Ciguayo

The Ciguayos inhabited northeastern Hispaniola, including the Samaná Peninsula and nearby coast. Early Spanish writers distinguished their language from the Taíno speech of other parts of the island, as well as from that of their northern Macorix neighbors. Their communities occupied a landscape of hills, bays and forested coast before the arrival of Europeans.

In January 1493 Columbus’s ships reached the vicinity of Samaná Bay during their return voyage. An encounter with Indigenous men carrying bows and arrows ended in fighting, and the Spaniards named the bay for the arrows they had seen. The people encountered there are often identified as Ciguayos. Their language and independence would be profoundly affected by the rapid territorial expansion of Spanish colonial rule on Hispaniola.

The later city of Nagua lies here.