Where are Ayiti's old books, and the closing of the sea

SUMMARYWhere are Ayiti's old books, and the closing of the sea (Nov 4, 2026). Tito: "where are the ancient Haitian history books... 1500s/1600s was the last years of free ocean travel. In come the pirates, map changes, no freedom of the sea, maritime law."
RECORD, the missing books: the first book written in the Americas is about Ayiti's own people: Ramón Pané's Relación acerca de las antigüedades de los indios (about 1498), commissioned by Columbus, recording Taíno beliefs and history. The original is lost; it survives only through an Italian translation inside Ferdinand Columbus's biography of his father (Venice, 1571). Taíno history was kept in areítos, sung and danced histories, which the Spanish recorded only in passing. Ayiti's 1804 Declaration of Independence had no known original print in Ayiti; historian Julia Gaffield found a printed copy in the UK National Archives in 2010. Much of the colonial and early national record sits in French archives (Archives nationales d'outre-mer, Aix-en-Provence).
RECORD, the sea closed on paper: Tordesillas (1494) split the ocean between Spain and Portugal. Hugo Grotius, Mare Liberum ("The Free Sea," 1609), argued the ocean belonged to no one; John Selden answered with Mare Clausum ("The Closed Sea," 1635) for England. England's Navigation Acts (1651 onward) restricted which ships could carry colonial trade. Buccaneers rose on Tòti (Tortuga, off Ayiti's north coast); "buccaneer" comes from boucan, a Native American word (often traced to Tupi) for the smoking rack the nations used. Then came piracy laws and admiralty courts (England's Piracy Act, 1698/1700).
RECORD, European poor in the same system: "spiriting," the kidnapping of children and adults in London and Bristol for indentured servitude in the colonies (1600s); convict transportation to America (Transportation Act, 1718)

PATTERNin the 1600s the free sea was argued and lost on paper (Mare Liberum vs Mare Clausum), and the same century brought licensed shipping, pirate hunts and the indenture trade. The people who could no longer sail freely include the Taíno, the Africans and the European poor

LENS (WW9)1500s–1600s as the last years of free ocean travel; after that, the sea became law

OPENthe nations' own sea-travel record before and after; where Pané's original went. Needs deep research.