^BRARYOF
/M-*
JiKJwinfc-
,.
EBWAKDS ESQ.
THE HISTORY,
CIVIL AND COMMERCIAL,
OF THE
BRITISH COLONIES
IN THE
WEST INDIES.
BY BRYAN EDWARDS, ESQ. F.R.S. S.A.
* • » ^**
ILLUSTRATED BY AN ATLAS,
AND
EMBELLISHED WITH A PORTRAIT OF THE AUTHOR,
TO WHICH IS ADDED A GENERAL DESCRIPTION OF THE
BAHAMA ISLANDS,
DANIEL M'KINNEN, Esq.
IN FOUR VOLUMES.
VOL. I.
PHILADELPHIA:
PRINTED AND SOLD BY JAMES HUMPHREYS,, At the Corner of Second and Walnut-streets.
1806.
i/. /
TO THE
KING'S MOST EXCELLENT MAJESTY,
•v
THIS POLITICAL AND COMMERCIAL
SURVEY
OF HIS MAJESTY'S DOMINIONS IK TH£ WEST INDIES;
WHICH,
UNDER HIS MILD AND AUSPICIOUS
i
GOVERNMENT,
ARE BECOME THE PRINCIPAL SOURCE OF THE NATIONAL
OPULENCE AND MARITIME POWER;
WITH HIS GRACIOUS PERMISSION,
MOST HUMBLY INSCRIBED,
BY HIS MAJESTY'S
MOST LOYAL AND DUTIFUL SUBJECT
AND SERVANT,
BRYAN EDWARDS.
PREFATORY ADVERTISEMENT.
1O this enlarged and corrected Edition of the History of the West Indies, it was the intention of the Author to prefix a Preface, touching every source of additional intelligence, every rectification of error, and the general com- pletion of his views, in furnishing every docu- ment of commerce, of policy, and of natural his- tory, as connected with the countries and the people he describes. He had carefully revised and corrected the text of his book, preparatory to such essay, developing the scheme of its con- struction, and the philosophy of its contents. But death interrupted the design; — and ere the last sheet was revised from the press — BRYAN ED- WARDS was no more ! He had long suffered from the disorder which brought him to the
* 3y Sir William Toung, Bart.
VI PREFATORY ADVERTISEMENT.
grave, and seemed to foresee the hour of disso- lution hastening on; as the Sketch of his Life, written by himself, clearly denotes. Rendered incapable, by weakness and disease, of comple- ting his greater design of a Prefatory Discourse; yet, with a fond anxiety for honest fame, he roused the embers of his genius, — to claim a fair reputation with posterity for industry, integrity, and candid exposition of the talents and acquire- ments which introduced him to public notice.
f
The firmness of his mind, and the cheerfulness of his temper, which throughout a long and chec- quered life, gave confidence to his friendships, and delight in his society, forsook him not, as he apprehended its last short hour before him: this he clearly shews, when turning from the awful consideration of futurity to look back on his past life, himself brings the retrospect to our view, and describes the scene in so pure and lively co- jours, with no gloom from discontent, and no shade from remorse, that we readily infer the na- ture of the light which so beamed on this his last work, and to his last hour; — and pronounce its emanation to be from the pure conscience of a benevolent and upright man. Under such im- pression, the editor has peculiar satisfaction in fulfilling the injunction of his departed friend.
PREFATORY ADVERTISEMENT. Vll
and prefixing to this edition "THE LIFE OF THE AUTHOR, WRITTEN BY HIMSELF." The time at which it was composed, and the compo- sition itself, impress the editor with every feeling of dear regard and of duty; and, (as a part of that duty), with the propriety of submitting some fur- ther remark on this last literary effort of his ex- cellent friend. Those who knew and were inti- mate with Mr. BRYAN EDWARDS, will recog- nize in this short account of himself, the energy of mind, the industry, and the truth, which cha- racterized his conversations and his life; but all must allow, and some must object, that much therein is omitted, which has usual and proper place in biography, and which the editor might be presumed, or be called upon, to supply. Some account might be required, of his literary essays, and legislative acts, so efficient in the cause of humanity towards the negroes, whilst a member of the assembly in Jamaica: — Some account might be demanded, of this good and indepen- dent man, whilst a member of the British par- liament; and, especially in the posthumous life of a literary man, some accurate detail of his lite- rary pursuits and writings might be expected. — Of BRYAN ED WADS, — of his correspondence, —
Vlll PREFATORY ADVERTISEMENT.
k
of his essays, and of his conduct in the judicious compilation and elegant recital of the Travels of Mungo Park, — and specially, of the origin and progress of the great work herewith submitted to the public — to these, and other points, the recollection of the reader is thus awakened. The editor presumes no further. He cannot venture to alter, or add to, the sacred deposite committed to his charge, — and now gives it to the public, as its author left, and willed it, to be given.
i .
SKETCH
OF
THE LIFE OF THE AUTHOR,
WRITTEN BY HIMSELF
A SHORT TIME BEFORE HIS DEATH.
Vol. I. b
SKETCH
OF
THE LIFE OF THE AUTHOR,
WRITTEN BY HIMSELF
A SHORT TIME BEFORE HIS
I WAS born the 21st of May 171-3, in the de- cayed town of Westbury, in the county of Wilts. My father inherited a small paternal estate, in the neighbourhood, of about ^£.100 per annum; which proving but a scanty mainte- nance for a large family, he undertook, without any knowledge of the business, as I have been informed, to deal in corn and malt, but with ve- ry little success. He died in 1756, leaving my excellent mother, and six children, in distressed circumstances. — Luckily for my mother, she had two opulent brothers in the West Indies, one of
Xll LIFE OF
them a wise and worthy man, of a liberal mind .and prineely fortune. This was Zachary Bayly, of the island of Jamaica, who, on the death of my father, took my mother and her family under his protection, and as I was the eldest son, di- rected that I should be well educated. I had been placed by my father at the school of a dis- senting minister in Bristol, wrhose name was Wil- liam Foot, of whom I remember enough, to bei- Jieve that he was both a learned and a good man, but by a strange absurdity, he was forbidden to teach me Latin and Greek, and directed to con- fine my studies to writing, arithmetic, and the English grammar. I should therefore have had
o o
little to do, but that the schoolmaster had an ex- cellent method of making the boys write letters to him on different subjects, such as the beauty and dignity of truth, the obligation of a religious life, the benefits of good education, the mischief of idleness, &c. &c. previously stating to. them the chief arguments to be urged ; and insisting on correctness in orthography and grammar. In this employment, I had sometimes the good fortune to excel the other boys 5 and when this happened, my master never failed to praise me very liberal]} before them all; and he would frequently trans- mit mv letters to my father and mother, — This \m'. . *
THE AUTHOR. X1U
excited in my mind a spirit of emulation, and, I believe, gave me the first taste for correct and elegant composition. I acquired, however, all this time, but very little learning; and when my uncle (on my father's death) took me under his protection, his agent in Bristol considered me as neglected by Mr. Foot, and immediately re- moved me to a French boarding school in the same city, where I soon obtained the French language, and having access to a circulating li- brary, I acquired a passion for books, which has since become the solace of my life.
In 1759, a younger and the only brother of my great and good uncle, came to England, and settling in London, took me to reside with him, in a high and elegant stvle of life. He was a re-
O O J
presentative in Parliament for Abingdon, and af- terwards for his native town. — Further, I cannot speak of him so favourably as I could wish ; for I remember, that at the period I allude to, his conduct towards me, was such, as not to inspire me with much respect: he perceived it; and soon after, in the latter end of the same year, sent me to Jamaica. — This proved a happy and fortunate change in my life, for I found my eldest uncle the reverse, in every possible circum-
XIV LIFE OF
stance, of his brother. To the most enlarged and enlightened mind, he added the sweetest temper, and the most generous disposition. His tenderness towards me was excessive, and I re- garded him with more than filial affection and
o
veneration. Observing my passion for books, and thinking favourably of my capacity, he en- gaged a clergyman (my loved and ever to be la- mented friend Isaac Teale) to reside in his fami- ly, chiefly to supply by his instructions my de- ficiency in the learned languages. Mr. Teale had been master of a free grammar school, and besides being a most accomplished scholar, pos- sessed an exquisite taste for poetry, of which the reader will be convinced by referring to the Gentleman's Magazine, for August, 1771; the beautiful copy of verses, there first published, called ec The Compliment of the Day/' being of his composition. I dare not say, however, that I made any great progress in the languages under his tuition; I acquired " small Latin, and less Greek " even now, 1 find it difficult to read the Roman poets in their own language. The case was, that not having been grounded in the Latin grammar at an earlier period of life, I found the study of it insupportably disgusting, after that I had acquired a taste for the beauties
THE AUTHOR XV
of fine writing. Poetry was our chief amuse- ment; for my friend, as well as myself, prefer- red the charms of Dryden and Pope, to the dull drudgery of poring over syntax and prosody.* We preferred Belle Lettres. — We laughed away many a happy hour over the plays of Moliere, and wrote verses on local and temporary sub- jects, which we sometimes published in the co- lonial newspapers. Yet the Latin classics w^ere not altogether neglected ; my friend delighted to point out to me the beauties of Horace, and would frequently impose on me the task of translating an ode into English verse, which with his assistance, in construing the words, I sometimes accomplished.
Having made myself known to the public by my writings, it is probable that after I am in the grave, that some collector of anecdotes, or bio- graphical compiler, may pretend to furnish some particulars concerning my life and manners. It is not pleasant to think that misrepresentation or malice may fasten on my memory; and I have therefore made it the amusement of an idle hour, to compile a short account of myself. My per-
* P"ide Armstrong,
XVI LIFE OF THE AUTHOR.
sonal history, however, is of little importance to the world. It will furnish no diversified scenes of fortune, nor relate many circumstances of myself, worth remembering. Yet I feel the fond ambition of an Author, and am willing to
o
hope, that those who have read my book with approbation, will be glad to know something further concerning me;
For who, to dumb forgetfulness a prey, &c.
For the satisfaction then of such kind readers (if such there are) and the information of my poste- rity, I have drawn up this paper, which I desire my Bookseller to prefix to the next Edition of my History of the West Indies.
B. E.
PREFACE TO THE FIRST EDITION.
THE discovery of a new Hemisphere by CHRISTOPHER. COLUMBUS, and the progress of the Spaniards in the conquest of it, have been deservedly the theme of a long se- ries of Histories in the several languages of Europe ; and the subject has been recently resumed and illustrated by a celebrated Writer among ourselves. — It is not therefore my intention to tread again in so beaten a track, by the recital of occurrences of which few can be ignorant, if the noblest exertions of the human mind, producing events the most singular and import- ant in the history of the world, are circumstances deserving admiration and inquiry.
My attempt, which I feel to be sufficiently arduous, is, —
To present the reader with an historical account of the ori- gin and progress of the settlements made by our own nation in the West Indian islands; —
To explain their constitutional establishments, internal go- vernments, and the political system maintained by Great Bri- tain towards them ; —
To describe the manners and dispositions of the present in- habitants, as influenced by climate, situation, and other local causes ; comprehending in this part of my book an account of the African slave trade; some observations on the negro cha- racter and genius, and reflections on the system of slavery esty blished in our colonies; —
VoL I.
XV111 PREFACE TO
To furnish a more comprehensive account than has hitherto appeared of the agriculture of the Sugar Islands in general, and of their rich and valuable staple commodities, sugar, indi- go, coffee, and cotton in particular ; — finally, —
To display the various and widely extended branches of their commerce; pointing out the relations of each towards the other, and towards the several great interests, the manu- factures, navigation, revenues, and lands of Great Britain ; —
These, together with several collstera'l disquisitions, are the topics on which I have endeavoured to collect, and convey to the public, useful and acceptable information. Their import- ance will not be disputed, and I have only to lament that my abilities are not more equal to the task I have undertaken.
But, before I proceed to investigations merely political and commercial, I have ventured on a retrospective survey of the state and condition of the West Indian islands when first dis- covered by Columbus ; and I have endeavoured to delineate the most prominent features in the chara-cter and genius of their ancient inhabitants. I was led to a research of this nature, not merely for the purpose of giving uniformity to my work, but because, having resided many years in the countries of which I write, I presume to think, that I am somewhat better qualified to judge of the influence of climate and situation, on the. disposition, temper, and intellects of their inhabitants, than many of those writers, who, without the same advantage, have tmdertaken to compile systems, and establish conclusions, on this subject. I conceive that, unless an author has had the benefit of actual experience and personal observation, neither genius aor industry can at all times enable him to guard against the mistakes and misrepresentations of prejudiced, ignorant, or interested men; to whose authority he submits, merely from the want of advantages whkh those who have possessed them have perverted. He is liable even to be misled by preceding authors, who have undertaken, on no better foundation than himself, to compile histories and form systems on the same subject: for when plausible theories are deduced, with ingenuity and elo-
FIRST EDITION. XiX
•quence, from facts confidently asserted; he suspects not, or, -if he suspects, is cautious of asserting, that the foundation it- self (as it frequently happens) is without support; that no such facts actually exist, or, if existing, are accidental and lo- cal peculiarities only, — not premises of sufficient extent and importance whereon to ground general conclusions and sys- tematical combination.
I have been induced to make this remark from perusing the speculations of Mons. Buffon and some other French theorists, on the condition and character of the American nations. Whe- ther from a desire to lessen the strong abhorrence of all man- kind at the cruelties exercised by the Spaniards in the conquest of the New World, or from a strange affectation of paradox and singularity, falsely claiming the honours of philosophy, those writers have ventured to assert, that the air and climate, or other -physical phenomena, retar4 the growth of animated nature in the New Hemisphere, and prevent the natives from attaining to that perfection at which mankind arrive in the other quarters of the globe. Notwithstanding the variety of soil, climate, and seasons, which prevail in -the several great provinces of North and South America ; --notwithstanding •that the aboriginal inhabitants were divided into a great many different tribes, and distinguished also by many different lan- guages; it is pretended that ali those various tribes were uni- formly inferior, in the faculties of the mind and the capacity of improvement, to the rest of the human species; that they were creatures of no consideration in the book of nature; — de- nied the refined invigorating sentiment of love, — -and not pos- sessing even any very powerful degree of animal desire to- wards multiplying their species. The author of a system in- titled * Recherches Philosophiques sur Ics Americains\ de- clares, with unexampled arrogance, that there n&y*ir has been found, throughout the whole extent of the New World, a single individual of superior sagacity to the rest. And the scope of his treatise is to demonstrate, that the poor savages were actuated not -by re?.son, but by a sort of animal instinct;
XX PREFACE TO THE
that nature, having bestowed on the whole species a certain small degree of intellect, to which they all individually attain, placed an insurmountahle barrier against their further progress: — of course, that they are not (properly speaking) men, but beings of a secondary and subordinate rank in the scale of creation.
Although our own learned Historian* is much too enligh- tened to adopt in their fullest extent, these opinions; — which cannot, indeed, be read without indignation; — yet it is impos- sible to deny, that they have had some degree of influence in the general estimate which he has framed of the American character: for he ascribes to all the natives of the New World many of those imperfections on which the system in question is founded; and repeatedly asserts, that " the qualities belong- ing to the people of all the different tribes may be painted •with the same features. "f With this bias on his pen, it is not wonderful, that this author is sometimes chargeable with repugnancy and contradiction. Thus we are told, that " the Americans are, in an amazing degree, strangers to the first in- stinct of nature (a passion for the sex,) and, in every part of the New World, treat their women with coldness and indiffe- rence. "J Yet we find soon afterwards, that, " in some coun- tries of the New World, the women are valued and admired, the animal passion of the sexes becomes ardent, and the disso- lution of their manners is excessive. "§ It is elsewhere ob- served, that " the Americans were not only averse to toil, but incapable of it, and sunk under tasks which the people of the other continent would have performed with ease; and it is added, that ** this feebleness of constitution was universal, and may be considered as characteristic of the specie s"\\ It
* Dr. Robertson.
f History of America,. Vol. I. p. 280 and 283.
J P. 292.
$ P. 296.
11 P. 290.
FIRST EDITION.
appears, however, in a subsequent page, that " wherever the Americans have been gradually accustomed to hard labour, their constitutions become robust enough to equal any effort of the natives either of Africa or Europe."* Personal de- bility, therefore, could not have been the peculiar character- istic of the American species; for the human frame, in every part of the globe, acquires strength by gradual employment, and is comparatively feeble without it.
Again: among the qualities which the Historian considers as universally predominant in the Americans, he ascribes to them, in a remarkable degree, a hardness of heart and a brutal insensibility to the sufferings of their fellow creatures. f " So little (he observes) is the breast of a savage susceptible of those sentiments which prompt men to that feeling attention which mitigates distress, that in some provinces of America the Spaniards have found it necessary to enforce the 'common du- ties of humanity by positive la\vs.'?j; Neither is this account of their inflexibility confined to the ferocious barbarian of the northern provinces, or to the miserable outcast of Terra del Fuego. The author extends his description to all the unci- vilized inhabitants of the New 'Hemisphere. It constitutes1 a striking feature in his general estimate ; for he establishes it as a fixed principle, that " in every part of the deportment of man in his savage state, whether towards his equals of the human species, or towards the animals below him, we recog- nize the same character, and trace the operations of a mind in- tent on its own gratifications, and regulated by its own caprice, without much attention or sensibility to the sentiments and feelings of the beings around him."§
Certainly the learned Author, while employed in this repre- sentation, had wholly forgotten the account which he had br-
* History of America, Vol. I. p. 294.. t P. 405. I P. 406. § P. 407.
PREFACE TO THE
fore given of the first interview between the Spaniards and the natives of Hispaniola, when a ship of Columbus was wrecked on that island. " As soon (says the Historian) as they heard of the disaster, they crowded to the shore, with their prmce Guacanahari at their head. Instead of taking advantage of the distress in which they beheld the Spaniards, to attempt any thing to their detriment, they lamented their misfortune with tears of sincere condolence. Not satisfied with this unavail- ing expression of their sympathy, they put to sea a vast num- ber of canoes, and under the direction of the Spaniards, as- sisted in saving whatever could be got out of the wreck ; and by the united labour of so many hands, almost every thing of value was carried ashore. Guacanahari in person took charge of the goods, and prevented the multitude not only from em- bezzling, but even from inspecting too curiously what belong- ed to their g-uests. Next morning this prince visited Colum- bus, and endeavoured to console him for his loss by offering all that he possessed to repair it?*'
Thus exceptions present themselves to every generai conclu- sion, until we are burthened with their variety; — And at last we end just where we began; for the wonderful uniformity which is said to have distinguished the American Indians, can- not be supported by analogy, because it is not founded on naT ture.
