The next sequel will depict the brutal three-month war fought in 1498 in the chiefdom of Ciguayo on “Española’s” northern coast.
Chief Guarionex had sought the protection of the Ciguayan Chief Mayobanex, and Mayobanex refused to surrender him when Columbus’s brother Bartolomé came to capture him. Bartolomé and his soldiers invaded Ciguayo, Mayobanex’s warriors ambushed them, and battles ensued, commencing near where the Yásica River enters the Atlantic Ocean (near Cabarete) and progressing into the interior to Mayobanex’s village in the mountains (in the Cordillera Septentrional). The site of Mayobanex’s village is unknown, but it likely was in the wooded highlands near the middle portion of the Yásica where the river has the waterflow to support hundreds of people.
On my recent trip to the Dominican Republic, I followed the Yásica from its mountain source to its mouth on the coastal plain at the ocean, speculating where some of the fighting occurred. The first two photos show the rugged terrain typical of the highlands (near Arroyo Blanco and Lajas), which anthropologists sometimes categorize as having been mountainous rainforest in the 15th century. Favoring Mayobanex, the highland terrain prevented Bartolomé from fighting with horsemen.
The next five photos follow the Yásica from the highlands to the ocean (the third near Pedro Garcia, the fourth near Yásica Abajo, the fifth and sixth on the coastal plain near Cabarete, and the seventh by the mouth at the ocean). As to be depicted in the sequel, the first battle was fought somewhere on the coastal plain with horses, the ensuing battles fought as guerilla warfare in the wooded highlands.
