mains of their deceased relatives and friends,— sometimes the entire body; sometimes only the head, or some of the limbs, dried at the fire; sometimes the mere bones. These, when found in the dwellings of the natives of Hispaniola, against whom no prejudice of the kind existed, were correctly regarded as relics of the deceased, preserved through affection or reverence; but any remains of the kind found among the Caribs, were looked upon with horror as proof of cannibalism.

The warlike and unyielding character of these people, so different from that of the pusillanimous nations around them, and the wide scope of their enterprises and wanderings, like those of the nomad tribes of the Old World, entitle them to distinguished attention. They were trained to war from their infancy. As soon as they could walk their intrepid mothers put in their hands the bow and arrow, and prepared them to take an early part in the hardy enterprises of their fathers. Their distant roamings by sea made them observant and intelligent. The natives of the other islands only knew how to divide time by day and night, by the sun and moon, whereas these had acquired some knowledge of the stars, by which to calculate the times and seasons.*

* Hist. del Almirante, cap. 62.

The traditional accounts of their origin, though of course extremely vague, are yet capable of being verified to a great degree by geographical facts, and open one of the rich veins of curious inquiry and speculation which abound in the New World. They are said to have migrated from the remote valleys embosomed in the Appalachian mountains. The earliest accounts we have of them represent them with weapons in their hands, continually engaged in wars, winning their way and shifting their abode, until, in the course of time, they found themselves at the extremity of Florida. Here, abandoning the northern continent they passed over to the Lucayos, and thence gradually, in the process of years, from island to island of that vast and verdant chain which links, as it were, the end of Florida to the coast of Paria on the southern continent. The archipelago extending from Porto Rico to Tobago was their stronghold, and the island of Guadaloupe in a manner their citadel. Hence they made their expeditions, and spread the terror of their name through all the surrounding countries. Swarms of them landed upon the southern continent and overran some parts of terra firma. Traces of them have been discovered far in the interior of that vast country through which flows the Oroo

noko. The Dutch found colonies of them on the banks of the Ikouteka, which empties into the Surinam; along the Esquibi, the Maroni, and other rivers of Guayana; and in the country watered by the windings of the Cayenne; and it would appear that they extended their wanderings to the shores of the Southern Ocean, where, among the aboriginals of Brazil, were some who called themselves Caribs, distinguished from the surrounding Indians by their superior hardihood, subtlety, and enterprise.*

To trace the footsteps of this roving tribe throughout its wide migrations from the Appalachian mountains of the northern continent, along the clusters of islands which stud the Gulf of Mexico and the Caribbean Sea, to the shores of Paria, and so across the vast regions of Guayana and Amazonia to the remote coast of Brazil, would be one of the most curious researches in aboriginal history, and throw much light upon the mysterious question of the population of the New World.

*Rochefort, Hist. Nat. des Iles Antilles; Rotterdam, 1665.

Chapter IV.

ARRIVAL AT THE HARBOR OF LA NAVIDAD-DISASTER OF THE FORTRESS.

[1493.]

N the 22d of November the fleet arrived off what was soon ascertained to be the eastern extremity of Hayti or, as the Admiral had named it, Hispaniola. The greatest excitement prevailed throughout the armada at the thoughts of soon arriving at the end of their voyage. Those who had been here on the preceding voyage remembered the pleasant days they had passed among the groves of Hayti; and the rest looked forward with eagerness to scenes painted to them with the captivating illusions of the golden age.

As the fleet swept with easy sail along the green shore a boat was sent to land to bury a Biscayan sailor who had died of the wound of

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an arrow received in the late skirmish. Two light caravels hovered near the shore to guard the boat's crew while the funeral ceremony was performed near the beach, under the trees. Several natives came off to the ship, with a message to the Admiral from the cacique of the neighborhood inviting him to land, and promising great quantities of gold; anxious, however, to arrive at La Navidad Columbus dismissed them with presents, and continued his course. Arriving at the gulf of Las Flechas or, as it is now called, the gulf of Samana, the place where in his preceding voyage a skirmish had occurred with the natives, he set on shore one of the Indians of the place, who had accompanied him to Spain, and had been converted to Christianity. He dismissed him finely apparelled and loaded with trinkets, anticipating favorable effects from his accounts to his countrymen of the wonders he had seen and the kind treatment he had experienced. The young Indian made many fair promises, but either forgot them all on regaining his liberty and his native mountains, or fell a victim to envy caused by his wealth and finery. Nothing was seen or heard of him more.* Only one Indian of those who had been to Spain now remained in the fleet—a young Lu*Herrera, Hist. Ind., decad. i., lib. ii. cap. 9.