Of the other branches of my work, great part, I presume to think, will be new to many of my readers. I have not met with any book that even pretends to furnish a comprehen- •sive and satitfactory account of the origin and progress of our national settlements in the tropical parts of America. The system of agriculture practised in the West Indies, is almost as much unknown to the people of Great Britain as that of Japan. They know, indeed, that sugar, and indigo, and coffee, and cotton, are raised and produced there; but they are very generally, and to a surprising degree, uninformed concerning the method by which those and other valuable commodities are cultivated and brought to perfection. So re~
FIRST EDITION. XXlU
markable indeed is the want of information in this respect, even among persons of the most extensive general knowledge, that in a law question which came by appeal from one of the Sugar islands a few years ago, the noble and learned earl who presided at the hearing, thinking it necessary to give some ac- count of the nature of rum and melasses, (much being stated in the pleadings concerning the value of those commodities), assured his auditors with great solemnity, that " melasses was the raw and unconcocted juice extracted from the cane, and from which sugar was afterwards made by boiling !"*
On the subject of the slave trade, and its concomitant cir- cumstances, so much has been said of late by others, that it may be supposed there remains but Hide to be added by me. It is certain, however, that my account, both of the trade and the situation of the enslaved negroes in the British colonies, differs very essentially from the representations that have been given, not only in a great variety of pamphlets and other publi- cations, but also by many of the witnesses that were examined before the house of commons* The public must judge between us, and I should be in no pain about the result, if the charac- ters of some of those persons who have stood forth on this occasion as accusers of the resident planters, were as well known in Great Britain, as they are in the West Indies. What I have written on these subjects has, at least this advan- tage, that great part of my observations are founded on per- sonal knowledge and actual experience: and with regard to the manners and dispositions of the native Africans, as distin- guished by national habits, and characteristic features, I ven- ture to think, that my remarks will be found both new and in- teresting.
After all, my first object has been truth, not novelty. I have endeavoured to collect useful knowledge wheresoever it lay, and when J found books that supplied what I sought, I
* I give this anecdote on the authority of a Jamaica gentleman was present^ a person of undoubted verachy,
XXIV PREFACE TO THE
have sometimes been content to adopt, without alteration, what was thus furnished to my hands. Thus extracts and pas- sages from former writers occupy some of my pages ; and not having always been careful to note the authorities to which 1 resorted, I find it now too late to ascertain the full extent of my obligations of this kind. They may be traced most fre- quently, I believe, in the first and last parts of my work: In the first, because, when I began my task, I had less confi- dence in my own resources than I found aftenvarcls, when practice had rendered writing familiar to me ; and in the last, because, when my labours grew near to a conclusion, I be- came weary, and was glad to get assistance wheresoever it offered.
From living rather than from written information, how- ever, have I generally sought assistance, when my own re- sources have proved efficient ; and it is my good fortune to boast an acquaintance with men, to whom, for local and commercial knowledge, our statesmen and senators might re- sort, with credit to themselves and advantage to die public.
On this occasion, neither the gratitude which I owe for fa-
o
vours bestowed, nor the pride which I feel from the honour of his friendship, will allow me to conceal the name of Ed- ward Long, Esquire, the author of the Jamaica History, to whom I am first and principally indebted; and who with the liberality which always accompanies true genius, has been as careful to correct my errors, and as assiduous to supply my de- fects, as if nis own well-earned reputation had depended on the issue.
For great part of the materials which compose the History of Grenada, I am under obligations to Thomas Campbell, Esq. formerly speaker of the assembly of that island, who, through means of a friend, furnished such answers to queries that I sent him, as encourage me to present that portion of my work to the public with a confidence which I dare not as- sume in my account of some other ofthe islands. Yet, even with regard to most of these, I have no cause to complain
FIRST VOLUME. XXV
that assistance has been oftentimes denied me. Concerning BarbaJoes and Saint Christopher's in particular, I have been favoured with much accurate and acceptable information, by John Braithwaite and Alexander Douglas, Esquires, gentle- men who are intimately acquainted with the concerns of those colonies ; and the polite and cheerful readiness with which they satisfied my inquiries, entitle them to this public testi- mony of my thanks.
The same tribute is most justly due to Benjamin Vaughan and George Hibbert, Esquires, merchants of London, for many excellent and important remarks, and much valuable matter; which, at length, have enabled me to look back on the commercial disquisitions in the last book, with a degree of satisfaction that at one period I despaired of obtaining; being well apprized that this part of my work will, on many ac- counts, be most obnoxious to criticism. That it is now ren- dered free from mistakes, I do not indeed pretend. In all re- searches of a political and commercial nature, the best autho- rities are sometimes fallible; and there is frequently much difference both in general opinion, and particular computation, between those who are equally solicitous for the discovery ofc truth. The facts, however, that I have collected cannot fail to be of use, whether the conclusions I have drawn from them be well founded or not.
I might here close this introductory discourse, and leave my book to the candour of my readers; but having made my acknowledgments to those gentlemen who have given me their kind assistance in the compilation of it ; and feeling, in common with all the inhabitants of the British West Indies, a just sense of indignation at the malignant and unmerited as- persions which are daily and hourly thrown upon the planters, for supposed improper and inhuman treatment of their African labourers; I should ill acquit myself, as the historian of those colonies, if I omitted this opportunity of giving my testimony
Vol. I (1
XXVI PREFACE TO THE
to the fulness of their gratitude, their honest pride and lively sensibility, at beholding, in a son of their beloved sovereign, the generous assertor of their rights, and the strenuous and able defender of their injured characters, and insulted honour ! The condescending and unsolicited interposition of the duke of Clarence on this occasion, is the more valuable, as, happily for the planters, it is founded on his royal highness's personal obser- vation of their manners, and knowledge of their dispositions, acquired on the spot. Thus patronised and protected, while they treat with silent scorn and deserved contempt the base ef- forts of those persons who, without the least knowledge of the subject, assail them with obloquy and outrage, they find a dignified support, in the consciousness of their own inno- cence, even under the misguided zeal and unfavourable prepos- sessions of better men. It might indeed be hoped, for the in- terests of truth and humanity, that such men would now frankly acknowledge their error, and ingeniously own, that we have been most cruelly traduced, and ignominiously treat- ed; or if this be too much to ask, we may at least expect, that gentlemen of education and candour will no longer persist in affording countenance to the vulgar prejudices of the envious and illiberal, by giving currency to suggestions which they cannot possibly know to be true, and which we know to be false.
London, 1793,
PREFACE TO THE SECOND EDITION
THE sale of a large impression of this Work, in a little more than twelve months, having induced the bookseller to publish a Second Edition, I have availed myself of the op- portunity of correcting several errors which have crept into the first, but 1 have not found it necessary to enlarge my book with any new matter of my own, worthy of mention. The only additions of importance are a few notes and illustrations, with which the kindness of friends has enabled me to supply some of my deficiencies. I have thought it proper, however, in that part of the sixth book which treats of the commercial system, to insert a copy of the provisional bill presented to the House of Commons in March 1782, by the Right Hon. WILLIAM PITT, Chancellor of the Exchequer, for the pur- pose of reviving the beneficial intercourse that existed be- fore the late American war, between the United States and the British Sugar islands. This bill, through the influence- of popular prejudice and other causes, was unfortunately lost. Had it passed into a law it would probably have saved from the horrors of famine fifteen thousand unoffending negroes, who miserably perished (in Jamaica alone) from the sad ef- fects of the fatal restrictive system which prevailed ! The pub- lication of this bill, therefore, is discharging a debt of jus- tice to the minister and myself: to Mr. Pitt, because it proves that his first ideas on this question were founded on principles
XXVlll PREFACE TO THE
of sound policy and humanity ; to myself, because it gives me an opportunity of shewing, that the sentiments which I have expressed on the same subject are justified by his high authority.
This is not a business of selfishness or faction; nor (like many of those questions which are daily moved in parliament merely to agitate and perplex government) can it be dismissed by a vote. It will come forward again and agai;i, and haunt administration in a thousand hideous shapes, until a more li- beral policy shall take place ; for no folly can possibly exceed the notion, that any measures pursued by Great Britain will prevent the American States from having, some time or other? a commercial intercourse with our West Indian territories on their own terms. With a chain of coast of twenty degrees of latitude, possessing the finest harbours for the purpose in the world, all lying so near to the sugar colonies, and the track to Europe, — with a country abounding in every thing the islands have occcasion for, and which they can obtain no where else; — all these circumstances, necessarily and naturally lead to a commercial intercourse between our islands and trr. United States. It is true, we may ruin our sugar colonies, and ourselves also, in the attempt to prevent it ; but it is an ex- periment which God and nature have marked out as impossi- ble to succeed. The present restraining system is forbidding men to help each other ; men who, by their necessities, their climate and productions, are standing in perpetual need of mu- tual assistance, and able to supply it.
I write with the freedom of History; — for it is the cause of Humanity that I plead. — At the same time there is not a man, living who is more desirous than myself of testifying, by every possible means, the sensibility and affection which are due to our gracious SOVEREIGN, for that paternal solicitude and mu- nihcent interposition, in favour of his remotest subjects, to which it is owing that the Bread Fruit, and other valuable
o
productions of the most distant regions, now flourish in the British West Indies. These are indeed " imperial \vorks,
SECOND EDITION. XXIX
" and worthy kings." After several unsuccessful attempts, the introduction of the Bread Fruit was happily accomplished, in January 1793, by the arrival at St. Vincent of his majesty's ship Providence, captain WILLIAM BLIGH, and the Assist- ant brig, captain NATHANIEL PORTLOCK, from the South Seas ; having on board many hundreds of those trees, and a vast number of other choice and curious plants, in a very flou- rishing condition ; all which have been properly distributed through the islands of St. Vincent and Jamaica, an^ already afford the pleasing prospect that his majesty's goodness will be felt to the most distant period.* Tbe cultivation of these va- luable exotics will, without doubt, in a course of years, les- sen the dependance of the sugar islands on North America for food and necessaries ; and not ordy supply subsistence for fu- ture generations, but probably furnish fresh incitements to in- dustry, new improvements in the arts, and new subjects of commerce !
The assembly of Jamaica, co-operating with the benevo- lent intentions of his majesty, have lately purchased the mag- nificent botanical garden of Mr. East,f and placed it on the
* Extract of a letter to Sir JOSEPH BANKS, from the Botanic gardener
in Jamaica ; dated December 1793.
" All the trees under my charge are thriving with the greatest luxuri- ance. Some of the bread fruit are upwards of eleven feet high, with leaves thirty-six inches long j and my success in cultivating them has exceeded my most sanguine expectations. The cinnamon tree is become very common, and mangoes are in such plenty as to be planted in the ne- gro-grounds. There are also several bearing trees of the Jaack or bas- tard bread fruit, which is exactly the same as the nanka of Timor. We have one nutmeg plant, which is rather sickly, &c. &c.
f On the death of HIMTON EAST, Esq. the founder of the botanic garden, it became the property of his nephew, EDWARD HYDE EAST, Esq. barrister at law, and member of parliament for Gieat Bedwin, \vho with gieat generosity offered it to the assembly of Jamaica, for t'ne use of the public, at their own price.
XXX PREFACE TO THE
public establishment, under the care of skilful gardeners, one of whom circumnavigated the globe with captain BLIGH. I might therefore have considerably enlarged the Hortus Eastcnsis annexed to this work, but the particulars did not come to my hands in time. However, that the lovers of natural history may not be wholly disappointed, I shall subjoin to this preface a catalogue of the more rare and valuable exotics which now flourish in Jamaica. The pre- sent improved state of bottany in that island will thus be seen at one view.
In contemplating this display of industry and science, and offering the tribute of grateful veneration to that SOVEREIGN under whose royal patronage and bounty so many valuable productions have been conveyed in a growing state from one extremity of the world to the other, it is impossible that the inhabitants of the British West Indies can forget how much also is due to Sir JOSEPH BANKS, the president of the Royal Society ; by whose warm and unwearied exertions the second voyage to the South Seas was determined on, after the first had proved abortive. Among all the labours of life, if there is one pursuit more replete than any other with benevolence, more likely to add comforts to existing people, and even to augment their numbers by augmenting their means of sub- sistence, it is certainly that of spreading abroad the bounties of creation, by transplanting from one part of the globe to ano- ther such natural productions as are likely to prove beneficial to the interests of humanity. In this generous effort, Sir JOSEPH BANKS has employed a considerable part of his time, attention, and fortune; and the success which in many cases, has crowned his endeavours, will be felt in the enjoyments, and rewarded by the blessings of posterity.
On the whole, the introduction of the bread fruit and other plants from the South Sea islands — the munificence dis- played by His MAJESTY in causing the voyage to be under- raken by which it was finally accomplished — the liberality and judgment of those who advised it — and the care and attention
SECOND EDITION. XXXI
manifested by those who were more immediately intrusted with the conduct of it, are circumstances that claim a distin- guished place, and constitute an important era, in the History of the British West Indies.
Having said thus much in honour of my countrymen, it is but justice to observe, that the French nation (whilst a go- vernment existed among them) began to manifest a noble spirit of emulation in the same liberal pursuit. It is to the in- dustry of the French that Jamaica (as will be seen in the His- tory of that island) owes the cinnamon, the mango, and some other delicious spices and fruits. Among other branches of the vegetable kingdom introduced by them into their West Indian possessions, they reckoned three different species of the sugar cane, all of which were previously unknown to the planters and inhabitants. I have, in the second volume of this edition, observed, that Sir JOSEPH BANKS had satisfied me that such varieties did exist; but I was not then apprized that their cultivation had been successfully attempted in any of our own islands. By the kindness of Admiral Sir JOHN LAFOREY, baronet, I am now enabled to gratify my readers with such full and authentic information on this subject, as cannot fail to be highly acceptable to every inhabitant of the West Indies.
These canes were originally introduced into Martinico ; and it was a fortunate circumstance that the distinguished officer whotn I have named commanded about that time on the naval station at Antigua. It was equally fortunate that, with a love of natural knowledge, he possessed plantations in the island last mentioned; for it is extremely probable, from the disturbances and distractions which have prevailed ever since in every one of the French colonies, that there would not at this time have been found a trace of these plants in any part of the West In- dies, if Sir JOHN LAFOREY had not personally attended to their preservation. With the account which his politeness has enabled me to present to the public, I shall conclude this In- troductory Discourse.
XXX11 PREFACE TO THE
Remarks on the EAST INDIA and other CANES imported into the French Charaibean islands, and lately intro- duced into the island of Antigua, by Sir JOHN LAFO- REY, Bart.
" One sort was brought from the island of Bourbon, re- ported by the French to be the growth of the coast of Mala- bar,
" Another sort from the island of Otaheue.
" Another sort from Batavia.
" The two former are much alike, both in their appearance and growth, but that of Otaheite is said to make the finest sugar. They are much larger than those of our islands, the joints of some measuring eight or nine inches long, and six in circumference.
" Their colour, and that of their leaves also, differs from ours, being of a pale green; their leaves broader, their points falling towards the ground as they grow out, instead of being erect like those of our islands. Their juice also, when ex- pressed, differs from that of our canes ; being of a very pale, instead of a deep green colour. I caused one of the largest of these canes to be cut, at what I deemed its full growth, and likewise one of the largest of the island canes that could be found upon each of three other plantations. When they were properly trimmed for grinding, I had them weighed : the Ma- labar canes weighed upwards of seven pounds; neither of the other three exceeded four pounds and a quarter.
" They are ripe enough to grind at the age of ten months; a few cut for a trial by my manager, above twelve months old, were judged to have lost part of their juices, by standing too long.
" They appear to stand the dry weather better than ours; I observed, that after a drought of a long continuance, when the leaves of our own canes began to turn brown at their points, these continued their colour throughout.
SECOND EDITION. XXXUJ
" A gentleman of Montserat had some plants given to him by Monsieur Pinnel, one of the most considerable planters of Guadaloupe, who told him he had, in the preceding year, 1792, in which an exceeding great drought had prevailed, planted, amongst a large field of the island-canes, half an acre of these; that the want of rain, and the borer, had damaged the former so much, that he could not make sugar from them, but the latter had produced him three hogsheads.
" In the spring of this year, 1794, a trial was made of the Malabar canes on one of my plantations; 160 bunches from holes of five feet square were cut, they produced upwards of 350 Ibs. of very good sugar; the juice came into sugar in the teache in much less time than is usually required for that of the other canes, and threw up very little scum. The produce was in the proportion of 3,500 Ibs. to an acre; the weather had then been so very dry, and the borer so destructive, that I am sure no one part of that plantation would have yielded above half that quantity from the other canes, in the same space of ground. We had not then the benefit of the new invented clarifiers, which, though imported, had not been fix- ed up for want of time.
" The French complain that these canes do not yield a suf- ficient quantity of field trash, to boil rhe juice into sugar; to this, and to their never throwing up an arrow, I think their superior size may in good measure be attributed. This in- convenience may be obviated, by the substitution of coals; and the increased quantity of the cane trash, which their mag- nitude will furnish, (and which we reckon the richest manure we have, when properly prepared), will well indemnify the ex- pense of firing,
" The Batavia canes are a deep purple on the outside; they grow short jointed, and small in circumference, but bunch ex- ceedingly, and vegetate so quick, that they spring up from the plant in one-third the time those of our island do; the joints, soon after they form, all burst longitudinally. They have the appearance of being very hardy, and bear dry weather well ;
Vol. I. e
XXXIV PREFACE, &C.
a few bunches were cut and made into sugar at the same time the experiment was made with the white canes. The report made to me of them was, that they yielded a great deal of juice, which seemed richer than that of the others, but the sugar was strongly tinged with the colour of the rind ; and it was observed, that upon the expression of them at the mill, the juice was of a bright purple ; but by the time it had reach- ed through the spout to the clarifier (a very short distance) it became of a dingy iron colour. I am told the Batavia sugar imported into Amsterdam is very fair; so that if those canes should otherwise answer well, means may doubtless be obtain- ed to discharge the purple tinge from their juice."
LONDON, 1794»
CONTENTS
OF THE FIRST VOLUME,
Dedication iih
Prefatory Advertisement . . . . \6
Life of the Author ....... ix»
Preface to the First Edition ... * xvii.
Preface to the Second Edition xxvii.
BOOK I.
A GENERAL VIEW OF THE ANCIENT STATE AND
INHABITANTS.
CHAPTER I.
GEOGRAPHICAL Arrangement.— Climate.— -Sea-breeze, and Land-wind,-— Beauty and singularity of the vegetable and ani* mat creation, — Magnificence and sublimity of the mountains : reflections concerning the origin of the West Indian islands* &c Page 1.
CHAPTER II.
Of the Charaibes, or ancient inhabitants of the Windward islands* —Origin. — Difficulties attending an accurate investigation of their character. — Such particulars related as are Itast disputed concerning their manners and dispositions, persons and domestic habits, education of their children, arts, manufactures, and government, religious rites, funeral ceremonies, &c.——Some re- factions drawn from the whole ..•>...*.»••«• 2 7
XXXVI CONTENTS.
CHAPTER III.
Of the natives of Hhpaniola, Cubay Jamaica, and Porto-Rico. —Their origin,— Numbers. — Persons.— Genius and disposi- tions.—-Government and religion.— Miscellaneous observations respecting their arts, manufactures and agriculture. •--'Cruelty of the Spaniards, &c. . . ' 59
CHAPTER IV.
Land animals used as food. — Fishes and vjild fowl.— Indian me- thod of fishing and fowling.— Esculent 'vegetables, &c.— Con- clusion 95
APPENDIX TO BOOK I.
Additional observations concerning the origin of the Cha- raibes Ill
BOOK II.
JAMAICA.
CHAPTER I.
Discovery of Jamaica by Columbus. — His return in 1503.— Spi- rited proceedings of his son Diego, after Columbus' }s Death.—* Takes possession of Jamaica in 1509.— Humane conduct of Juan de Esquivel, the first Governor.— Establishment and de- sertion of the tovun of Sevilla Nueva. — Destruction of the In- dians.—St, Jago de la Vega founded. — Gives the title of Mar- quis to Diego's son Levjis, to whom the island is granted in perpe- tual sovereignty— Descends to his sister Isabella, vuho conveys her rights by marriage to the House of Braganza. — Reverts to the crovjn cf Spain, in 164.0— Sir Anthony Shirley invades the island in 1596, and Col. Jackson in 1638 ....«,,.
