From Caniba or Canima to Caribs, Cannibal, Caribbean.
Columbus talked about the Caribs in his log of Sunday, November 4, 1492. On that day, the log says, he showed some gold and pearl to the Indians. He was told that an infinite amount of gold could be found by going to the southeast in a place called Bohio. The first mention, all be it vague, about the Caribs came immediately after in the next sentence of the log which says the following:
"I also understand that, a long distance from here, there are men with one eye and others with dogs' snouts who eat men. On taking a man they beheaded him, drink his blood and cut off his genitals."
The next reference about the Caribs is a little more specific. It is part of the log book entry of Tuesday, December 11 1492, which speaks about a continental land behind La Espagnola where the people of Caniba lived. The entry in the log is the following:
"They (the Tainos of Hispagnola/kyskeya, Bohio, Haiti) indicate that there is a continental land behind La Isla Espagnola, which they called Caritaba. They say that it is of infinite extent, which supports my belief that these lands may be harassed by a more astute people, because the inhabitants of these lands live in great fear of the people of Caniba. So I repeat what I have said before, the Caniba are none other than the people
of the Great Khan, who must be very near here. They have ships that come to these lands to capture these people and take them away. Since the people never return, it is believed that they have been eaten."
The name Caritaba which Colombus referred to as the land of the Caniba was in fact the land surrounding Cap Haitien in Haiti. The chain of islands forming the lesser Antilles where the Caribs lived starts beyond
La Espagnola and the the island of Boriken (Puerto-Rico). The mistakes of Columbus about the Caribs people were due to the erroneus context governing his interpretation of the facts. He thought he was in Asia, specifically India.
Because of those entries in Columbus log book, the Canima or Caniba people left their name to the region they inhabited and the word Cannibal to describe the practice of eating people.
However, because of the corruption of all the indigenous words during their incorporation first in the Spanish vocabulary and later in the English, the French and the Dutch, there are some serious question we must ask ourselves about the word Caniba and the substantif/adjectif cannibal. One key question stems from the first mention of the Caribs as people with dogs snouts. Could it be that the word Caniba came into existence because of that reference about the dog like face of the Caribs? Being a Latinist, who also had some knowledge of the Greek language, Columbus might have heard a word beginning with a K sound (which is the correct pronunciation of the letter C in Latin) associated with the description of those mythical indigenous people and therefore might have created the word Caniba from the Latin word canis meaning dog. This hypothesis becomes stronger when one realizes that the Latin and Greek perspective dominated the way Columbus saw the world and himself and that it appeared even in the way he signed his name as Xpisto(Christo) Ferens. Some research is needed to bring some light on the linguistic corruption that led to the creation of the word cannibal, on its possible Latin roots and on its origin in the Tainos/Caribs language.
The Karibs/Caribs were expert canoeists, and their fleets sometimes included 100 sail-fitted, dugout canoes. On land, they lived in small settlements, farmed and fished, and hunted game with blowguns and bows and arrows. Carib communities were generally made up of several matrilineal kin groups.
Contrary to the Arawaks/Tainos which were peaceful and only defended themselves against attack from others, the Caribs were warriors belonging to a culture that valued exploits in combat above all else.
Because of their ability to fight, they became the spearhead and the last bastion of the resistance against the European colonization of the Caribbean
In the 17th century, when several European countries struggled for control
of the Lesser Antilles, the Caribs were all but eliminated. Groups remained only on the islands of Saint Vincent and Dominica. In 1796 the British government deported almost all of the 5000 remaining members of the tribe from St. Vincent to Routine Island off the coast of Honduras. They spread over the neighboring mainland and today survive in Guatemala and on a reservation in Dominica.
Eventually, the Garinagu arrived and settled in Roatan Island in the Bay of Honduras. When the Spaniards (who controlled Honduras, saw that they were honest, hardworking and not at all what the British had branded them as, they were allowed to stay. Within a few years they had migrated to the coastal communities of Central America where they can still be found today. Major communities of Garinagu exist today in Seine Bight Village, and other places in Belize, Honduras and Guatemala, although many have migrated to the U.S. and elsewhere.
By 1635, the Caribs had occupied large portions of territory in South America and almost all of the Windward Islands. Little by little, the Europeans wrestled control of the lands from the Caribs. The clincher came in 1748 when Britain and France signed the Treaty of Aix La Chapelle and used it as justification to settle land they had agreed was to be Carib land. By 1797, the Garinagu numbered a few thousand and were virtually homeless. In March of 1797, a great manhunt ensued in which the Garinagu were hunted and rounded up like cattle from the Islands. The British then placed them aboard several ships and sent them out to the mercy of the sea and whomever would take pity on them. By unjustly and falsely accusing the Garinagu of cannibalism, the British had ensured that no one would want to aid them.