When Christopher Columbus first sailed by that part of the coast, he named the strait that he sailed through, between Samaná and La Española, “Estrecho de las Flechas” (Arrows Strait). Samaná was inhabited not by Taínos, but by a small colony of Carib indians that ‘welcomed’ Columbus et al with a ‘shower’ of arrows with their points dipped in some natural poison.
According to Columbus, the strait was very shallow. Probably one or various earthquakes through the centuries eventually pushed the underwater ground high enough to become an isthmus.