CONTENTS. XXXV11
CHAPTER II.
Cromwell 'vindicated for attacking tbe Spaniards in 1655.-— Their cruelties in tie West Indies, in contravention of the trea- ty of 1630,— Proposals offered by Modyford and Gage.- — Forci- ble arguments of the latter .—Secretary YJitirlbfs account of a conference with the Spanish ambassador, — Cromwell's demand cf satisfaction rejected.— State of Ja?naica on its capture. ..150
CHAPTER III.
Proceedings of the English in Jamaica after its capture. — Colonel D'Oyley declared president. — Discontents and mortality among the army. — Vigorous exertions of the Protector. — Colonel Brayne appointed commander in chief.— His death. — D'Oyley reassumcs the government.— 'Defeats the Spanish forces, which had inva- ded the island from Cuba,— His wise and steady administration. —-Bucaniers —Conciliating conduct of Charles II. on his resto- ration— First establishment of a regular government in Jamai- ca.— Lord Windsor's appointment. -~-Royal proclamation.— -Ame- ri can treaty in 1670. — Change of measures on the -part of the crown. — New constitution devised for Jamaica.— Earl of Car- lisle appointed chief governor for the purpose of er forcing the new system.—* Successful opposition of the assembly. — Subsequent dis- putes respecting the confirmation of their laws.— Terminated by the revenue act of 1728 169
CHAPTER IV.
Situation. — Climate. — Face of the Country. — Mountains, and advantages derived from them.— Soil.— Lands in culture.-* * Lands uncultivated, and observations thereon. — Woods and Tim- bers.— Rivers and Medicinal Springs. — Ores. — Vegetable clas- ses.— Grain. — Grasses.— -Kitchen -garden produce, and fruits for the table, &c. &c ..,»..
XXXV111 CONTENTS.
CHAPTER V.
topographical description. — Towns, villages, and parishes*- Churches, church-livings, and vestries.— Governor or com- mander in chief.— Courts of judicature. — Public offices.— Le- gislature and laws. — Revenues.— Taxes. — Coins, and rate of exchange. — Militia.— —Number* of inhabitants of all conditions and complexions.— Trade, shipping, exports and imports.— Re- port of the Lords of Trade, in 1734.—- Present state of the trade with Spanish America. — Origin and policy of the act for establishing free ports.— Display of the progress of the island in cultivation, by comparative statements of its inhabitants and products at different periods 220
APPENDIX TO BOOK 11. No. I.
General state of agriculture and negro population in the island of Jamaica 263
APPENDIX TO BOOK II. No. II.
An account of the number of sugar plantations in the island of Ja- maica in 1772, and again in 1791, distinguishing the parish- es ; also the number in each parish which were sold in the in- terim, for the payment of debts -,— the number remaining in 1791 in the hands of mortgagees, trustees or receivers ;—the number thrown up and abandoned, or converted into other cultivation between the tvjo periods.— And the number of nevj plantations recently settled 264
Historical Account of the Constitution of Jamaica 269
Documents annexed to the Historical Account 284
Observations on the disposition, character, manners, and habits of life, of the MAROON NEGROES of the island of JAMAICA, and a detail of the origin, progress, and termination of the late <war between those people and the White inhabitants* ... 337
THE HISTORY,
CIVIL AND COMMERCIAL,
OF THE
BRITISH COLONIES
IN THE
WEST INDIES.
THE HISTORY,
CIVIL AND COMMERCIAL
OF THE
BRITISH COLONIES
IN THE
WEST INDIES.
BOOK I.
A GENERAL VIEW OF THEIR ANCIENT STATE
AND INHABITANTS
CHAPTER I.
Geographical arrangement. — Name — Climate— Sea-breeze, and land-wind. — Beauty and singularity of the vegeta- ble and animal creation. — Magnificence and sublimity of the mountains. — Reflections concerning the origin of these islands, Kc.
GEOGRAPHERS following the distribution of nature, divide the vast continent of America into two great parts, north and south; the narrow but mountainous isthmus of Darien serving as a link to connect them together, and forming a rampart against the encroachments of the Atlantic on the one side, and of the Pacific ocean on the other. These great
Vol. I. A
2 HISTORY OF THE [BOOK r.
oceans were anciently distinguished also, from theii relative situation, by the names of the North and South Seas.*
To that prodigious chain of islands which extend in a curve from the Florida shore on the northern pe- ninsula to the gulph of Venezuela in the southern, is given the denomination of West Indies, from the name of India originally assigned to them by Colum- bus. This illustrious navigator planned his expedi- tion, not, as Raynal and others have supposed, under the idea of introducing a new world to the knowledge
O o
of the old ; but, principally, in the view of finding a route to India by a western navigation ; which he was led to think would prove less tedious than by the coast of Africa: and this conclusion would have been just, if the geography of jhe ancients, on which it was founded, had been accurate.-)- Indeed, so firmly per-
* The appellation of North, applied to that part of the Atlantic which flows into the gulph of Darien, seems now to be entirely disused; but the Pacific is still commonly called the South sea. It was discovered in
f " The spherical figure of the earth was known to the ancient geo- graphers. They invented the method still in use, of computing the lon- gitude and latitude of different'places. According to their do£lrine, the equator contained 360 degrees j these they divided into twenty-four parts, or hours, each equal to fifteen degrees. The country of the Seres or Sinae being the farthest part of India known to the ancients, was supposed, by Marinus Tyrius, the most eminent of the ancient geographers before Ptolemy, to be fifteen hours, or 225 degrees to the east of the first meri- dian, passing through the Fortunate Islands. If this supposition was well founded, the country of the Seres, or China, was only nine hours, or 135 degrees west from the Fortunate or Canary islands; and the navi- gation in that direftion was much shorter than by the coarse which the
CHAP, i.] WEST INDIES. 3
suaded was Columbus of its truth and certaintv, that
j '
he continued to assert his belief of it after the disco- very of Cuba and Hispaniola; not doubting that those islands constituted some part of the eastern extremi- ty of Asia: and the nations of Europe, satisfied with such authority, concurred in the same idea. Even when the discovery of the Pacific ocean had demon- strated his mistake, all the countries which Columbus had visited still retained the name of the Indies ; and in contradistinction to those at which the Portuguese, after passing the cape of Good Hope, had at length arrived by an eastern course, they were now deno- minated the Indies of the West. \
Among the geographers of those days, however, there were some, who envying the glory of Colum- bus, or giving more credit to ancient fable than to the atchievements of their cotemporaries, persisted in as- signing to the newly-discovered islands the appella- tion of Antitia or Antiles: the name (according to Charlevoix) of an imaginary country, placed in ancient
Portuguese were pursuing." From this account, for which the reader is indebted to the learned Dr. Robertson, it is evident, that the scheme of Columbus was founded on rational systematical principles, according to the light which his age afforded j whereas, if he had proposed, without any such support, to discover a new hemisphere by sailing westward j he would have been justly considered as an arrogant and chimerical projector, and success itself would not have reconciled his temerity to the sober dictates of reason.
\ Columbus sailed on his first voyage the 3d of August, 1491. In 14^4. Bartholemus Dias discovered the cape of Good Hope; but it was not doubled till the year 1497, when Vasquez de Garna succeeded (for the first time in modern navigation) in this, as it was then supposed, for- midable attempt.
4 HISTORY OF THE [BOOK r.
charts about two hundred leagues to the westward of the Azores ; and it is a name still very generally used by foreign navigators, although the etymology of the word-is as uncertain as the application of it u unjust. To the British nation the name bestowed by Columbus is abundantly more familiar: and thus the whole of the new hemisphere is, with us, common- ly comprised under three great divisions; North Ame- rica, South America, and the West Indies. §
But, subordinate to this comprehensive and simple arrangement, necessity or convenience has introduced more minute and local distinctions. That portion of the Atlantic, which is separated from the main ocean to the north and to the east, by the islands I have
§ The term Antlles is applied by Hoffman to the Windward or Charai- bean islands only, and is by him thus accounted for: " Dicuntur Antilas Americae quasi ante Insulas Americae, nempe ante majores Insulas Sinus Mexicani" (Hoffman Lexic. Uni<v.) Rochfort and Du Tertre explain the word nearly in the same manner, while Mons. D'Anville applies the name to those islands only, which are more immediately opposed to, or situated against, the continent : thus he terms Cuba, Hispaniola, Jamai- ca, and Porto Rico, the Great Antiles, and the small islands of Aruba, Curacoa, Bonair, Magaritta, and some others near the coast of Caraccas on the southern peninsula, the Less; excluding the Charaibean islands altogether. A recurrence to the early Spanish historians would hare de- monstrated to all these writers, that the word Antitia was applied to Hi- spaniola and Cuba, before the discovery either of the windward islaadss or any part of the American continent. This appears from the follow- ing passage in the first book of the First Decad of Peter Martyr, which bears date from the court of Spain, November 1493? eight montbs only after Columbus'" s return from his first expedition ; " Ophiram Insularn " sese reperisse refert : sed Cosmographorum traclu diligenter considera- *' to, Antili* Insult sunt illse et adjacentes alias: hanc Hjsnaniohrri ap- " pellavit, &c."
CHAP, i.] WEST INDIES. 5
mentioned, although commonly known by the gene- nal appellation of the Mexican gulph, is itself pro- perly subdivided into three distinct basins : the gulph of Mexico, the bay of Honduras, and the Charaibean sea. [| The latter takes its name from that class of islands which bound this part of the ocean to the east. Most of these were anciently possessed by a nation of Cannibals, the scourge and terror of the mild and in- offensive natives of Hispaniolax who frequently ex- pressed to Columbus their dread of those fierce and warlike invaders, stiling them Charaibes, or Carib- bees.* And it was in consequence of this informa- tion, that the islands to which these savages belong- ed, when discovered afterwards by Columbus, were by him denominated generally the Charaibean islands.
Of this class, however, a group nearly adjoining to the eastern side of St. John de Porto Rico, is like- wise called the Virgin Isles; a distinction of which the origin will be explained in its place.
{] Vide Introduction to the West Indian Atlas, by Jefferies. * Herrera, lib. i. Fer. Columbus, chap, xxxiii.
•f- It may be proper to observe, that the old Spanish navigators, in speaking of the West Indian islands in general, frequently distinguish them also into two classes, by the terms Barlovento and Sotavento, from whence our Windward^n^. Leeward islands j the Charaibean constituting in strict propriety the former class (and as such I shall speak of them in the course of this work), and the four large islands of Cuba, Jamaica, Hispaniola, and Porto Rico, the latter. But our English mariners ap- propriate both terms to the Charaibean islands only, subdividing them according to their situation in the course of the trade wind ; the windward islands by their arrangement terminating, I believe, with Martinico, and the leeward commencing at Dominica, and extending to Porto Rico.
6 HISTORY OF THE [BOOK i.
i
. Neither must it pass unobserved, that the name of Bahama is commonly applied by the English to that cluster of small islands, rocks, and reefs of sand, which stretch in a north-westerly direction for the space of near three hundred leagues, from the northern coast of Hispaniola to the Bahama strait, opposite the Flo- rida shore. Whether this appellation is of Indian ori- gin, as commonly supposed, is a question I cannot answer; neither does it merit very anxious investiga- tion: yet these little islands have deservedly a claim to particular notice ; for it was one of them J that had the honor of first receiving Columbus, after a voyage the most bold and magnificent in design, and the most important in its consequences, of any that the mind of man has conceived, or national adventure underta- ken, from the beginning of the world to the present hour.
Most of the countries of which I propose to treat being situated beneath the tropic of Cancer, the cir- cumstances of climate, as well in regard to general heat, as to the periodical rains and consequent varia- tion of seasons, are nearly the same throughout the whole. The temperature of the air varies indeed considerably according to the elevation of the land; but, with this exception, the medium degree of heat is much the same in all the countries of this part of the globe.
J Called by the Indians Guanahani, by the Spaniards St. Salvador^ and is known to English seamen by the name of Cat Island. The whole group is called by the Spaniards Lucayos.
CHAP, i.] WEST INDIES. 7
A tropical year seems properly to comprehend but two distinct seasons ; the wet and the dry ; but as the rains in these climates constitute two great periods, I shall describe it, like the European year, under four divisions.
vernal season, or spring, may be said to com- mence with the month of May, when the foliage of the trees evidently becomes more vivid, and the parch- ed savannas begin to change their russet hue, even previous to the first periodical rains, which are now daily expected, and generally set in about the mid- dle of the month. These, compared with the au- tumnal rains, may be said to be gentle showers. They come from the south, and commonly fall every day about noon, and break up with thunder-storms; creating a bright and beautiful verdure, and a rapid and luxuriant vegetation. The thermometer at this season varies considerably; commonly falling six or eight degrees immediately after the diurnal rains : its medium height may be stated at seventy-five degrees.
•
After these rains have continued about a fortnight, the weather becomes dry, settled, and salutary; and the tropical summer reigns in full glory. Not a cloud is to be perceived; and the'sky blazes with irresistible fierceness. For some hours, commonly between se- ven and ten in the morning, before the setting in of the sea-breeze or trade-wind, which at this season blows from the south-east with great force and regu- larity until late in the evening, the heat is scarcely supportable; but, no sooner is the influence felt ot
3 HISTORY OF THE [BOOK j.
this refreshing wind, than all nature revives, and the climate, in the shade, becomes not only very tolera- ble, but pleasant. The thermometer now varies but little in the whole twenty-four hours: its medium, near the coast, may be stated at about eighty degrees. I have seldom observed it higher than eighty-five de- grees at noon, nor much below seventy-five degrees at sun-rise.
The nights at this season are transcendently beau- tiful. The clearness and brilliancy of the heavens, the serenity of the air, and the soft tranquillity in which all nature reposes, contribute to harmonize the mind* and produce the most calm and delightful sensations. The moon too in these climates displays far greater radiance than in Europe : the smallest print is legible by her light ; and in the moon's absence her function is not ill supplied by the brightness of the milky-wray, and by that glorious planet Venus, which appears here like a little moon, and glitters writh so refulgent a beam as to cast a shade from trees, buildings, and other objects, making full amends for the short stay and abrupt departure of the crepusculum or twilight. §
§ In the mountainous and interior parts of the larger islands, innume- rable fire-files abound at night, which have a surprising appearance to a stranger. They consist of different species, some of which emit a light, resembling a spark of fire, from a globular prominence near each eye j and others from their sides in the a<£t of respiration. They are far more luminous than the glow-worm, and fill the air on all sides, like so many living stars, to the great astonishment and admiration of a traveller un- accustomed to the country.— In the day-time they disappear.
CHAP, i.] WEST INDIES. 9
This state of the weather commonly continues, with little variation, from the beginning of June until the middle of August, when the diurnal breeze begins to intermit, and the atmosphere becomes sultry, incom- modious, and suffocating. In the latter end of this month, and most part of September, we look about in vain for coolness and comfort. The thermometer occasionally exceeds ninety degrees, and instead of a steady and refreshing wind from the sea, there are usually faint breezes and calms alternately. These are preludes to the second periodical or Autumnal season. Large towering clouds, fleecy, and of a reddish hue, are now seen in the morning, in the quarters of the south, and south-east; the tops of the mountains at the same time appear clear of clouds, and the objects upon them wear a blueish cast, and seem much near- er to the spectator than usual. When these vast ac- cumulations of vapour have risen to a considerable height in the atmosphere, they commonly move hori- zontally towards the mountains, proclaiming their pro- gress in deep and rolling thunder, which, reverbera- ted from peak to peak, and answered by the distant roaring of the sea, heightens the majesty of the scene, and irresistibly lifts up the mind of the spectator to the great Author of all sublimity.
The waters, however, with which these congre- gated vapours load the atmosphere, seldom fall with great and general force until the beginning of Octo- ber. It is then that the heavens pour down cataracts. An European who has not visited these climates, can form no just conception of the quantity of water which
Vol. I, B
io HISTORY OF THE [BOOK. r.
deluges the earth at this season: by an exact account -which was kept of the perpendicular height of the wa- ter which fell in one year in Barbadoes (and that no ways remarkable) it appeared to have been equal to .ty-seven cubical inches.
It is now, in the interval between the beginning
' O O
of August and the latter end of October, that hurri- canes, those dreadful visitations of the Almighty, are apprehended. The prognostics of these elementary conflicts, have been minutely described by various writers, and their effects are known by late mournful experience to every inhabitant of every island within the tropics,, but their immediate cause seems to lie far beyond the limits of our circumscribed knowledge.
Towards the end of November, or sometimes not till the middle of December, a considerable change in the temperature of the air is perceivable. The coasts to the northward are now beaten by a rough and heavy sea, roaring with incessant noise ; the wind varies from the east to the north-east and north, some- times driving before it, across the highest mountains, not only heavy rains but hail ; till at length, the north wind having acquired sufficient force, the atmosphere is cleared; and now comes on a succession of serene and pleasant weather, the north-east and northerly winds spreading coolness and delight throughout the whole of this burning region.
O O
If this interval, therefore, from the beginning ot December to the end of April, be called winter, it is
CHAP, i.] WEST INDIES. 11
certainly the finest winter on the globe. To valetu- dinarians and persons advanced in lite, it is the climate of Paradise.
The account which I have thus given is, however, to be received not as uniformly exact and minutely particular; but as a general representation only, sub- ject to many variations and exceptions. In the large islands of Cuba, Hispaniola, and Jamaica, whose lofty mountains are clothed with forests perhaps as old as the deluge, the rains are much more frequent and vio- lent than in the small islands to windward; some of which are without mountains, and others without wood; both powerful agents on the atmosphere. In the interior and elevated districts of the three former islands, I believe there are showers in every month of the year; and on the northern coasts of those islands, Considerable rains are expected in December or Janu- ary, soon after the setting in of the north winds,
/
Concerning the trade-wind, or diurnal sea-breeze, which blows in these climates from the east, and its collateral points, with little intermission or variation nine months in the year, the causes of it having been traced and displayed by numerous writers, it is unne- cessary for me to treat; but the peculiarity of the land- wind by night (than which nothing can be more grate- ful and refreshing) has been less generally noticed. This is an advantage, among others, which the larger
O ' O ' O
islands of the West Indies derive from the great ine- quality of their surface; for as soon as the sea-breeze.
