On trail of Cuba's Taino Indians, survivors of a ruthless invasion

Letter from BaracoaWhen Christopher Columbus hoved the Santa Maria along the far eastern coast of Cuba on his first voyage of discovery of the Americas in 1492, he was mesmerised by the wonderful scenery.

What captured his attention in particular were two bays separated by a promontory and surrounded by lush tropical rainforests rising up into highlands dominated by an anvil-shaped mountain he called El Yunque, which has since been a vital landmark for sailors navigating Cuba's eastern tip.

Columbus ordered anchors to be dropped. As the Santa Maria stilled in the bay, he observed in his diary that this was "a beauty never before seen by the eyes of man", adding "where there is such marvellous scenery, there must be much from which profit can be made".

After coming ashore in what is now the town of Baracoa, Columbus planted a cross to mark the arrival of Christianity. He would later observe that the gentle and generous temperament of the naked, cigar-smoking Indians made them ideal servants and slaves. And he prayed for God's help in finding their gold mines.

Later, under Diego Velásquez de Cuellar, Baracoa would become the first Spanish settlement in Cuba and only the second in all of the Americas to fly the conquistadors' flag of red and yellow, blood and gold.

What the Taino Indians, looking out from the hills at the landing party and the huge galleons in the bay, made of the scene is not recorded, but after thousands of years their settled way of life was about to be ended. Though the peaceful Tainos had faced regular raids from fierce cannibal Caribs, this time the raiders were even more ferocious, they were Christians, whose armies had just expelled the Moors from Spain. The Spaniards were also at the height of the Inquisition's religious frenzy and had grown fond of burning heretics (auto-da-fe). Mere Indians, who had yet to be classified by Rome as human, could be treated accordingly. And they were.

Within a generation, through disease introduced by the strangers, forced slavery and casual, murderous brutality, the Taino were well on the way to extinction. At Yumurí headland in the Baracoa municipality, a story has been handed down the centuries of whole Indian families who flung themselves to their deaths from the cliff-top down to the jagged coral reefs, taunting the invaders before they jumped in last desperate gestures of defiance.

Before the Spaniards toasted the great Taino chief Hatuey with a customary auto-da-fe, legend has it that he was offered a special dispensation to embrace the Christian faith so he could enter the kingdom of heaven. Hatuey is said to have replied: "If Spaniards go to heaven, I prefer to go to hell." Today Baracoans take pride in their history. Hatuey has become "Cuba's first rebel" and the Baracoa is claimed to be the oldest colonial city in the Americas. In the centre of town, outside the Cathedral de La Nuestra Señora de Asunción, stands a bust of a furious-looking Hatuey glowering at the church door of his tormentors. It's as if he knows that inside, preserved in a glass case, is one of Cuba's most important Christian relics, the Cross of Parra, the one it is claimed was planted by Columbus. (Fragments of the cross have been carbon-dated by scientists in Belgium and results have confirmed it is old enough to be the original cross that was planted by Columbus.)

Baracoans take pride in their Indian heritage. Fort Matachin, a Spanish fortification, has been turned into a museum that holds artefacts and documents recording the Indian story, as does the exhibition at Paradise Cave.

To get a personal feel for Indian history, you can seek out the Indian caves (Cuevos de Indios) in the hills behind Baracoa, which are worth the bit of a trek and climb to reach. At the far eastern end of the town where the Malecon ends you set out along the long beach in Miel (Honey) Bay before following a track under a tree-lined canopied avenue between the sea and a mangrove swamp. Along the trail a young man will guess your intention and attach himself to you, and for a dollar or two he will be happy to be your guide.

After a walk of about an hour, you arrive at a group of wooden houses where your guide leaves you to your host. Using ropes and ladders you venture down a jagged limestone hillside to an ancient Indian track and then to the mouth of an Indian cave. You are then led down by torchlight to boulders by the water's edge where you can recover your strength with a soak in the cool cave waters, and in absolute silence imagine the fearful conversations of fugitive Indians.

The good news on the Indian front is that, contrary to common belief, Cuba's Taino people were not all wiped out. In remote caves and hideaways around the highlands of Baracoa, small groups found safe places, trickling down over the centuries to mix with the towns' inhabitants. In some remote settlements in the vast mountain ranges of the Baracoa and Yateras municipalities, researchers have discovered Indians who have retained traditional song, dance and folklore.

Because of its strong Indian connections, Baracoa has in recent years become a focus for efforts to promote cultural and social activities among the Taino and other indigenous tribes such as the Siboney. Contacts have also been made with representatives of other native peoples throughout the Americas. Yet having survived some of the worst excesses of European civilisation, the remnants of Cuba's Indians are still struggling to emerge from the myth of their extinction.