Guacanagarí dispatched a canoe with nitaínos (Taíno noblemen) to invite Columbus to meet in Guacanagarí’s village. In the Taíno tradition described in Encounters Unforeseen, he sent as a gift a face mask inlaid with gold and woven to a tightly knit cotton girdle quilted intricately with fish bones, the face mask signifying the offer of one’s soul in friendship to an equal. Columbus soon understood that Guacanagarí was the paramount chief of the territory and accepted the invitation for the next day, regardless of Columbus’s aversion to exploring on a Sunday.