12 HISTORY OF THE [BOOK. i.
dies away, the hot air of the plains being rarefied, ascends towards the tops of the mountains, and is there condensed by the cold; which making it speci- fically heavier than it was before, it descends back to the plains on both sides of the ridge. Hence a night- wind is felt in all the mountainous countries under the torrid zone, blowing on all sides from the land to- wards the shore, so that on a north shore the wind shall come from the south, and on the south shore from the north. Agreeably to this hypothesis, it is observable that in the islands to windward, where they have no mountains, they have no land-breeze. ||
Of the general appearance of a distant country, and the scenery with which it is clothed, it is difficult, by mere verbal description, to convey an idea. To the first discoverers, the prospect of these islands must have been interesting beyond all that imagination can at present conceive of it. Even at this day, when the mind is prepared by anticipation, they are beheld by the voyager for the first time, with strong emotions of admiration and pleasure ; arising not only from the novelty of the scene, but also from the beauty of the smaller islands, and the sublimity of the larger, whose
U The account thus given of the land-wind, is chiefly in the words of Dr. Franklin, whose description is so precise and accurate as to admit of no improvement. In Barbadoes, and most of the small islands to wind- ward, the sea-breeze blows as well by night as by day. It is sometimes the case in Jamaica in the months of June and July, the land at that time being heated to such a degree, that the cold air of the mountains i«
• . '-
not sufficiently dense to check the current which flows from the sea,
CHAP, i.] WEST INDIES. 13
lofty mountains form a stupendous and awful picture; the subject both of wonder and contemplation.*
Nor did these promising territories disappoint ex- pectation on a nearer search and more accurate in- spection. Columbus, whose veracity has never been
* To the first voyagers to the West Indies, many must have been the objects of astonishment, and in some respects of terror, even before the appearance of land; such as the variation of the compass, the regularity of the winds, the water spout, and other phenomena j of the existence of which they were previously unapprized. It is in such cases that terror exerts its power over the mind with uncontrolable ascendency ; for reason and reflection can furnish no argument to oppose to its progress. Co- Jumbus in truth found himself amidst a new creation. What, for in- stance, could have more strongly excited curiosity than the first sight of that wonderful little animal the flying fish ? Who would have believed that the natives of the deep had power to quit their watery element, and fly aloft with the birds of the air! It was an sera of miracles, and con- sidering the propensity of mankind to magnify what truly is strange, the modesty displayed by Columbus in speaking of his enterprises and disco- veries, and the strict adherence to truth which he appears on all occasions to have manifested, form a very distinguished feature in his character. In general the travellers of those days not only reported wonderful things which never existed, but sometimes even really believed what they reported. In i 512 John Ponce de Leon, a Spaniard of distinction, (as we are inform- ed by Herrera), actually took a voyage to Florida for the purpose of bathing in the river Bimini, which he had been told and believed would restore him to youth, like the cauldron of Medea. If we laugh at the credulity of this old man, what shall we say to our own learned countryman Sir Walter Raleigh, who sixty years afterwards, in the history of his voyage to Guiana, gives an account of a nation who were born 'without keads, and whose eyes were placed in their shoulders! Raleigh does not indeed pretend that he had seen any of these strange people himself, but he re- peats what he had heard from others with a gravity and solemnity which evince that he seriously believed their existence. See his account of
* .
Guiana in Hakluyt's Collection, vol. ii,
I4 HISTORY OF THE [BOOK. i.
suspected, speaks of their beauty and fertility in terms of the highest admiration. " There is a river " (he observes in one of his letters to king Ferdinand s( written from Cuba) which discharges itself into the " harbour that I have named Porto Santo, of sufficient f( depth to be navigable. I had the curiosity to sound " it, and found eight fathom. Yet the water is so " limpid, that I can easily discern the sand at the bot- " torn. The banks of this river are embellished with " lofty palm-trees, wrhose shade gives a delicious fresh- " ness to the air; and the birds and the flowers are " uncommon and beautiful. -I was so delighted with " the scene, that I had almost come to the resolution " of staying here the remainder of my days ; for believe " me Sire, these countries far surpass all the rest of " the world in pleasure and conveniency; and I have <f frequently observed to my people, that, with all my " endeavours to convey to your Alajesty an adequate " idea of the charming objects which continually pre- <c sent themselves to our view, the description will fall greatly short of the reality/'
...
How ill informed, or prejudiced, are those writers,, therefore, who, affecting to disbelieve, or endeavour- ing to palliate, the enormities of the Spanish invaders, represent these once delightful spots, when first dis- covered by Columbus, to have been so many impene- trable and unhealthy deserts ! It is true, that after the Spaniards, in the courses of a few bloody years, had exterminated the ancient and rightful possessors, the earth, left to its own natural fertility, beneath the in- fluence of a tropical sun, teemed with noxious vege-
CHAP, i.] WEST INDIES. ' 15
tation. Then, indeed, the fairest of the islands be- came so many frightful solitudes ; impervious and un- wholesome. Such was the condition of Jamaica when wrested from the Spanish crown in 1655, and such is the condition of great part of Cuba and Porto Rico at this day ; for the infinitely wise and benevolent Go- vernor of the universe, to compel the exertion of those faculties which he has given us, has ordained, that by human cultivation alone, the earth becomes the pro- per habitation of man.f
But as the West Indian islands in their ancient state \vere not without culture, so neither were they gene- rally noxious to health. The plains or savannas were regularly sown, twice in the year, with that species of grain which is now well known in Europe by the name of Turkey wheat. It was called by the Indians mahez, or maize, a name it still bears in all the islands, and does not require very laborious cultivation. This however constituted but a part only, and not the most considerable part, of the vegetable food of the natives. As these countries were at the same time extremely populous, both the hills and the vallies (of the small- er islands especially) were necessarily cleared of un-
•f- Dr. Lind, in his " Essay on the Diseases of Hot Climates," has preserved an extract from the journal of an officer who sailed up a river on the coast of Guinea, which affords a striking illustration of this re- mark: " We were (says the officer) thirty miles distant from tiie sta, " in a country altogether uncultivated, overflowed with water, surround- " ed with thick impenetrable woods, and overrun with slime. The air " was so vitiated, noisome, and thick, that cur torches and candles burnt, tc dim, and seemed ready to be extinguished j and even the human voice " lost its natural tone.'"'' Part I. p. 64..
16 HISTORY OF THE [BOOK. i.
derwood, and the trees which remained afforded a shade that was cool, airy, and delicious. Of these, some, as the papaw and the palmeto,J are, without doubt, the most graceful of all the vegetable crea- tion. Others continue to bud, blossom, and bear fruit throughout the year. Nor is it undeserving notice, that the foliage of the most part springing only from the summit of the trunk, and thence expanding into wide-spreading branches, closely but elegantly arran- ged, every grove is an assemblage of majestic columns, supporting a verdant canopy, and excluding the sun, without impeding the circulation of the air. Thus the shade, at all times impervious to the blaze, and refreshed by the diurnal breeze, affords, not merely a refuge from occasional inconveniency, but a most wholesome and delightful retreat and habitation.
Such were these orchards of the Sun, and woods of perennial verdure ; of a growth unknown to the fri- gid clime and less vigorous soil of Europe ; for what is the oak compared to the cedar or mahogany, of each of w^hich the trunk frequently measures from eighty to ninety feet from the base to the limbs ? What Eu- ropean forest has ever given birth to a stem equal to that of the ceiba, § which alone, simply rendered con-
I The species here meant (for there are several) is the palmeto-royal, or mountain-cabbage. Ligon mentions some, at the first settlement of Barbadoes, about 200 feet in height; but Mr. Hughes observes, that the highest in his time, in that island, was 134 feet. I am inclined to be- lieve, that I have seen them in Jamaica upwards of 150 feet in height J but it is impossible to speak with certainty without an actual measure- ment.
§ The wild cotton -tree.
CHAP, i.] WEST INDIES. 17
cave, has been known to produce a boat capable of containing one hundred persons? or the still greater fig, the sovereign of the vegetable creation, — itself a forest? |i
The majestic scenery of these gigantic groves was at the same time enlivened by the singular forms t)f some, and the surprising beauty of others of the infe- rior animals which possessed and peopled them. Al- though these will be more fully described in the se- quel, a few observations which at present occur to me, will, I hope, be forgiven. If it be true, as it hath been asserted, that in most of the regions of the torrid zone the heat of the sun is, as it were, reflect- ed in the untameable fierceness of their wild beasts, and in the exalted rage and venom of the numerous serpents with which they are infest ed3 the Sovereign
|| This monarch of the woods* whose empire extends over Asia and Africa, as well as the tropical parts of America, is described by our di- vine poet with great exactness :
The fig-tree, not that kind for fruit renown'd, But such as at this day to Indians known In Malabar and Decan, spreads her arms, Branching so broad and long, that in the ground The bearded twigs take root, and daughters grow Above the mother tree, a pillared shade, High owe r- arch V, and echoing ivalks between!
Paradise Lost, Book IX.
Jt is called in the East Indies the banyan-tree. Mr. Marsden gires the following account of the dimensions of one near Manjee, twenty miles west of Patna in Bengal : Diameter, 363 to 375 feet; circumference of the shadow at noon, 1116 feet; circumference of the several stems, in number fifty or sixty, gzi feet. Hist. Sumatra, p. 131.
Vol. I. c
1 8 HISTORY OF THE [BOOK. r.
Disposer of all tilings lias regarded the islands of the West Indies ^'ith peculiar favour; inasmuch as their serpents are wholly destitute of poison, v and they possess no animal of prey, to desolate their vallies.
* I say this on the authority of Brown, Charlevoix, and Hughes, (of whom the first compiled the History of Jamaica, the second that of Hi- spnniola, and the last of Barbadoes), — on the testimony of many gentle- men who have resided in several of the Windward islands — and on my own experience during a residence of eighteen years in Jamaica. In that time I neither knew nor heard of any person being hurt from the bite of any one species of the numerous snakes or lizards known in that island. Some of the snakes I have myself handled with perfect security. I con- clude, therefore, (notwithstanding the contrary assertion of Du Tertre respecting Martinico and St. Lucia), thai all the islands are providenti- ally exempted from this evil. Nevertheless it must be admitted, that th; circumstance is extraordinary \ inasmuch as every part of the continent of America, but especially those provinces which lie under the equator, abound in a high degree with serpents, whose bite is mortal. — Mr. Ban- croft, in his Account of Guiana, gives a dreadful list of such as are found in that extensive country; and, in speaking of one, of a species which he calls the small labarra, makes mention of a negro who was unfortunately bit by it in the finger. The negro had but just time to kill the snake, when his limbs became unable to support him, and he fell to the giound, and expired in less than five minutes. — Dr. Dancer, in his History of the Expedition from Jamaica to Fort Juan on the Lake of Ni- caragua, in 1780, which he attended as physician, relates the following circumstance : A snake hanging from the bough of a tree bit one of the soldiers, as he passed along, just under the orbit of the left eycj from whence the poor man felt such intense pain, that he was unable to pro- ceed ; and when a messenger was sent to him a few hours afterwards, he was fount! dead, with all the symptoms of putrefaction, a yellowness and swelling over his whole body j and the eye near to which he was bitten, wholly dissolved. This circumstance was confirmed to me by Colonel Kemble, who commanded in chief on that expedition. It may not be useless to add, that those serpents which are venomous are furnished with fangs somewhat resembling the tusks of a boar : they are moveable, and inserted in the upper jaw.
CHAP, i.] WEST INDIES. 19
The crocodile, or alligator, is indeed sometimes disco- vered on the banks of their rivers; but notwithstand- ing all that has been said of its fierce and savage dis- position, I pronounce it, from my own knowledge, a cautious and timid creature, avoiding, with the ut- most precipitation, the approach of man. The rest of the lizard kind are perfectly innocent and inoffen- sive. Some of them are even fond of human society. They embellish our walks by their beauty, and court our attention by gentleness and frolic; but their kind- ness, I know not why, is returned by aversion and disgust. Anciently the woods of almost all the equa- torial parts of America abounded with various tribes of the smaller monkey; a sportive and sagacious little creature, which the people of Europe seem likewise to have regarded with unmerited detestation; for they hunted them down with such barbarous assiduity, that in several of the islands every species of them has been long since exterminated. Of the feathered race too, many tribes have now nearly deserted those shores wrhere polished man delights in spreading universal and capricious destruction. Among these, one of the most remarkable was the flamingo, an elegant and princely bird, as large as the swan, and arrayed in plu- masre of the brightest scarlet. Numerous, however,
o o
are the feathered kinds, deservedly distinguished by their splendour and beauty, that still animate these
Ivan recesses. The parrot, and its various affiniti from the macaw to the parroquet, some of them not larger than a sparro\v, arc too well known to require description. These are as plentiful in the larger i-,iandc; of the West Indies as the rook is in Euiv But the
20 HISTORY OF THE [BOOK. i.
boast of American groves is doubtless the colibry, or humming bird , of the brilliance of whose plumage no combination of words, nor tints of the pencil, can con- vey an adequate idea. The consummate green of the emerald, the rich purple of the amethyst, and the vi- vid flame of the ruby, all happily blenclid and envelo- ped beneath a transparent veil of waving gold, are distinguishable in every species, but differently arran- ged and apportioned in each. Nor is the minuteness of its form less the object of admiration, than the lus- tre of its plumage ; the smallest species not exceed- ing the size of a beetle, and appearing the link which connects the bird and insect creation.
It has been observed, however, that although na- ture is profuse of ornament to the birds of the torrid zone, she has bestowed far greater powers of melody on those of Europe; and the observation is partly true. That prodigality and variety of music which in the ver- nal season enlivens the British groves, is certainly un- known to the shades of the tropical regions ± yet are not these altogether silent or inharmonious. The note of the mock-bird is deservedly celebrated, while the hum of myriads of busy insects, and the plaintive me- lody of the innumerable variety of doves abounding in these climates, form a concert, which, if it serve not to awaken the fancy, contributes at least to sooth the affections, and, like the murmuring of a rivulet, gives harmony to repose.
But, resigning to the naturalist the task of minute- ly describing the splendid aerial tribes of these regions.
CHAP, i.] WEST INDIES. 21
whose variety is not less remarkable than their beau- ty, I now return from these, the smallest and most pleasing forms of active life, to the largest and most awful objects of inanimate nature. The transition is abrupt ; but it is in the magnitude, extent, and eje- vation of the mountains of the New World, that the Almighty has most strikingly manifested the \vonders of his omnipotence. Those of South America are sup- posed to be nearly twice the height of the highest in the ancient hemisphere, and, even under the equator, have their tops involved in everlasting snow. To those massive piles, the loftiest summits of the most elevated of the West Indian islands cannot indeed be compared; but some of these rise, nevertheless, in amazing grandeur, and are among the first objects that fix the attention of the voyager. The mountains of Hispaniola in particular, whose wavy ridges are de- scried from sea at the distance of thirty leagues, tower- ing far above the clouds in stupendous magnificence, and the blue mountains of Jamaica, have never vet.
J 9
that I have heard, been fully explored. Neither cu- riosity nor avarice has hitherto ventured to invade the topmost of those lofty regions. In such of them as are accessible, nature is found to have put on the ap- pearance of a new creation. As the climate changes, the trees, the birds, and the insects are seen also to differ from those which are met with below. To an unaccustomed spectator, looking down from those heights, the whole scene appears like enchantment. The first object which catches the eye at the dawn of day, is a vast expanse of vapour, covering the whole face of the vallies. Its boundaries beinsr perfect!-'
5 v' . O JT J
£2 HISTORY OF THE [BOOK. i.
distinct, and visibly circumscribed, it has the exact resemblance of an immense body of water, while the mountains appear like so many islands in the midst of a beautiful lake. As the sun increases in force, the prospect varies; the incumbent vapours fly upward, and melt into air; disclosing all the beauties of nature, and the triumphs of industry, heightened and embel- lished by the full blaze of a tropical sun. In the equa- torial season, scenes of still greater magnificence fre-
o o
qucntly present themselves; for, while all is calm and serene in the higher regions, the clouds are seen be- low sweeping along the sides of the mountains in vast bodies; till, growing more ponderous by accumula- tion, they fall at length in torrents of water on the plains. The sound of the tempest is distinctly heard by the spectator above ; the distant lightening is seen to irradiate the gloom; while the thunder, reverbera- ted in a thousand echoes, rolls far beneath his feet.
But lofty as the tropical mountains generally are, it is wonderfully true, that all the known parts of their summits furnish incontestible evidence that the sea had once dominion over them. Even their appear- ance at a distance affords an argument in support of this conclusion. Their ridges resemble billows, and their various inequalities, inflexions, and convexities, ^eem justly ascribable to the fluctuations of the deep. \s in other countries too, marine shells are found in at abundance in various parts of these heights. I
ve seen on a mountain in the interior parts of Ja- maica petrified oysters dug up, which perfectly re- sembled, in the most minute circumstances, the large
CHAP, i.] WEST INDIES. 23
oysters of the western coast of England; a species not to be found at this time, I believe, in the seas of the West Indies. Here, then, is an ample field for con- jecture to expatiate in; and indeed few subjects have afforded greater exercise to the pens of physical wri- ters, than the appearances I have mentioned. While some philosophers assign the origin of all the various inequalities of the earth to the ravages of the deluge, others, considering the mountains as the parents of springs and rivers, maintain that they are coeval with the world; and that, first emerging from the abyss, they were created with it. Some again ascribe them to the force of volcanoes and earthquakes: cc the Al- mighty/' say they, tc while he permits subterranean fires to swallow up cities and plains in one part of the globe, causes them to produce promontories and islands in another, which afterwards become the fruitful seats of industry and happiness. f
All these and other theorists concur, however, in the belief, that the surface of the globe has undergone many surprising and violent convulsions and changes since it first came from the hands of the Creator. Hills have sunk into plains, and vallies have been exalted into hills. Respecting the numerous islands of the West Indies, they are generally considered as the tops of lofty mountains, the eminences of a great continent, converted into islands bv a tremendous concussion of
•j
nature, which, increasing the 'natural course of the
f Goldsmith's History of the Earth, &c. vol. i.
24 HISTORY OF THE [BOOK. i.
ocean from east to west, has laid a vast extent of level country under water. J
But notwithstanding all that has been written on this subject, very little seems to be known. The ad- vocates of this system do not sufficiently consider, that the sea could not have covered so great a portion of land on one side of the globe, without leaving an im- mense space as suddenly dry on the other. We have no record in history of so mighty a revolution, nor in- deed are many of the premises on which this hypothe- sis is built, established in truth.
Perhaps, instead of considering these islands as the fragments of a desolated continent, we ought rather to regard them as the rudiments of a new one. It is extremely probable, that many of them, even now, are but beginning to emerge from the bosom of the deep. Mr. BufTon has shewrn, by incontrovertible evidence, that the bottom of the sea bears an exact resemblance to the land wThich we inhabit; consisting, like the earth, of hills and vallies, plains and hollows, rocks, sands and soils of every consistence and spe- cies. To the motion of the waves, and the sediments which they have deposited, he imputes too, with great probability, the regular positions of the various strata or layers which compose the upper parts of the earth ; and he shews that this arrangement cannot have been the effect of a sudden revolution, but of causes slow, gradual, and successive in their operations. To the
I See I/ Abbe Raynal, L'Abbe Pluche, and others.
CHAP, i.] WEST INDIES. 25
flow of tides and rivers, depositing materials which have been accumulating ever since the creation, and the various fluctuations of the deep operating there- on, he ascribes, therefore, most of those inequalities in the present appearance of the globe which in some parts embellish, and in others (to our limited view at least) deface it.
Pursuing this train of thought, we may be led per- haps to consider many of the most terrifying appear- ances of nature, as necessary and propitious in the formation and support of the system of the world; and even in volcanoes and earthquakes (of which most of these islands bear evident memorials) we may trace the stupendous agency of divine Providence, employ- ed, as mankind increase in numbers, in raising up from the bottom of the deep new portions of land for their habitations and comfort.
These considerations are founded in piety, and seem consonant to reason; and although in contemplating the tremendous phenomena which the mountains of South America, beyond all other parts of the globe, present to our notice,§ and reflecting on the devasta-
* " Of all parts of the earth America is the place where the dreadful irregularities of nature are the most conspicuous. Vesuvius, and Etna itself, are but mere fireworks in comparison to the burning mountains of the Andes, which, as they are the highest mountains in the world, so also are they the most formidable for their eruptions.""— —Goldsmith** History of the Earth, &c. \ol.i. p. 99.
