1. Why would Columbus lie about something like that? I can think of a couple of reasons as to shy he might want to cover-up the presence of a tribe practicing cannibalism but none for saying they were there when they weren’t.
2. I can think of numerous reasons why modern paleontology would want to pooh-pooh the idea of cannibalism being widespread in the caribbean, and it all has to do with the anti-western bias in today’s science.
From a logical standpoint, I don’t see how people on islands lacking a primary source of animal protein (other than fish) could survive *without* cannibalism.