9829: Reply to Bell on Hayti spelling

[Bob Corbett <corbetre@webster.edu>]

From: Pdesrosi@aol.com


Dear Prof., 

I beg to differ with you on this important matter. Faustin I Empereur
D'Hayti from August 26, 1849 to January 15, 1859 used it. I am in
possession of one of a family birth certificate which read: 

Liberte                                       Independance 
                  EMPIRE D'HAYTI. 

                                                                  Extrait
des registres de naissances 
                                                                  de la
paroisse des Cayes 

which indicates that it was not only an English spelling. In addition, the
word can also be a Fon/Adja name D'ayi te tome (D'Haiti Thomas) meaning
"Country of my heart" or for some others "the land where we are now." The
Tano Indians lived in theocratic kingdoms and not a homogenous country.
Unfortunately, the majority of the Arawaks/Taino people, if not all, were
wiped out from the island of today Haiti in less than 200 years. Even if
one can today find in Haiti direct descendants of Tianos, and despite
Michel Laguerre claim that some Tainos might have worked alongside the
African slaves, there were very little trace of cultural or custom
heritage at the time of the Haitian independence in 1804. 

In Columbus log of Sunday, November 4, 1492, he wrote that he was told
that an infinite amount of gold could be found by going to the Southeast
in a place called Bohio not Haiti. 

Again in his log book entry of Tuesday, December 11, 1492, he speaks about
"the Tainos" of Hispagnola/kyskeya, Bohio indicating that there is a
continental land behind La Isla Espagnola, which the Tianos called
Caritaba. Bohio was the Taino name for Espaiola, now Santo Domingo/Haiti.
It means "home" in Taino, was in fact home to two main confederated
peoples: the Taino, as predominant group, with three cacicasgos, and the
Macorixes, with two cacicasgos. 

The original log has not survived, but there are an extensive abstraction
of it, which contains enough navigational details to be fairly confident
of most places Columbus visited. In particular, the large islands of Cuba
(which he renamed Juana, a name that did not stick) and Bohio (which he
renamed Hispaniola, a name that stuck) are unmistakable. 

What was the original name that the (500,000 +) African rebels gave to
their new country? A Tiano Indian name meaning "high land" or an African
name D'ayi te tome (D'Haiti Thomas) meaning "Country of my heart" or for
some others "the land where we are now."