It is related, that a volcanic explosion from Cotopaxi, a mountain in the province of Quito, has been heard at the distance of 150 miles,
Vol. I. D
26 HISTORY OF THE [BOOK i.
tionswhich they spread, human reason will sometimes find itself perplexed and dismayed, may we not by ana- logy conclude, that the Almighty, uniform in his pur- poses, is equally wise and benevoknt in all his dis- pensations, though the scale on which he acts is some- times too large for the span of our limited and feeble comprehension? They who seem best qualified to contemplate the works of the Deity, will most readi- ly acknowledge, that it is not for man to unfold the page of Omnipotence ! Happy if to conscious igno- rance we add humble adoration !
.
CHAP, ii.] WEST INDIES. 27
CHAPTER II.
Of the Charaibts, or ancient inhabitants of the Windward islands. — Origin. — Difficulties attending an accurate in- vestigation of their character. Such particulars related as are least disputed, concerning their manners and dis- positions, persons and domestic habits, education of their children, arts, manufactures and government, religious rites, funeral ceremonies, &c. — 'Some reflections drawn from the whole.
HAVING thus given an account of the climate and seasons, and endeavoured to convey to the reader some faint idea of the beauty and magnificence with which the hand of Nature arrayed the surface of these numerous islands, I shall now proceed to in- quire after those inhabitants to whose support and conveniency they were chiefly found subservient, when they first came to the knowledge of Europe.
It hath been observed in the preceding chapter, that Columbus, on his first arrival at Hispaniola, re- ceived information of a barbarous and warlike people, a nation of Cannibals, who frequently made depreda- tions on that, and the neighbouring islands. They were called Caribbees, or Charaibes, and were repre^ sented as coming from the east. Columbus, in his second voyage, discovered that they were the inha^i- tants of the Windward islands.
28 HISTORY OF THE [BOOK i.
The great difference in language and character be- tween these savages and the inhabitants of Cuba, Hi- spaniola, Jamaica, and Porto-Rico, hath given birth to an opinion that their origin also, was different. Of this there seems indeed to be but little doubt; but the question from \vhence each class of islands was first peopled, is of more difficult solution. Rochefort, who published his account of the Antilles in 1658, pronounces the Charaibes to have been originally a nation of Florida, in North America. — He supposes that a colony of the Apalachian Indians having bean driven from that continent, arrived at the Windward islands, and exterminating the ancient male inhabi- tants, took possession of their lands, and their women. Of the larger islands he presumes, that the natural strength, extent, and population, affording security to the natives, these happily escaped the destruction which overtook their unfortunate neighbours ; and thus arose the distinction observable between the inhabi- tants of the larger and smaller islands. ||
To this account of the origin of the insular raibes, the generality of historians have given their assent; but there are doubts attending it that are not easily solved. If they migrated from Florida, the im- perfect state and natural course of their navigation, induce a belief, that traces of them would have been found on those islands which are near to the Florida shore; yet the natives of the Bahamas, when disco-
j| Rocbefort Histoire des Isles Antilles, liv. ii. c. vii. See also, P* Labat nouveau Voyage aux Isles de I/Amerique, torn. iv. c. xv»
CHAP, ii.] WEST INDIES. 39
vered by Columbus, were evidently a similar people to those of Hispaniola.* Besides, it is sufficiently known that there existed anciently many numerous and powerful tribes of Charaibes, on the southern pe- ninsula, extending from the river Oronoko to Esse- quebe, and throughout the whole province of Suri- nam, even to Brasil ; some of which still maintain their independency. It was with one of those tribes that our countiyman Sir Walter Raleigh formed an al- liance, when that commander made his romantic ex- pedition to the coast of Guiana in 1595 ;f and by him we are assured, that the Charaibes of that part of the continent spoke the language of Dominica. J I in- cline therefore to the opinion of Martyr,§ and con- clude, that the islanders were rather a colony from the Charaibes of South America, than from any nation of the north. Rochefort admits that their own tradi- tions referred constantly to Guiana. || It does not ap- pear that they entertained the most remote idea of a northern ancestry.
It may be thought, perhaps, that the continental Charaibes were themselves emigrants from the nor-
* Herrera, lib. ix. chap. ii.
•f Bancroft's History of Guiana, p. 259.
t Hakluyt, vol. iii. p. 668.
§ P. Martyr, Decad. ^. lib. i.
jj Rochefort, liv. ii. c. vii. See also, note 94. to Dr. Robertson's History of America. The people ealled Galibis, mentioned by Dr. R. are the Charaibes of the continent, the term Galibis or Calibis (as it is written by Du Tertre) being, as I conceive, corrupted from Caribbee. Vide Lafitau, torn. i. p. 197, and Du Tertre, torn. ii. p. 360.
jo HISTORY OF THE [BOOK i.
tlicrn to the southern peninsula: but, without at- tempting to controvert the position to which recent discoveries seem indeed to have given a full confirma- tion, namely, that the Asiatic continent first furnish- ed inhabitants to the contiguous North -Western parts of America, I conceive the Charaibes to have been a distinct race, widely differing from all the nations of the new hemisphere ; and I am even inclined to adopt the opinion of Hornius and other writers, \vho ascribe
to them an oriental ancestrv from across the Atlan-
j
tic.*
Inquiries, however, into the origin of a remote and unlettered race, can be prosecuted with success only by comparing their ancient manners, laws, language, and religious ceremonies, with those of other nations. Unfortunately, in all or most of these particulars re- specting the Charaibes, our knowledge is limited with- in a narrow circle. Of a people engaged in perpetual warfare, hunted from island to island by revenge and rapacity, few opportunities could have offered, even to- those who might have been qualified for such re- searches, of investigating the natural dispositions an4 habitual customs with minuteness and precision. Nei- ther indeed could a just estimate have been formed of their national character, from the manners of such of them as were at length subjugated to the European yoke; for they lost, together with their freedom, ma- in v of their original characteristics; and at last even the
. o •*
f Some arguments in support of this opinion are subjoined in the Ap«« pendix to- Book. I.
cc
-.f
CHAP, ii.] WEST INDIES. 31
desire of acting from the impulse of their own minds, We discern, savs Rochefort,t a wonderful change hi
* * o
the dispositions and habits of the Gharaibes. In some respects we have enlightened; in others (to our shame be it spoken) we have corrupted them. An old Cha- raibe thus addressed one of our planters on this sub- ject:— "Our people/' he complained, " are become fcC almost as bad as yours. — We are so much altered " since you came among us, that we hardly know our- 66 selves, and we think it is owing to so melancholy a change, that hurricanes are more frequent than they were formerly. It is the Evil Spirit who has done <c all this, — who has taken our best lands from us, and " given us up to the dominion of the Christians. "t
My present investigation must therefore be neces- sarily defective.- Nevertheless^ by selecting and com- bining such memorials as are least controverted, I shall hope to exhibit a few striking particulars in the
•f Rochefort, liv. ii. ch. ix. p. 436,
j This extract from Rochefort is surely a sufficient answer to the ob- servations of Mons. de Chanvalon, who wrote so late as 1751, and, judging of all the Charaibes from the few with whom he had any com- munication, represents them as not possessing any sagacity or foresight beyond mere animal instinct. He makes no allowance for their degrada- tion in a state of captivity and servitude, although in another part of his book, speaking of the African blacks in the West Indies, he dwelis strongly on this circumstance respecting the latter. " Feut on connoitre «' (he observes) le vrai gen'e d'un peuple opprime, qui voit sans cesse " les chatimens levcs sur sa tete, et la violence toujouis prcte a etre sou- '« tenue par la politique et la surete publique ? Pern on juger de la vs. " leur, quand elle e$t enchainfe, et sans armeer- ?w — Voyage a la Marti juque, p. 58.
32 HISTORY OF THE [BOOR i.
character of this ill-fated people, which, if I mistake not, will lead to some important conclusions in the study of human nature.
Their fierce spirit and warlike disposition have al- ready been mentioned. Historians have not failed to notice these, among the most distinguishable of their qualities. § — Restless, enterprizing, and ardent, it would seem they considered war as the chief end of their creation, and the rest of the human race as their natural prey; for they devoured without remorse the bodies of such of their enemies (the men at least) as fell into their hands. — This custom is so repugnant to our feelings, that for a century past, until the late discoveries of a similar practice in the countries of the Pacific ocean, the philosophers of Europe had boldly impeached the veracity of the most eminent ancient voyagers who had first recorded the existence of it. Even Labat, who resided in the West Indies at a pe- riod when some of the islands still remained in pos~
§ Dr. Robertson, in note 93 to the first vol. of his History of Ameri- ca, quotes from a MS. History of Ferdinand and Isabella, written by Andrew Bernaldes, the cotemporary and friend of Columbus, the follow- ing instance of the bravery of the Charaibes. " A canoe with four men, " two women, and a boy, unexpectedly fell in with Columbus's fleet, *' A Spanish bark with twenty-five men was sent to take them, and the (t fleet in the mean time cut off their communication with the shore. In- " stead of giving way to despair, the Charaibes seized their arms with e< undaunted resolution, and began the attack, wounding several of the ** Spaniards although they had targets as well as other defensive armour $ " aad even after the canoe was overset, it was with no little difficulty and " danger that some of them were secured, as they continued to defend *' themselves, and to use their bows with great dexterity while swimming " |.n the sea."— Herrera has recorded the same anecJot.c.
CHAP, ii.] WEST INDIES. 33
session of the Charaibes, declares it to be his opinion that instances of this abominable practice among them, were at all times extremely rare ; — the effect only of a sudden impulse of revenge arising from extraordina- ry and unprovoked injury; but that they ever made premeditated excursions to the larger islands, for the purpose of devouring any of the inhabitants, or of sei- zing them to be eaten at a future time, he very con- fidently denies. §
Nevertheless, tfiere is no circumstance in the histo- ry of mankind better attested than the universal pre- valence of these practices among them. Columbus was not only informed of it by the natives of Hispani- ola, as I have already related, but having landed him- self at Guadaloupe on its first discovery, || he beheld in several cottages the head and limbs of the human body recently separated, and evidently kept for occa- sional repasts. He released, at the same time, seve- ral of the natives of Porto Rico, who, having been brought captives from thence, were reserved as vic- tims for the same horrid purpose.*
Thus far, it must be confessed, the disposition of the Charaibes leaves no very favourable impression on
§ Labat, torn. iv. p. 32z.
|| November 4, 1493.
* F. Columbus, cap. xlvi. Peter Martyr, Decad. I. lib. ii. Herrera, lib. ii. cap. vii. See also Bancroft's History of Guiana, p. 259, who is of opinion, that no other tribe of Indians in Guiana eat human flesh but the Chnraibes. Amongst these, the proof that this practice still subsists is incontestible.
Vol. I.
34 HISTORY OF THE [BOOK. i.
the mind of the reader; by whom it is probable they will be considered rather as beasts of: prey, than as hu- man beings; and he will think, perhaps, that it was nearly as justifiable to exterminate them from the earth, as it would be to destroy the fiercest monsters of the wilderness; since they who shew no mercy, are entitled to no pity. —
But, among themselves they were peaceable, and towards each other faithful, friendly and affectionate. f They considered all strangers, inSeed,, as enemies; and of the people of Europe they formed a right esti- mation. The antipathy which they manifested to- wards the unoffending natives of the larger islands appears extraordinary ; but it is said to have descend- ed to them from their ancestors of Guiana: they con- sidered those islanders as a colony of Arrowauks, a nation of South America, with whom the Charaibes of that continent are continually at war. J We can assign no cause for such hereditary and irreconcileable hostility. With regard to the people of Europe, it is allowed that, whenever any of them had acquired their confidence, it was given without reserve. Their friendship was as warm as their enmity was implaca- ble. The Charaibes of Guiana still fondly cherish the tradition of Raleigh's alliance, and to this day pre- serve the English colours which he left with them at parting. §
•f Rochefort, liv. ii. cap. xi. Du Tertre, torn. ii. p. 355, J Rochefort, liv. ii. chap. x. p. 44-9. § Bancroft, p. 259.
CHAP, ii.] WEST INDIES. 35
Of the loftiness of their sentiments and their ab- horrence of slavery, a writer, not very partial towards them, gives the following illustration : " There is not " a nation on earth (says Labat) || more jealous of their " independency than the Charaibes. They are impa* " tient under the least infringement of it; and when, (C at any time, they are witnesses to the respect and " deference which the natives of Europe observe to- " wards their superiors, they despise us as abject " slaves ; wondering how any man can be so base as " to crouch before his equal." Rochefort, who con- firms this account, relates also that when kidnapped and carried from their native islands into slavery, as they frequently were, the miserable captives common- ly sunk under a sense of their misfortune, and finding resistance and escape hopeless, sought refuge in death from the calamities of their condition.*
To this principle of conscious equality and native dignity, must be imputed the contempt which they manifested for the inventions and improvements of ci- vilized life. Of our fire-arms they soon learnt, by fatal .experience, the superiority to their own weapons; and those therefore they valued; but our arts and ma- nufactures they regarded as we regard the amusements and baubles of children: hence the propensity to theft,
|| Labat, torn. iv. p. 329.
* Rochefort, liv. ii. cap. xi. Labat relates that the following senti- ment was proverbial among the first French settlers in the Windward •elands : — " Regarder de tracers un Cbaraibe, c'est le battrc, it que de le <c battre c'est le tuer> ou j' ex-poser a en etre /«*." Labat, torn. ii. p. -^,
HISTORY OF THE [BOOK. i.
so common among other savage nations, was altoge- ther unknown to the Charaibes.
V
The ardour which has been noticed in them for military enterprize, had a powerful influence on their whole conduct. Engaged in continual warfare abroad, they seldom appeared chearful at home. Reflections on past miscarriage, or anxious schemes of future achievement, seemed to fill up many of their hours, and rendered them habitually thoughtful, pensive and silent. i Love itself, wrhich exerts its influence in the
f *
frozen deserts of Iceland, maintained but a feeble do- minion over the Charaibes. f Their insensibility to- wards their women, although they allowed a plurality of wives, § has been remarked by many writers; and it must have arisen from extrinsic causes; — from the predominance of passions strong enough to counter- act the effects of a climate which powerfully disposes to voluptuousness, and awakens the instincts of na- ture much sooner than colder regions. The prevail- ing bias of their minds was distinguishable even in their persons. Though not so tall as the generality of Europeans, their frame was robust and muscular; their limbs flexible and active, and there was a pene- trating quickness, and a wildness in their eyes, that seemed an emanation from a fierce and martial spi- rit. !| But, not satisfied with the workmanship of na-
•f- Du Tertre, torn. ii. J Rochfort, c. xi. § Ibicl. c. xxii.
H Oviedo, lib. iii. This agrees likewise with the Chevalier Pinto"s ac- count of the Brasil'ans in note 42 to vol. i. of Dr. Robertson's Hrstor)'.
CHAP, ii.] WEST INDIES. 37
ture, they called in the assistance of art, to make themselves more formidable. They painted their faces and bodies with arnotto so extravagantly, that their natural complexion which was nearly that of a Spanish olive, was not easily to be distinguished un- der the surface of crimson.* However, as this mode of painting themselves was practised by both sexes, perhaps it was at first introduced as a defence against the venomous insects so common in tropical cli- mates, or possibly, they considered the brilliancy of the colour as highly ornamental; but the men had other methods of deforming their persons, which mere perversion of taste alone, would not, I think, have induced them to adopt. They disfigured their cheeks with deep incisions and hideous scars, which they stained with black, and they painted white and black circles round their eyes. Some of them perfo- rated the cartilage that divides the nostrils, and in- serted the bone of some fish, a parrots feather, or a fragment of tortoise-shell,-)* — a frightful custom, prac- tised also by the natives of New Holland,^ and they strung together the teeth of such of their enemies as they had slain in battle, and wore them on their legs and arms, as trophies of successful cruelty.§
'* At the first aspect a Southern American appears to be mild and innocent, " but, on a more attentive view, one discovers in his countenance some- " thing wild, distrustful, and sullen."'
* Rochefort, iib. ii. c. ix. Hakluyt, vol. iii. p. 539,
f Rochefort, liv. ii. c. ix. Purchas, vol. Jv. p. 1157. Du Tertrc, toin. ii. p. 391, 393.
J Hawkesworth's Voyages, vol. iii. p. 171. § Gumilla, torn. i. p. 193.
3$ HISTORY OF THE [BOOK. i.
To draw the bow with unerring skill, to wield the club with dexterity and strength, to swim with agili- ty and boldness, to catch fish, and to build a cottage, were acquirements of indispensable necessity, and the education of their children was well suited to the attainment of them. One method of making their boys skilful, even in infancy, in the exercise of the bow, was to suspend their food on the branch of a tre€, compelling the hardy urchins to pierce it with their arrows, before they could obtain permission to eat. || But these were subordinate objects: — The Charaibes instructed their youth, at the same time, in. lessons of patience and fortitude ; they endeavour- ed to inspire them with courage in war, and a con- tempt of danger and death; — above all things, to in- stil into their minds an hereditary hatred, and impla- cable thirst of revenge towards the Arrowauks. The means which they adopted for these purposes were in
|f See Rochefprt, c. xxviii. p. 555, and Gumilla, torn. ii. p. 283,, Their arrows were commonly poisoned, except when they made their mi- litary excursions by night. On those occasions they converted them into instruments of still greater mischief; for by arming the points with pled- gets of cotton dipt into oil, and set on flame, they fired whole villages of their enemies at a distance.* The poison which they used, was a concoc- tion of noxious gums and vegetable juicesf, and had the property of being perfectly innocent when received into the stomach, but if communi- cated immediately to the blood, through the slightest wound, it was ge- nerally mortal. The Indians of Guiana still prepare a similar poison. It is supposed however, that sugar speedily administered in large quantities, is an antidote. (See Relation Abregee d^un Voyagey &c. par Mans, de la Candamine ; and Bancroft's Hist, of Guiana.)
* Rochefort, ch. xx. p. 559. f Oviedo, lib. iii.
CHAP, ii.] WEST INDIES. 39
some respects superstitious ; in others cruel and de- testable.
As soon as a male child was brought into the world, he was sprinkled with some drops of his father's blood. The ceremonies used on this occasion were sufficient- ly painful to the father, but he submitted without emotion or complaint; fondly believing, that the same degree of courage which he had himself displayed, was by these means transmitted to his son.* As the boy grew, he was soon made familiar with scenes of barbarity; he partook of the horrid repasts of his na- tion, and he was frequently anointed with; the fat of a slaughtered Arrowauk ; but he was not allowed to participate in the toils of the warrior, and to share the glories of conquest, until his fortitude had been brought to the test. The dawn of manhood ushered in the hour of severe. trial. He was now to exchange
the name he had received in his infancv, for one more
j y
sounding and significant ; — a ceremony of high import- ance in the life of a Charaibe, but always accompa- nied by a scene of ferocious festivity and unnatural cruelty. f
The severities inflicted on such occasions by the hands of fathers on their own children, exhibit a me- lancholy proof of the influence of superstition in sup- pressing the most powerful feelings of nature; but the practice was not without example. Plutarch re-
* Rochefoit, liv. ii. c. xxv. p. 551.
fRocheforf, liv. ii, c. xxiii. p. 556. Dw Tcrtre, v'ol.-r. p. -?-.
