established themselves in that part of the island of Hispaniola called Cahonao, upon the banks of a river called Bahaboni.  In like manner we read in Roman history that the Trojan AEneas, after he arrived in Italy, established himself on the banks of the Latin Tiber.  There lies across the mouth of the river Bahaboni an island where, according to tradition, these immigrants built their first house, calling it Camoteia.  This place was consecrated and henceforth regarded with great veneration.  Until the arrival of the Spaniards the natives rendered it the homage of their continual gifts; the same as we do Jerusalem, the cradle of our religion; or the Turks, Mecca, or the ancient inhabitants of the Fortunate Isles venerated the summit of a high rock on the Grand Canary.  Many of these latter, singing joyous canticles, threw themselves down from the summit of this rock, for their false priests had persuaded them that the souls of those who threw themselves from the rock for the love of Tirana, were blessed, and destined to an eternity of delight.  The conquerors of the Fortunate Isles have found that practice still in use in our own time, for the remembrance of these sacrifices is preserved in the common language, and the rock itself keeps its name.  I have, moreover, recently learned that there still exists in those islands since their colonisation by the Frenchman Bethencourt under the authorisation of the King of Castile, a group of Bethencourt’s people, who still use the French language and customs.  Nevertheless, his heirs, as I have above stated, sold the island to the Castilians, but the colonists who came with Bethencourt built houses in the archipelago and prosperously maintained their families.  They still live there mixed with Spaniards and consider themselves fortunate to be no longer exposed to the rigours of the French climate.

Let us now return to the people at Matanino.  Hispaniola was first called by its early inhabitants Quizqueia, and afterwards Haiti.  These names were not chosen at random, but were derived from natural features, for Quizqueia in their language means “something large” or larger than anything, and is a synonym for universality, the whole; something in the sense that [Greek:  pan] was used among the Greeks.  The islanders really believed that the island, being so great, comprised the entire universe, and that the sun warmed no other land than theirs and the neighbouring islands.  Thus they decided to call it Quizqueia.  The name Haiti[1] in their language means altitude, and because it describes a part, was given to the entire island.  The country rises in many places into lofty mountain-ranges, is covered with dense forests, or broken into profound valleys which, because of the height of the mountains, are gloomy; everywhere else it is very agreeable.

[Note 1:  Meaning in the Caribs’ language mountainous.  Columbus, as we have mentioned, named the island Hispaniola, and it is so called in early American history; but since 1803, the native name of Haiti or Hayti has been applied both to the entire island, and to one of the two states into which it is divided, the other state being called Santo Domingo.]