all the native tribes in
that island had been subdued by the most atrocious
cruelties; their lands and themselves had been apportioned
among their conquerors by the process of
repartimiento (allotment), and the centre of Spanish
power was fully established at Santo Domingo, on
the southern coast, where Bartolomeo Colon had
built his castle.
There had been five little kingdoms in the island
at the time of the discovery, and the first to be
brought into subjection was that of Guanacagari,
the cacique who had befriended the invaders, and
whose realm was on the north coast toward the east.
N e x t Coanabo, the Carib chief in the Cibao Mountains,
was captured for presuming to resist the gold-
hunters. His territory was called Maguana. The
kinedom of Guarionex was on the north coast east
of the Y aq u i River, extending to the Bay of Samana,
and including the river valley and the V eg a Real.
On the south coast, at the eastern end of the island,
was the cacique Colubanama, whose realm was called
Higuey. The fifth kingdom was a populous domain
at the western end of the island, called Xaragua, and
ruled by Behechio, whose beautiful sister was the
wife of Coanabo.
A ll these were effectually subdued and their possessions
distributed among the Spanish officers and
their followers. T h e Columbus family received a
large allotment in the choicest part of the island,
and the c ity of Santo Domingo, the oldest of the
New World and long the capital of the colony, be-
CHRISTOPHER COLUMBUS.
Painted in 1542 at the court of Philip I I. of Spain, by Sir Antonio
Moro, from two miniatures in the palace of E l Pardo, which
miniatures have since been destroyed. The original painting is
now in the collection of C. F. Gunther, Esq., Chicago, by whose
kind permission this reproduction has been made.