40 HISTORY OF THE [BOOK, i,
cords the prevalence of a similar custom among the Lacedemonians. " At Sparta/' says the Historian, " boys are whipped for a whole day, oftentimes to " death, before the altar of Diana, and there is a " wonderful emulation among them who best can " sustain the greatest number of stripes/3 Nor did the Charaibe youth, yield in fortitude to the Spartan. If the severities he sustained extorted the least symp- tom of weakness from the young sufferer, he was disgraced for ever; but if he rose superior to pain, and baffled the rage of his persecutors, by perseve- rence and serenity, he received the highest applause. He was thenceforth numbered among the defenders of his country, and it was pronounced by his relations and countrymen, that he zvas now a man like one of themselves.
A penance still more severe, and torments more excruciating ; stripes, burning and suffocation, con- stituted a test for him who aspired to the honour of leading forth his countrymen to war;J for in times of peace the Charaibes admitted of no supremacy but that of nature. Having no laws, they needed no magistrates. To their old men indeed they allowed some kind of authority, but it was at best ill-defined, and must at all times have been insufficient to protect the weak against the strong. — In war, experience had taught them that subordination was as requisite as courage; they therefore elected their captains in
J Rochefort, liv. ii. c. xix. p. 519. Purchas, vol. iv. p. 1262. Gu- milla, torn. ii. p. 286. Lafitau, torn. i. p. 297, et seq.
CHAP, ii.] WEST INDIES, * 43
their general assemblies with great solemnity ;§ but as hath been observed* they put their pretensions to the proof with circumstances of outrageous barbarity : — the recital however is disgusting, and may well be suppressed.
If it appears strange that where so little was to be gained by pre-eminence, so much should be endured to obtain it, it must be considered that, in the estima- tion of the candidate, the reward was doubtless more than adequate to the cost of the purchase. If success attended his measures, the feast and the triumph awaited his return. He exchanged his name a second time 3 assuming in future that of the most formidable Arrowauk that had fallen by his hand.|| He was per- mitted to appropriate to himself, as many of the cap- tives as he thought fit, and his countrymen presented to his choice the most beautiful of their daughters in reward of his valour.*
It was probably this last mentioned testimony of public esteem and gratitude that gave rise in these islands to the institution of polygamy, which, as hath been already observed, prevailed universally among them, and still prevails among the Charaibes of South America ;f— an institution the more excusable, as their women, from religious motives, carefully avoid-
§ Rochefort, ch. xxiii. p. 553. || Rochefort, ch. xxiii. p. 553. * Rochefort, ch. xxii. p. f Bancroft, p. Z54-.
Vol. I.
42 HISTORY OF THE [BOOK. i.
ed the nuptual intercourse after pregnancyj. I am sorry to add, that the condition of these poor creatures was at the same time truly wretched. Though fre- quently bestowed as the prize of successful courage, the wife, thus honourably obtained, was soon con- sidered of as little value as the captive. Deficient in those qualities \vhich alone were estimable among the Charaibes, the females \vere treated rather as slaves than companions. They sustained every spe- cies of drudgery : they ground the maize, prepared the, cassavi, gathered in the cotton, and wove the ha- mac;§ nor were they allowed even the privilege of eating in presence of their husbands :|| Under these circumstances, it is not wonderful that they were less prolific than the women of Europe.* But brutality towards their wives was not peculiar to the Charaibes. It has prevailed in all ages and countries among the uncivilized part of mankind; and the first visible proof that a people is emerging from savage manners, is a display of tenderness towards the female sex.f
;£ Roche fort, ch. xxii. p. 548. Du Tertre, torn. ii. p. 374.
§ Purchas, vol. iv. p. 1272. Labar, torn. ii. p. 40.
|| Labat, torn. ii. p. 15 and 95.
* Lafitau, torn.i. p. 590.
•f- Father Joseph Gumilla, in his account of the nations bordering on the Oronoko, relates, (torn. i. p. 207. Fr. translation), that the Charaibes of the continent punish their women caught in adultery, like the ancient Israelites, " by stoning them to death before an assembly ef the people :" but I do not find this facl recorded by any other writer j and as it is evi- dently brought forward to support the author's hypothesis, that the Ame- ricans are originally descended from the Jews, I suspeft that it is not well founded : — at least there it no trace that such a custom existed among the insular Charaibes. Rochefort speaking of the latter, observes, that be-
\
CHAP, n.] WEST INDIES. 43
Perhaps a more intimate knowledge (not now to be obtained) woukT have softened many of the shades which thus darken the character of these islanders, and have discovered some latent properties in their principles and conduct, tending to lessen, though not wholly to remove, the disgust we naturally feel in beholding human nature so debased and degraded; but of many particulars wherein curiosity would de- sire to be gratified, we have no account. We know but little, for instance, concerning their domestic economy, their arts, manufactures, and agriculture; their sense of filial and paternal obligations ; their re- ligious rites and funeral ceremonies. Such further information however, in these and other respects, as authorities the least disputable afford, I have abridged in the following detached observations.
Besides the ornaments which we have noticed to have been worn by both sexes, the women on arriving at the age of puberty, were distinguished also by a sort of buskin or half boot, made of cotton, which
fore they had any intercourse with the Christians they had no established punishment for adultery, because (says he) " the crime itself was un- known."—He adds, that when this with other European vices, was in- troduced among them, tfoe injured husband became his own avenger. — Labafs reasoning on this head is too curious to be omitted : fe II n*y a " que les femmes qui soient obligees a Tobeissance, et dont les homines <e scient absolument les maitres. Us portent cette superiorite jusqn'1 a t( Texces, et les tuent pourdes sujets treslegcrs. Un soupcon d'inrldelite, 11 bien ou mal fonde, suffit, sans autre formalite, pour les mettre en droit *' de leur casser la tete. Cela est unpeu sauvage a la <verite ; mats cc"sf t( unfrein bien propre four retenir les femmes dans leur devoir ." Tom iv. p. 327.
44 HISTORY OF THE [BOOK i
surrounded the small part of the leg.J A distinction., however, to which such of their females as had been taken in the chance of war, dare not aspire. § In other respects both male and female appeared as naked as our first parents before the fall.|| Like them as they knew no guilt, they knew no shame ; nor was cloathing thought necessary to personal comfort, where the chill blast of winter is never felt.
Their hair was uniformly of a shining black, straight and coarse ; but they dressed it with daily care, and adorned it with great art; the men, in particular, de- corating their heads with feathers of various colours. As their hair thus constituted their chief pride, it was an unequivocal proof of the sincerity of their sorrow, when, on the death of a relation or friend, they cut it short like their slaves and captives;* to whom the privilege of wearing long hair was rigorously denied. f Like most other nations of the new hemisphere, they eradicated, with great nicety, the incipient beard,J and all superfluous hairs on their bodies ; — a circumr stance which has given rise to a notion that all the Aborigines of America were naturally beardless. This opinion is indeed countenanced by many respec-
J Rochefort, liv. ii. c. ix. p. 446. Purchas, vol. iv. p. 1159. Labat, torn. ii. p. 12, The same sort of brodequin, or buskin, is worn by female Hottentots and other nations of Africa.
§ Du Tertre, torn. ii. p. 394.
|| Rochefort, liv. ii. c. ix. p. 441. Purcha«, vol. iv. p. 1157.
* Rochefort, liv. ii. c. ix. p. 439. Du Tertre, torn. ii. p.
-\ Du Tertre, torn. ii. p. 405.
J Du Tertre, torn. ii. p.
CHAP, ir.] WEST INDIES. 45
table writers, but after much inquiry, and some in- stances of ocular inspection, I am satisfied that it is groundless.
-
The circumstance the most remarkable concerning
o
the persons of the Charaibes, was their strange prac- tice of altering the natural configuration of the head. On the birth of a child, its tender and flexible skull was confined between two small pieces of wood, which, applied before and behind, and firmly bound together on each side, elevated the forehead, and oc- casioned it, and the back part of the skull, to resem- ble two sides of a square ;§ an uncouth and frightful custom still observed by the miserable remnant of red Charaibes in the island of St. Vincent. ||
They resided in villages which resembled an Eu- ropean encampment; for their cabins wrere built of poles fixed circularly in the ground, and drawn to a point at the top.* They were then covered with leaves of the palm-tree. In the centre of each vil- lage was a building of superior magnitude to the rest. It was formed with great labour, and served as a pub- lic hall or state house, j- wherein we are assured that
§ Oviedo, lib. iii. Rochefort, liv. Ji. c. ix.
)j I have been told by anatomists, that the coronal suture of new-born children in the West Indies is commonly more open than that of infants born in colder climates, and the brain more liable to external injury. Perhaps, therefore, the Indian custom of depressing the os frcnlis and the occiput was originally meant to assist the operation of nature in closing the skull.
* P. Martyr, decad. \. lib. ii.
•{• Ibid. Rochefort, liv. ii. c. xvi. Lafitau, torn. ii. p. 8.
HISTORY OF THE [BOOK i.
the men (excluding the women) had there meals in common ; " observing that law," (saith the earl of Cumberland, who visited these islands in 1596), <c which in Lycurgus's mouth was thought strange " and needless. "J These halls were also the the- atres where their youth, were animated to emulation,
j
and trained to martial enterprize by the renown of their warriors,, and the harangues of their orators.
Their arts and manufactures, though few, dkplay- ed a degree of ingenuity, which one would have scarcely expected to find amongst a people so little removed from a state of mere animal nature, as to reject all dress as superfluous. Columbus observed an abundance of substantial cotton cloth in all the islands which he visited; and the natives possessed the art of staining it with various colours, though the Charaibes delighted chiefly in red.§ Of this cloth they made hammocks, or hanging beds, such as are now used at sea; — for Europe has not only copied the pattern, but preserved also the original name. ||
They possessed likewise the art of making vessels of clay for domestic uses, which they baked in kilns like the potters of Europe. The ruins of many of these kilns were visible not long since in Barbadoes, where specimens of the manufacture are still fre-
J Purchas, vol. Jr. p. 1159.
^ Labat, torn ii. p. 40.
\ All the early Spanish and French writers expressly assert, that the original Indian name for their swinging beds was amack, or hamack\—~ "but Dr. Johnson derives the English word bamtnock from the Saxon.
CHAP, ii.] WEST INDIES. 47
quently dug up; and Mr. Hughes, the historian of that island, observes, that they far surpass the earthern ware made by the negroes, in thinness, smoothness and beauty.* Besides those, they invented various other utensils for economical purposes, which are enumerated by Labat. The baskets which they com- posed of the fibres of the palmeto leaves, were sin- gularly elegant, and we are told that their bows and arrows, and other weapons, displayed a neatness and polish, which the most skilful European artist would have found it difficult to have excelled, even with European tools.
Of the nature and extent of their agriculture the accounts are slender and unsatisfactory. We are told, on good authority, that among the Charaibes of the continent, there was no division of land, every one cultivating in proportion to his exigencies. f Where no criminal jurisdiction is established, the idea of pri- vate property must necessarily be unknown or imper- fect; and in these islands where land is scarce, it seems probable that, as among some of the tribes of South America,f cultivation was earned on by the joint labour of each separate community, and their harvests deposited in public granaries, whence each family received its proportion of the public stock. —
: Nat. Hist, of Barbadoes, p. 8. Ligon, who visited this island iu 1647, declares that some of these vessels, which he saw, even surpassed any earthen-ware made in England " both" (to use his own words) " ia " finesse of mettle, and curiosity of turninge."
f Bancroft, p. 254.
t Gumilla, torn. i. p. 265,
48 HISTORY OF THE [BOOK. i.
Rochefort indeed observes, that all their interests were in common.
Their food, both vegetable and animal, excepting in the circumstance of their eating human flesh, seems to have been the same, in most respects, as that of the natives of the larger islands, which shall be described hereafter. But although their appetites were voracious,§ they rejected many of the best bounties of nature. Of some animals they held the flesh in abhorrence ; these were the pecary, or Mexi- can hog, the manati, or sea cow, and the turtle. || Labat observes, that they scrupled likewise to eat the eel, which the rivers in several of the islands sup- ply in great plenty. ||
The striking conformity of these, and some other of their prejudices and customs, to the practices of the Jews, has not escaped the notice of historians. f — But whether the Charaibes were actuated by religious motives, in thus abstaining from those things which many nations account very wholesome and delicious food, we are no where sufficiently informed*
It most probably was, however, the influence of superstition that gave rise to these and other ceremo- nies equally repugnant to the dictates of nature and common sense ; one of which appears at first extraot-
§ Gumilla, torn. ii. p. 12, 70, 2,37. Lafitau, torn. i. p. 515.
|| Rochefort, \\v. ii. c. 16.
* Labat, torn. iv. p. 304.
f Gumilla, Adair, Du Tertre, and others.
*CHAP. ii.] WEST INDIES. 49
dinary and incredible, but it is too well attested to be denied. On the birth^f his first son the father retired to his bed, and fasted with a strictness that often en- dangered life. J Lafitau, observing that the same cus- tom was practised by the Tybarenians of Asia, and the Iberians or ancient inhabitants of Spain, and is still in use among the people of Japan, not only urges this circumstance as a proof, among others, t^at the new world was peopled from the old, but pretends to dis- cover in it also, some traces of the doctrine of original sin: he supposes that the severe penance thus volun- tarily submitted to by the father, was at first institu- ted in the pious view of protecting his issue from the contagion of hereditary guilt; averting the wrath of offended Omnipotence at the crime of our first pa- rents, and expiating their guilt by his sufferings.
The ancient Thracians, as we are informed by He- rodotus, when a male child was brought into the world, lamented over him in sad vaticination of his destiny, and they rejoiced when he was released by death from those miseries which they considered as his inevitable portion in life: but, whatever might have been the motives that first induced the-Charaibes to do penance on such occasions, it would seem that grief and de-
' O
jeetion had no great share in them; for. the ceremony
| Du Tertre, torn. ii. 371, 373. Rochefort, liv. ii. c. xxiii. p. 550. Labat, torn. iv. p. 368. Lafitau, torn. i. p. 49. NieubofF relates, that this praftice prevails likewise among the natives of Brasil, Churchill's Voyages, vol. ii. p. 133.
§ Lafitau, torn. i. p. 257, Vol. I. G
50 HISTORY OF THE [BOOK i,
of fasting was immediately succeeded by rejoicing and triumph, by drunkenness and debauchery. Their la- mentations for the dead, seem to have arisen from the more laudable dictates of genuine nature ; for, unlike the Thracians on these solemnities, they not only de- spoiled their hair, as we have before related, but when the master of the family died, the surviving relations., after burying the corpse in the centre of his own dwel- ling, with many demonstrations of unaffected grief, quitted the house altogether, and erected another in a distant situation. ||
Unfortunately, however, if now and then we dis- tinguish among them some faint traces of rational pi- ety, our satisfaction is of short continuance ;
No light, but rather darkness visible,
Serves only to discover sights of woe: MILTON.
or it is a light that glimmers for a moment, and then sets in blood.
It is asserted, and I believe with truth* that the ex- pectation of a future state has prevailed amongst all mankind, in all ages and countries of the world. It is certain, that it prevailed among the Charaibes;* who not only believed that death was not the final extinc- tion of their being, but pleased themselves also with
|| Labat, torn. iv. p. 367. They placed the dead body in the grave in a sitting posture, with the knees to the chin. Lafitau, torn. ii. p. 407. Du Tertre, torn. ii. p. 402. .
* Rochefort, liv. ii, c. 14, 485. Du Tertre, torn, ii. p. 372*
CHAP, ii.] WEST INDIES. 51
the fond conceit that their departed relations were secret spectators of- their conduct ; — that they still sympathized in their sufferings, and participated in their welfare. To these notions, so flattering to our wishes, — perhaps congenial to our nature, — they ad- ded others of a dreadful tendency ; for, considering the soul as susceptible of the same impressions, and pos- sessing the same passions, as when allied to the body, it was thought a religious duty to their deceased he- roes, to sacrifice at their funerals some of the captives which had been taken in battle. f Immortality seem- ed a curse without military glory : they allotted to the virtuous and the brave the enjoyment of supreme fe- licity, with their wives and their captives, in a sort of Mahometan paradise. To the degenerate and the cowardly they assigned a far different portion : these, they doomed to everlasting banishment beyond the mountains; — to unremitting labour, in employments that disgrace manhood: — and this disgrace they sup- posed would be heightened by the greatest of all afflic- tions, captivity and servitude among the Arrowauks. J
It might seem, that this idea of a state of retribu- tion after death necessarily flowed from a well-found- ed belief in the existence of an all-wise and almighty Governor and Judge of the Universe; but we arc told, notwithstanding, that the minds of the Charaibes were not elevated to this height. "They admitted,"
f Rochefort, c. xix. p. 484. Du Tertre, c. ii. p. 41*. Purchas, vol. iv. p. 127.4.
Rochefort, c. xiv. p. 485,
«
(C
52 HISTORY OF THE [BOOK, u
says Rochefort, " that the eartk was their bountiful " parent, which yielded them all the good things of life, out they were so lamentably sunk in darkness and brutality, as to have formed no conception of (( its beneficent Creator, through the continual ener- " gy of whose cfivine influence alone it yields any " thing. They had not even a name for the Deity. "§ Other writers, however, of equal authority,|| and even the same writer elsewhere,* present us with a diffe- rent representation in this respect, and allow that the Chavaibes entertained an awful- sense (perplexed in- deed and indistinct) of one great universal cause, — erf a superior, wise, and invisible Being of absolute and irresistible power, f — Like the ancient heathens, they admitted also the agency of subordinate divinities. — They even supposed, that each individual person had his peculiar protector or tutelary deity.J Nor is it true, as affirmed by some authors, that they had no notion of practical worship; for, besides the funeral ceremonies above-mentioned, which arose surely from a sense of mistaken piety, they had their Lares and Penates, gods of their own creating, intended as sym- bols probably of their invisible deities, to whom they offered sacrifices, similar to those of the ancient Ro-
§ Rochefort, c. xiii. p. 469.
|| Du Tertre, torn. ii. p. 364..
* Rochefort, c. xiv.
•f The Galibis Indians, or Charaibes of South America, from whom I have supposed the insular Charaibes to have been immediately descend- ed, stiled the Supreme Being Tamoussi^ or Universal Father.— Barrere.
t Rochefort, c. xiii. p. 471.
CHAP, ii.] WEST INDIES. 53
mans in their days of simplicity and virtue. § It was their custom to erect in every cottage a rustic altar, composed of banana leaves and rushes, whereon they occasionally placed the earliest of their fruits, and the choicest of their viands, as humble peace-offerings through the mediation of their inferior deities to in- censed Omnipotence: || for it is admitted, that their devotions consisted less in the effusions of thankful- ness, than in deprecations of wrath ; — but herein nei- ther were they distinguishable from the rest of man- kind, either in the old world or the new. We can all forget benefits though we implore mercy. Strange however it is, that the same authors who accuse them of atheism should accuse them likewise, in the same moment, of polytheism and idolatry.
i
Atheists they certainly were not ; and although their system was not that of pure theism, yet their idolatry was probably founded on circumstances, the moral influence of which has not hitherto, I think,
§ Mr. Hughes, in his History of Barbadoes, makes mention of many- fragments of Indian idols dug up in that island, which were composed of the same materials as their earthen vessels above-mentioned. — *' I saw the head of one" (continues he) " which alone weighed above sixty pounds. " This, before it was broken off, stood upon an oval pedestal about three tl feet in height. The heads of all the others were very small. These " lesser idols were in all probability their Penates^ made small for the ease and conveniency of being carried with them in their several joxir- nies, as the larger sort were perhaps designed for some stated places of worship." — Natural History of Barbadoes, p. 7.
fl
ft
I) Lafitau, torn. i. p. 179. Rochefort, c. xiii. p. 4.72. Du Tertre, torn. ii. p. 366.
