An account of the antiquities of the Indians

By Fray Ramon Pané

Subjects: Sociology, Indians of north america, antiquities, First contact with Europeans, Indians of the west indies--history, History, Latin American, Sources, Anthropology - General, Religion, Taino indians--first contact with europeans, Indians of the west indies--religion, Anthropology/Ethnography, Hispaniola, F1909 .p3613 1999, Taino mythology, Social Science, American history: pre-Columbian period, BCE to c 1500, Indians of the west indies--hispaniola--history--sources, Indians of the west indies--hispaniola--religion, Latin American Studies, Indians of the west indies--first contact with europeans, Taino indians--history, Indians of the West Indies, History - General History, Indians of the west indies--first contact with europeans--hispaniola, 972.93, Taino indians--history--sources, History, History of specific racial & ethnic groups, Caribbean & West Indies - General, Caribbean islands, Cultural And Social Anthropology

Description: Accompanying Columbus on his second voyage to the New World in 1494 was a young Spanish friar named Ramón Pané. The friar’s assignment was to live among the “Indians” whom Columbus had “discovered” on the island of Hispaniola (today the island shared by Haiti and the Dominican Republic), to learn their language, and to write a record of their lives and beliefs. While the culture of these indigenous people—who came to be known as the Taíno—is now extinct, the written record completed by Pané around 1498 has survived. This volume makes Pané’s landmark Account—the first book written in a European language on American soil—available in an annotated English edition.