Hispaniola, old  Formerly known as  Espaniola  and called
'Ayiti' by the native population, is the second largest island
of the West Indies, lying within the Greater Antilles.
Christopher Columbus arrived in Ayiti during his first voyage to
America in 1492. On his return the following year, Columbus
quickly founded the first permanent European settlement in
America.  The island was inhabited by the Tainos, one of the
Indigenous Arawak peoples. The Taino were at first tolerant of
Columbus and his crew, and helped him to construct Fort Navidad
on what is now Mole Saint-Nicolas, Haiti, in December 1492.
European colonization of the island began in earnest the
following year, when 1,300 men arrived from Spain under the
watch of Bartolomeo Columbus. In 1496 the town of Nueva Isabela
was founded. After being destroyed by a hurricane, it was
rebuilt on the opposite site of the Ozama River and called Santo
Domingo. It is the oldest permanent European settlement in the
Americas. The Taino population of the island was