54 HISTORY OF THE [BOOK. j.
been sufficiently noticed. If their devotion, as we have seen, was the offspring, not of gratitude, but of fear; — if they were less sensible of the goodness, than terrified at the judgments of the Almighty, it should be remembered, that in the climate of the West Indies, the tremendous irregularities of nature are dreadfully frequent; — the hurricane that sweeps nations to the deep, and the earthquake that swal- lows continents in its bosom. — Let us not then hasti- ly affix the charge of impiety on these simple people, if, when they beheld the elements combine for their destruction, they considered the divine Being as infi- nite indeed in power, but severe in his justice, and inexorable in his anger. Under this impression, the mind, humbled to the dust in the consciousness of its own imbecility, and scarce daring to lift up a thought to the great cause of all things, fondly wishes for some mild and gracious interpreter; some amiable in- termediate agent in whom to repose with confidence., as in a guardian and a friend. This desire increasing, is at length exalted to belief. The soul, seeking re- fuge from its own apprehensions, creates imaginary beings, by whose mediation it hopes to render itself less despicable in the sight of the Supreme. To these its devotions are intrusted, and its adorations paid. We may lament the blindness of these poor savages, and exult in our own superiority in this respect, but let us not forget, that in the most cultivated peri- ods of the human understanding, (before the light of Revelation was graciously displayed), a similar super- was practised by all the various nations of the
CHAP, it.] WEST INDIES. 55
heathen world; of which, not one, perhaps, had so strong an apology to plead as the Charaibes.
These observations, however, extend only to the fair side of their religion, the worship of benevolent deities. A darker superstition likewise prevailed among all the unenlightened inhabitants of these cli- mates; for they not only believed in the existence of demons and evil spirits, but offered to them also by the hands of their Boyez, or pretended magicians, sa- crifices and worship; wounding themselves, on such solemnities, with an instrument made of the teeth of the agouti;* which inflicted horrible gashes; con- ceiving, perhaps, that the malignant powers delighted in groans and misery, and were to be appeased only by human blood, j- I am of opinion, nevertheless, that even this latter species of idolatry originated in reve- rential piety, and an awful sense of almighty power and infinite perfection. That we receive both good and evil at the hands of God, and that the Supreme Being is equally wise and benevolent in the dispensation of both, are truths which we are taught, as well by cul- tivated reason, as by holy writ; but they are truths, to the right apprehension of which uncivilized man was, perhaps, at all times incompetent. The savage, indeed, amidst the destructive terrors of the hurricane and the earthquake, might easily conclude, that no- thing less than Omnipotence itself, " visiting the na- tions in his wrath," could thus harrow up the world;
* See Chap. 4.
f Du Tertre, tom.ii. p. 365.
j6 HISTORY OF THE [BOOK i.
but the calamities of daily occurrence, — the various appearances of physical and moral evil w7hich hourly imbitter life, he dared not ascribe to an all-perfect and merciful being. To his limited conception, such a conclusion was derogatory from divine justice, and irreconcileable with infinite wisdom. To what then would he impute these terrifying and inexplica- ble phenomena, but to the malignant influence of impure spirits and aerial demons? The profanations built on such notions certainly throw a light on the Christian religion, if they serve not as a collateral evidence of its divine origin.
A minute detail of the rites and ceremonies to which these, and other religious tenets, gave birth among the Charaibes, most of them unamiable, many of them cruel, together with an illustration of their conformity to the superstitions of the Pagan theology, would lead me too far; nor is such a disquisition ne- cessary. It is sufficient for me to have shewn, that the foundations of true religion, the belief of a deity, and the expectation of a future state, (to borrow the expression of an eloquent prelate), " are no less con- " formable to the first natural apprehensions of the
untutored mind, than to the soundest principles of
philosophy/'J
' ee K
I have thus selected and combined, from a mass of discordant materials, a few striking particulars in the character, manners an'd customs of the ancient inhabi-
>
J Bishop of Chester's Sermons.
CHAP, ii.] WEST INDIES. 57
tants of the Charaibean Islands. The picture is not pleasing; but, as I have elsewhere observed, it may lead to some important conclusions; for besides cor- recting many wild and extravagant fancies which are afloat in the world respecting the influence of climate on the powers of the mind, it may tend to demon- strate the absurdity of that hypothesis of some emi- nent philosophers, which pronounces savage life the genuine source of unpolluted happiness; falsely deem- ing it a state conformable to our nature, and consti- tuting the perfection of it. It is indeed no easy task, as Rousseau observes, to discriminate properly be- tween what is originally natural, and what is acquired, iriVthe present constitution of man: yet thus much may be concluded, from the account I have given of the Charaibes; that they derived their furious and sanguinary disposition — not from the dictates of na- ture, but — from the perversion and abuse of some of her noblest endowments. Civilization and science would not only have given them gentler manners, but probably have eradicated also many of their barbarous rites and gloomy superstitions, either by the introduc- tion of a purer religion, or by giving energy and effect to those latent principles, which I have shewn had a foundation among them. But while I admit the ne- cessity and benevolent efficacy of improved manners and social intercouse, conceiving that man by the cul- tivation of his reason, and the exercise of his faculties, alone answers the end of his creation, I am far from concurring with another class of philosophers, who, widely differing from the former, consider a state of pure nature as a state of unrelenting ferocity and re-
Vol. I. H
53 HISTORY OF THE [BOOK. i.
ciprocal hostility ; maintaining, that all the soft and tender affections are not originally implanted in us, but are superinduced by education and reflection. A retrospect to what has been related of the Charaibes will shew the fallacy of this opinion. Alan, as he comes from the hands of his Creator, is every where constituted a mild and a merciful being. It was by rigid discipline and barbarous example, that the Cha- raibe nation trained up their youth to suffer with for- titude, and to inflict without pity the utmost exer- tions of human vengeance. The dictates of nature were as much violated by those enormities of savage life, as they are suppressed by the cold unfeeling apathy of philosophical resentment. To the honour of humanity, it is as certain that compassion and kindness are among the earliest propensities of our nature, as that they constitute the chief ornament and the hap- piness of it. Of this truth our next researches will furnish a pleasing example.
CHAP, in.] WEST INDIES. 59
CHAPTER III.
Of tJ\e Natives of Hispaimla, Cuba, Jamaica, and Porto- Rico. — Their Origin. — Num bers. — Persons. — Genius and Dispositions. — Government and Religion. — Miscellaneous Observations respecting their Arts, Manufactures and Agriculture. — Cruelty of the Spaniards, Kc.
I AM now to give some account of a mild and comparatively cultivated people, the ancient na- tives of Hispaniola,§ Cuba,|| Jamaica, and Porto- Rico;* for there is no doubt that the inhabitants of all those islands were of one common origin., — speak- ing the same language, — possessing the same institu- tions, and practising similar superstitions. Columbus himself treats of them as such 3 and the testimony of
§ Hispaniola was called by the natives Haiti or Ayti, which signifies mountainous j and I conceive the same word has the same meaning in the islands of the south sea.
(I C#£#was the Indian name. If was not discovered to be an island un- til the year 1508, when a captain, named Sebastian, sailed round it by or- der of Nicholas Ovando. It was first planted by the Spaniards in i 51 1 j in that year Jago Velasquez went thither with three hundred men, and settled on the south coast, near to a port which he called by his own name, {Jago, a name it still bears), and which for extent and security may be reckoned one of the finest in the world.
* The Indian name of Porto-Rico was BoriqtteK. It was discovered by Columbus in his second voyage, but first explored by Juan F/once de Leon, in 1508.
6c HISTORY OF THE [BOOK. i.
many contemporary historians confirm his opinion. It appears likewise from the information of Las Casas, the bishop of Chiapa, to the emperor Charles V. that most of the natives of Trinidadf were of the same nation; the extent and natural strength of that island, as of the others above-mentioned,, having protected them, in a great measure., from the depredations of* the Charaibes,
V.
I have elsewhere related that they were considered by these barbarians as descended from a colony of Ar- rowauks, a people of Guiana; and there can be no good reason to suppose that the Charaibes were misinform- ed in this particular. The evidence of Raleigh, and others who visited both Guiana and Trinidad two cen- turies ago, might be adduced in support of their opi- nion. These voyagers pronounce the ancient inhabi- tants of Trinidad to belong precisely to the Arwacks or Arrowauk nation of the continent; a race of Indi- ans to whose noble qualities the most honourable tes- timony is borne by every traveller that has visited them, and recorded his observations. And here, all inquiry concerning the origin of our islanders seems to terminate. It is indeed extremely probable that all the various nations of this part of the new world, ex- cept only the Charaibes, emigrated anciently from the
•f Trinidad was discovered by Columbus in his third voyage, and was named by him after the Holy Trinity, because says Herrera, having been in great danger, in a violent storm, he made a vow to give that name to the first land he should find; soon after which a sailor, in the main- top, saw three points of land, whereby the name fitted every way to hia vow.
CHAH. in.] WEST INDIES. 61
great hive of the Mexican empire. Juan de Grijalva, one of the adventurers from Cuba in 1518, found a people who spoke the language of that island^on the coast of Jucatan^J but at what period such emigra- tions were made; whether the Charaibes were pre- viously possessed of the widely extended coast that bounds the Atlantic, or, in posterior ages, accidental- ly found their way thither by sea, from the ancient continent — (perhaps, by their invasion, giving birth to that hereditary and unconquerable hatred which still prevails between them and the other Indian nations'- — these are points concerning which, as it is impos- sible to determine., it is in vain to inquire.
In estimating the number of our islanders, when. lirst discovered by Columbus, historians widely differ. Las Casas computes them at six millions in the whole ; but the natives of Hispaniola were reckoned by Ovi- edo at one million only, and by Martyr, who wrote on the authority of Columbus, at 1,200,000, and this last account is probably the most correct. Judging of the other islands by that, and supposing the popula- tion of each to be nearly the same in proportion to its extent, the whole number will fall greatlv short of
. • o •/
the computation of Las Casas. Perhaps if we fix on three millions, instead of six, as the total, we shall approach as near the truth as possible, on a, question that admits not of minute accuracy. Indeed, such are
J
the accounts of the horrible carnage of these poor people by the Spaniards, that we are naturally led to
m
J P. Martyr, decad. 'iii. lib. x.
62 HISTORY OF THE [BOOK. r.
hope their original numbers must have been greatly exaggerated ; first by the associates of Columbus, from a fond and excusable propensity to magnify the merit and importance of their discoveries, as undoubt- edly they were afterwards by the worthy prelate I have quoted, in the warmth of his honest indignation at the bloody proceedings of his countrymen: with whom, indeed, every man of a humane and reflecting mind, must blush to confess himself of the same na- ture and species !
But, riot to anticipate observations that will more properly appear hereafter, I shall now proceed to the consideration, —
I. Of their persons and personal endowments* II. Their intellectual faculties and dispositions :
III. Their political institutions :
IV. Their religious rites.— -
Such subordinate particulars as are not easily redu- cible to either of these heads will conclude the pre- sent chapter.
I, Both men and women wore nothing more than a slight covering of cotton cloth round the waist; but
o o
in the women it extended to the knees : the 'children of both sexes appeared entirely naked. In stature they were taller, but less robust than the Charaibes.§
€ Oviedo, Som.
CHAP, in.] WEST INDIES. 63
Their colour was ^ clear brown j not deeper, in gene- ral, according to Columbus, than that of a Spanish peasant who has been much exposed to the wind and the sun. || Like the Charaibes, they altered the na- tural configuration of the head in infancy; but after a different mode;* and by this practice, says Herrera, the crown was so strengthened that a Spanish broad sword, instead of cleaving the skull at a stroke, would frequently break short upon it;f an illustration which gives an admirable idea ot the clemency of their con- querors ! Their hair was uniformly black, without any tendency to curl ; their features were hard and un- sightly; the face broad, and the nose flat; but their eyes streamed with good nature, and altogether there was something pleasing and inviting in the counte- nances of most of them, which proclaimed a frank and gentle disposition. It was an honest face, (says Mar- tyr), coarse, but not gloomy; for it was enlivened by confidence, and softened by compassion.
Much has been suggested by modern philosophers, concerning a supposed feebleness in their persons and constitutions. They are represented to have been in- capable of the smallest degree of labour, incurably in- dolent, and insensible even to the attractions of beau-
|| F. Col. c. xxiii.
* The sinciput, or fore-part of the head from the eye-brows to the co- ronal suture, was depressed, which gave an unnatural thickness and ele- vation to the occiput, or hinder part of the skull.
-f Hcrrefa, lib. i. c. xvi. who copies tkis circumstance from Ovicdo.
64 HISTORY OF THE [BOOK. i.
ty, and the influence of lovc.J Tjiis wonderful de- bility and coldness have been attributed by some wri- ters to a vegetable diet: by others, it is pretended that they derived from nature less appetite for food than the natives of Europe, but nothing can more pointedly demonstrate the' indolent inattention of his- torians,, than their combining these circumstances in one and the same character. An insensibility, or con- temptuous disregard, towards the female sex, was a feature peculiar to the Charaibes; who, however, as we have seen, were robust and vigorous in their per- sons, and insatiably voracious of food. It constituted no part of the disposition of our islanders , amongst whom an attachment to the sex was remarkably con- spicuous. Love, with this happy people, was not a transient and youthful ardour only; but the source of all their pleasures, and the chief business of life : for not being, like the Charaibes, oppressed by the weight of perpetual solicitude, and tormented by an unquench- able thirst of revenge, they gave full indulgence to the instincts of nature, while the influence of the cli- mate heightened the sensibility of the passions. §
In truth, an excessive sensuality was among the greatest defects in their character: and to this cause
J Robertson, Buffon, De Pauw, and others.
§ See Oviedo, lib. v. c. iii. We have nearly the same account at this day of the Arrowauks of Guiana. t( In their natural disposition" (says Bancroft) " they are amorous and wanton;" and Barrere observes, {t Us " sont lulriqu.es au supreme degre." It is related by Herrera, that a deity similar to the Venus of antiquity, was one of the Divinities of the Tlas~ cabins, a people of Mexico.
CHAP, in.] WEST INDIES. 65
alone is imputed, by some writers, the origin of that dreadful disease, with the infliction of wfiich they have almost revenged the calamities brought upon them by the avarice of Europe : — If indeed the venereal contagion was first introduced into Spain from these islands ; a conclusion to which, notwithstanding all that has been written in support of it, an attentive inqui- rer will still hesitate to subscribe. ||
* "The venereal disease" (says Oviedo) "was certainly introduced " into Europe from these islands, where the best medicine for the cure of «c it, the Guaiacum, is also found^j the Almighty so remembering mercy «' in judgment, that, when our sins provoke punishment, he sends like- " wise a remedy.— I was acquainted with many persons who accompanied " Columbus in his first and second voyages, and suffered of this disease: " one of whom was Pedro Margarite, a man much respected of the King " and Queen. In the year 1496 it began to spread in Europe, and the " physicians were wholly at a loss in what manner to treat it. — When, " after this, Gonzales Fernandes de Cordova was sent with an army by " his Catholic Majesty on behalf of Ferdinand the second, king of Naples, " some infected persons accompanied that army, and by intercourse with ft the women, spread the disease among the Italians and the French ; both " which nations had successively the honour uf giving it a name; bat in '« truth it came originally from Hispaniola, where it was very common, *' as was likewise the remedy."
This account is sufficiently particular j nevertheless, there is reason to believe, that the venereal infection was known in Europe many centuries before the discovery of America j although it is possible it might have broke out with renewed violence about the time of Columbus's return from his first expedition.— This was the era of wonder, and probably the infrequency of the contagion before that period, gave colour to a report, perhaps at first maliciously propagated by some who envied the success of Columbus, that this disease <was one of the fruits of his celebrated eater- prize. It is impossible, in the space of a marginal note, to enter deep*
Vol. I i
66 HISTORY OF THE [BOOK i,
L
That a people who possessed the means of gratify- ing every inclination without labour, should sometimes incline to be indolent, is a circumstance not very ex- traordinary. As the wants of nature were supplied almost spontaneously, and no covering was absolutely requisite but the shade, that necessity which urges men to action, and, by exercise, invigorates the fibres, was here wholly unknown. It is probable therefore that in muscular strength the natives were inferior to their invaders, and being less accustomed to labour, they might also require less nourishment. These con- clusions may be admitted without supposing any de- gradation of their nature, and with no very unfavour- able impression of the climate. Their limbs however were pliant and active, and in their motions they dis- played both gracefulness and ease. Their agility was eminently conspicuous in their dances; wherein they delighted and excelled; devoting the cool hours of night to this employment.* It was their custom,
ly into this subject ; neither does the full investigation of it come within the design of my work. I therefore refer such of my readers as are de- sirous of forming a decided opinion on the question, to the Philos. Trans, vol. xxvii. and vol. xxxi. (No. 365, and No. n), also to two learned treatises on the subject by Mr. Sanches, published at Paris 1772 and 1774, and to the authorities referred to by Mr. Foster in his " Observations made during a Voyage round the World," p. 492. (t^3 In Stovv's Sur» vey of London, vol. ii, p. 7, is preserved a copy of the rules or regula- tions established by Parliament in the eighth year of Henry the Second, for the government of the licensed stews in Southwark, among which I find the following, " No stewholder to keep any woman that hath the perilous infirmity of burning." This was 530 years before the voyage of Columbus.
* P. Martyr, decad. Hi. c. vii.
CHAP, in.] WEST INDIES. 67
says Herrera, to dance from evening to the dawn; and although fifty thousand men and women were frequently assembled together on these occasions, they seemed actuated by one common impulse, keep- ing time by responsive motions of their hands, feet, and bodies, with an exactness that was wonderful, f These public dances (for they had others highly li- centious) were appropriated to particular solemnities, and being accompanied with historical songs, were called Arietoes ; a singular feature in their political in- stitutions, of which I shall presently speak.
Besides the exercise of dancing, another diversion was prevalent among them which they called Bato ; and it appears from the account given of it by the Spanish historians,! that it had a distant resemblance to the English game of cricket ; for the players were divided into two parties, which alternately changed places, and the sport consisted in dexterously throw- ing and returning an elastic ball from one party to the other. It was not however caught in the hand
o
or returned with an instrument ; but received on the head, the elbow, or the foot, and the dexterity and force with which it was thence repelled, were asto- nishing and inimitable. — Such exertions belong not to a people incurably enervated and slothful.
II. They are, nevertheless, pronounced by many writers, to have been naturally inferior to the natives
•f Herrera, lib. ix. c. ii.
J Oviedo, lib. vi. c. ii. Herrera, lib. iii. c. iv.
68 HISTORY OF THE [BOOK i.
of Europe, not only in bodily strength, but likewise in genius and mental endowments. This assertion has I think been advanced with more confidence than proof. That the mind, like the body, acquires strength by employment, is indeed a truth which we all ac- knowledge, because we all experience it; and it re- quires no great sagacity co discover, that ingenuity is seldom very powerfully exerted to gratify appetites which do not exist, or to guard against inconvenien- cies which are not felt. If our islanders therefore in some respects to a degree of refinement not often observable in savage life, it may justly be pre- ned, fc m a state of society productive of new desires and artificial necessities, their capacities would been susceptible of still further improvement, i heir situation alone, without recurring to the vari- ous other causes assigned by philosophers, sufficiently accounts for the paucity of their ideas. Men, with- out anxiety for the future, have little reflection on the past. What they wranted in excited energy of mind, was howrever abundantly supplied by the softer affections ; by sweetness of temper, and native good- ness of disposition. AIL writers who have treated of their character agree, that they \vere unquestionably the most gentle and benevolent of the human race. Though not blessed with the light of Revelation, they practised one of the noblest precepts of Christianity, forgiveness of their enemies: laying all that they pos- sessed at the feet of their oppressors; courting their notice, and preventing their wishes, with such fond- ness and assiduity, as one would have thought might
CHAP. HI.] WEST INDIES. 69
have disarmed habitual cruelty, and melted bigotry into tenderness. §
Among other instances of their generous and com- passionate turn of mind, the following is, not the least remarkable. Soon after Columbus's first arrival at Hispaniola, one of his ships was wrecked on the coast. The natives, scorning to derive advantage to themselves from the distress of the strangers, (uncon- scious indeed of the calamities which their arrival was soon to bring upon them), beheld the accident with the liveliest emotions of sorrow, and hastened to their relief. A thousand canoes were instantly in motion, busily employed in conveying the seamen and cargo ashore; by which timely assistance, not a life was lost; and of the goods and provisions that were saved from the wrreck, not the smallest article was embez- zled. Such was their celerity and good will on this occasion, says Martyr, that no friend for friend, or brother for brother, in distress, could have manifested stronger tokens of sympathy and pity.|| Other histo- rians still heighten the picture; for they relate that Guacanahari, the sovereign of that part of the coun- try, perceiving that, notwithstanding the efforts of his people, the ship itself, and great part of the car- go were irrecoverably sunk, waited on Columbus to condole with him on the occasion; and while this poor Indian lamented his misfortune in terms which excited surprize and admiration, he offered the admi-
§ Martyr. Herrera. F. Columbus, c. xxvii. xxxii. &c. &c. }j Martyr, decad. i. lib. i.
70 HISTORY OF THE [BOOK. i.
ral (the tears flowing copiously down his cheeks as he spoke) all that he himself possessed, in reparation of his loss.*
This benevolence, unexampled in the history of ci? vilized nations, was soon basely requited by the con-r duct of a band of robbers, whom Columbus, unfor- tunately, left in the island, on his departure for Europe. Guacanahari, however, was covered writh wounds in defending them from his injured country- men ;f to whose just resentment the Spanish ruffians at length fell a sacrifice ; but their anger was of short duration. On Columbus's return, in his second voyage, their fondness revived; and for a considerable time the Spaniards lived among them in perfect secu- rity, exploring the interior parts of the country, both in companies and individually, not only without mo- lestation, but invited thereto by the natives. When any of the Spaniards came near to a village, the most ancient and venerable of the Indians, or the Cacique himself, if present, came out to meet them, gently conducted them into their habitations, and seated them on stools of ebony curiously ornamented. These benches seem to have been seats of honour reserved for their guests ; for the Indians threw themselves on the ground, and kissing the hands and feet of the Spaniards, offered them fruits and the choicest of their viands; entreating them to prolong their stay, with such solicitude and reverence, as demonstrated
* Fer. Col. c. xxxii. Herrera, decad. i. lib. i. c. xviii. f Herrera, decado i. lib. ii. c. ix. Fer. Col. c. xK
CHAP, in.] WEST INDIES. 71
that they considered them as beings of a superipr nature, whose presence consecrated their dwellings, and brought a blessing with it. J
The reception which Bartholomew Columbus, who was appointed lieutenant, or deputy governor, in the absence of the admiral, afterwards met with, in his progress through the island to levy tributes from the several caciques or princes, manifested not only kind- ness and submission, but on many occasions munifi- cence, and even a high degree of politeness. These caciques had all heard of the wonderful eagerness of the strangers for gold ; and such of them as possessed any of this precious metal, willingly presented all that they had to the deputy governor. Others, who had not the means of obtaining gold, brought provi- sions and cotton in great abundance. § — Among the latter, was Behechio, a powerful cacique, who invi- ted the lieutenant and his attendants to his dominions j and the entertainment which they received from this hospitable chief is thus described by Martyr. As they approached the king's dwelling, they were met by his wives, to the number of thirty, carrying branches of the palm-tree in their hands; who first saluted the Spaniards with a solemn dance, accompanied with a general song. These matrons were succeeded by a train of virgins, distinguished as such by their ap- pearance ; the former wearing aprons of cotton cloth, while the latter were arrayed only in the innocence or
J Herrera, dec ad. i. lib.i. c. xiv. F. Cel. c. xxvii. $ P. Martyr, decad. i. lib. v.
72 HISTORY OF THE [BOOK. i.
pure nature. Their hair was tied simply with a fillet over their foreheads, or suffered to flow gracefully on their shoulders and bosoms. Their limbs were finely proportioned, and their complexions, though brown, were smooth, shining and lovely. The Spaniards were struck with admiration, believing that they be- held the dryads of the woods, and the nymphs of the fountains, realizing ancient fable. The branches which they bore in their hands, they now delivered with lowly obeisance to the lieutenant, who, enter- ing the palace, found a plentiful, and according to the Indian mode of living, a splendid repast already pro- vided. As night approached, the Spaniards were conducted to separate cottages, wherein each of them was accommodated with a cotton hammock; and the next morning they were again entertained with dan- cing and singing. This was followed by matches of wrestling, and running for prizes; after wrhich two great bodies of armed Indians unexpectedly appear- ed, and a mock engagement ensued; exhibiting their modes of attack and defence in their wars with the Charaibes. For three days were the Spaniards thus royally entertained, and on the fourth, the affectionate Indians regretted their departure.
.*- —
III. The submissive and respectful deportment of these placid people towards their superiors, and those they considered as such, was derived probably, in some degree, from the nature of their government; which, contrary to that of the Charaibes under a simi- lar climate, was monarchical and even absolute. The regal authority however, though not circumscribed by
CHAP, in.] WEST INDIES. 73
positive institutions, was tempered into great mild- ness, by that constitutional benevolence which predo- minated throughout every part of their conduct, from the highest to the lowest. The sympathy which they manifested towards the distress of others, proves that they were not wretched themselves; for in a state of absolute slavery and misery, men are commonly de- void both of virtue and pity.
Their kings, as we have seen, were called caciques, and their power was hereditary: — But there were al- so subordinate chieftains, or princes, who were tribu- taries to the sovereign of each district. Thus the ter- ritory in Hispaniola, anciently called Xaraguay, ex- tending from the plain of Leogane to the westernmost part of the island, was the kingdom of the cacique, Behechio, whom I have mentioned above ; but it ap- pears from Martyr, that no less than thirty-two infe- rior chieftains or nobles had jurisdiction within that space of country, who were accountable to the su- preme authority of Behechio. || They seem to have somewhat resembled the ancient barons and feudato- ries of Europe; holding their possessions by the te- nure of service. Oviedo relates, that they were un- ' der the obligation of personally attending the sove- reign, both in peace and war, whenever commanded so to do.* It is to be lamented, that the Spanish historians afford very little information concerning this
|] P. Martyr, decad. i. lib. v. * Oviedo, lib. iii. c. iv.
Vol. I. K
74 HISTORY OF THE [BOOK i.
order of nobles, or the nature and extent of their sub- ordinate jurisdiction.
i
The whole island of Hispaniola was divided into five great kingdoms ;f of two of which, when Co- lumbus first landed, Guacanahari and Behechio were absolute sovereigns. A third principal cacique was Cuanaboa, whose history is remarkable: He had been originally a war captain among a body of Cha- raibes, who had invaded the dominions of Behechio, and, on condition of preventing the further incursions of his countrymen, had received his sister, the beau- tiful Anacoana, in marriage ; together with an extent of country, which he had converted into a separate kingdom. The establishment of this leader and his followers in Hispaniola, had introduced into this part of the island the Charaibean language, and also the use of the bow and arrow ;J a weapon with the practice of which the natives of the larger islands were generally unacquainted. Cuanabba however still retained his ferocious disposition, and having been accused by Guacanahari before Christopher Columbus, of murdering some of the Spaniards, was ordered by that commander to be sent to Spain: but the ship pe- rished at sea. The sad fate of his unfortunate widow, the innocent Anacoana, who was most atrociously murdered in 1505, by Ovando, the governor of Hi- spaniola, for no cause that I can discover, but her fond attachment to Bartholomew Columbus, having
•f- Oviedo, lib. iii. c. iv, J Oviedo, lib. iii.
CHAP, in.] WEST INDIES. 75
been related at large in the late American history, need not be repeated here.
The islands of Cuba and Jamaica were divided, like Hispaniola, into many principalities or kingdoms; but we are told that the whole extent of Porto Rico was subject to one cacique only.§ It has been re- marked, that the dignity of these chieftains was he- reditary; but if Martyr is to be credited, the law of succession among them, was different from that of all other people; for/ he observes,]] that the caciques bequeathed the supreme authority to the children of their sisters, according to seniority, disinheriting their own offspring; "being certain," adds Martyr, " that, ^ by this policy, they preferred the blood royal; " which might not happen to be the case, in ad van ^ cing any of the children of their numerous wives." The relation of Qviedo is somewhat different, and seems more probable: he remarks, that one of the wives of each cacique was particularly distinguished above the rest, and appears to have been considered by the people at large as the reigning queen;* that the children of this lady, according to priority of birth, succeeded to the father's honours; but in default of issue by the favourite princess, the sisters of the ca- cique, if there were, no surviving brothers, took place of the cacique's own children by his other wives. — Thus Anacoana, on the death of Behechio her bror
§ P. Martyr, decad. i. lib. ii.
ij Decad. iii. c. ix.
? Oviedo, lib. v. c. iii.
76 HISTORY OF THE [BOOK i.
ther, became queen of Xaraguay.f It is obvious that this regulation was intended to prevent the mis- chiefs of a disputed succession, among children whose pretensions were equal.
The principal cacique was distinguished by regal ornaments, and numerous attendants. In travelling through his dominions, he was commonly borne on men's shoulders, after a manner very much resembling the use of the palanquin in the East Indies. J Ac- cording to Martyr, § he was regarded by all his sub- jects with such reverence, as even exceeded the bounds of nature and reason; for if he ordered any of them to cast themselves headlong from a high rock, or to drown themselves in the sea, alleging no cause but his sovereign pleasure, he was obeyed without a murmur; opposition to the supreme authority, being considered, not only as unavailing, but impious.
Nor did their veneration terminate with the life of the prince; it was extended to his memory after death; a proof that his authority, however extrava- gant, was seldom abused. When a cacique died, his body was embowelled, and dried in an oven, mode- rately heated; so that the bones, and even the skin were preserved entire. [| The corpse was then placed in a cave with those of his ancestors, this being (ob- serves Oviedo) among these simple people the only
.
•f- Herrera, lib. vi. c. ii. J Herrera, lib. i. c. xvi. § Martyr, clecad. i. c. i. ^y Herrera, lib. iii. c, iii. F. Columbus, c. Ixu
CHAP, in.] WEST INDIES. 77
system of heraldry ; whereby they intended to render, not the name alone, but the persons also, of their worthies, immortal. If a cacique was slain in battle, and the body could not be recovered, they composed songs in his praise, which they taught their children; a better and nobler testimony siirely, then heaps of dry bones or even monuments of marble; since me- morials to the deceased are, or ought to be, intended less in honour of the dead, than as incitements to the living.*
o
These heroic effusions constituted a branch of those solemnities, which, as hath been observed, were cal- led Arietoes ; consisting of hymns and public dances, accompanied with musical instruments made of shells, and a sort of drum, the sound of which was heard at a vast distance. t These hvmns reciting the great ac-
l J o O
tions of the departed cacique ; his fame in war, and his
* It is related by Martyr, that on the death of a cacique, the most be- loved of his wives was immolated at his funeral. Thus he observes that Anacaona, on the death of her brother King Behechio, ordered a very beautiful woman, "whose name was Guanahata Benechina, to be buried alive in the cave where his body (after being dried as above mentioned) was deposited. (Martyr, decad. iii. lib. ix.) But Oviedo, though by no means partial towards the Indian character, denies ihat this custom was general among them. (Oviedo, lib. v. c. iii.) Anacaona, who had been married to a Charaibe, probably adopted the practice from the ac- count she had received from her husband of his national customs. And it is not impossible, under a female administration, — among savages, — but that the extraordinary beauty of the unfortunate victim, contributed to her destruction.
•j- Herrera, lib. iii. c. iv. P. Martyr, decad. iii. c. vii. F.Columbus,
78 HISTORY OF THE [BOOK. i,
gentleness in peace, formed a national history,;}; which was at once a tribute of gratitude to the de- ceased monarch, and a lesson to the living. Nor could any thing have been more instructive to the rising generation than this institution, since it com- prehended also the antiquities of their country, and the traditions of their ancestors. Expressions of nati- onal triumph for victory in war, lamentations in times of public calamity, the voice of festivity, and the language of love, were likewise the subjects of these exhibitions; the dances, so essential a part of them, being grave or gay as the occasion required. It is pretended that among the traditions thus publicly re- cited, there was one of a prophetic nature, denoun- cing ruin and desolation by the arrival of strangers completely clad, and armed with the lightning of Heaven. The ceremonies which were observed when this awful prediction was repeated, we may well be- lieve, were strongly expressive of lamentation and horror. §
IV. Like all other unenlightened nations, these poor Indians were indeed the slaves of superstition. Their general theology (for they had an established system, and a priesthood to support it) was a medley of gross folly and childish traditions, the progeny of ignorance and terror. Yet we are sometimes daz- zled with a strong ray of sunshine in the midst of surrounding darkness. Historians have preserved
J Oviedo, lib. v. c. iii.
§ Martyr, ut supra. Herrera, lib. ii. c. iv.
<c
(C
(C
CHAP, in.] WEST INDIES. 79
a remarkable speech of a venerable old man, a native of Cuba, who approaching Christopher Columbus with great reverence, and presenting a basket of fruit, addressed him as follows. " Whether you are divini- cc ties," (he observed), cf or mortal men, we know not- " You are come into these countries with a force, " against which, were we inclined to resist, resist- *' ance would be folly. We are all therefore at your mercy ; but if you are men, subject to mortality like ourselves, you cannot be unapprized, that after this life there is another, wherein a very different portion is allotted to good and bad men. If therefore you expect to die, and believe with us, that every " one is to be rewarded in a future state, according to <e his conduct in the present, you will do no hurt to " those, who do none to you."||
Their notions of future happiness seem however to have been narrow and sensual. They supposed that the spirits of good men were conveyed to a plea- sant valley, which they call Coy aba; a place of indo- lent tranquillity, abounding with delicious fruits, cool shades, and murmuring rivulets ;* in a country were
II This remarkable circumstance happened on the yth of July 1494) and is attested by Pet. Martyr, decad. i. lib. iii. and by Herrera, lib. iu c.xiv. If it be asked how Columbus understood the cacique, the an- swer is, that he had carried with him to Spain, in his former voyage, se- veral of the Indians j one of whom, a native of Guanahani, who had re- mained with him from October 1492, had acquired the Spanish language. This man, whose name was Didacus, served him on this and other occa- sions, both as a guide and interpreter.
* Fer. Col. c. l*i.
8o HISTORY OF THE [BOOK. i.
drought never rages, and the hurricane is never felt. In this seat of bliss (the elysium of antiquity) they be- lieved, that their greatest enjoyment would arise from the company of their departed ancestors, and of those persons who were dear to them in life;* — a proof at least of their filial piety and of the warmth and ten- derness of their affections and dispositions.
The consciousness in our Indians that they were accountable beings, seems to indicate a greater degree of improvement than we are willing to allow to any of the natives of the new hemisphere. Although like the Charaibes, our islanders acknowledged a plu- rality of Gods, like them too, they believed in the existence of one supreme, invisible,, immortal, and omnipotent Creator; whom they named Jocahuna.'f But unhappily, with these important truths, these poor people blendid the most puerile and extravagant fancies, which were neither founded in rational piety, nor productive of moral obligation. They assigned to the supreme Being, a father and mother, whom they distinguished by a variety of names, and they sup- posed the sun and moon to be the chief seats ot their residence. J Their system of idol-worship was, at the same time, more lamentable than even that of the Charaibes ; for it would seem that they paid divine honours to stocks and stones converted into images, which they called Zemi; not regarding these idols as
* Herrera, lib.iii. c, iii.
•f Martyr, decad. i. lib. ix. F. Columbus.
J F. Columbus. P. Martyr. Benzoni.
SHAP. in.] WEST INDIES. 8 1
symbolical representations only of their subordinate divinities, and useful as sensible objects, to awaken the memory and animate devotion, but ascribing divi- nity to the material itself, and actually worshipping the rude stone or block which their own hands had fashioned. It may be observed, however, that an equal degree of folly prevailed among people much more enlightened. The Egyptians themselves, the most ancient of civilized nations, worshipped various kinds of animals, and representations of animals, so.me of them the most noxious in nature; and even the ac- complished philosophers of Greece and Rome paid di- vine honours to men to whom they had themselves given an apotheosis. — So nearly allied, in religious re- searches, is the blindness of untutored nature, to the insufficiency of mere cultivated reason !
It has indeed been asserted (whether justly or not) that cc the superstitions of paganism always wore the <s appearance of pleasure, and often of virtue ;"§ but the theology of our poor islanders bore a different as- pect. By a lamentable inconsistency in the human mind^ they considered the Creator of all things as wholly regardless of the work of his hands ; and as having transferred the government of the world to sub- ordinate and malignant beings, who delighted in con- verting into evil, that which HE pronounced to be good. The effusions of gratitude, the warmth of af- fection, the confidence of hope, formed no part of their devotions. Their idols were universally hideous
§ Gibbon,
Vol. T.
82 HISTORY OF THE [BOOK. i.
and frightful, sometimes representing toads and other odious reptiles; but more frequently the human face horribly distorted; — a proof that they considered them, not as benevolent, but evil, Powers; as objects of terror, — not of admiration and love.
To keep alive this sacred and awful prejudice in the minds of the multitude, and heighten its influ- ence, their Bohitos or priests, appropriated a conse- crated house in each village, wherein the Zemi was invoked and worshiped. Nor was it permitted to the people at large, at all times, to enter, and on unim- portant occasions approach the dread object of their adoration. The Bohitos undertook to be their mes- sengers and interpreters, and by the efficacy of their prayers to avert the dangers which they dreaded. The ceremonies exhibited on these solemnities, were well calculated to extend the priestly dominion, and confirm the popular subjection. In the same view, the Bohi- tos added to their holy profession, the practice of phy- sic, and they claimed likewise the privilege of edu- cating the children of the first rank of people ;||- -a combination of influence which, extending to the nearest and dearest concerns both of this life and the next, rendered their authority irresistible.
With such power in the priesthood, it may well be supposed, that the alliance between church and state, was not less intimate in these islands, than in the kingdoms of Europe. As in many other nations
I! Martyr,
CHAP, in.] WEST INDIES. 83
religion was here made the instrument of civil des~ potism, and the will of the cacique, if confirmed by the priest, was impiously pronounced the decree of heaven. Columbus relates, that some of his people entering unexpectedly into one of their houses of worship, found the cacique employed in obtaining responses from the Zemi. By the sound of the voice which came from the idol, they knew that it was hollow, and dashing it to the ground to expose the imposture, they discovered a tube, which was before covered with leaves, that communicated from the back part of the image to an inner apartment, whence the priest issued his precepts as through a speaking trumpet; — but the cacique earnestly entreated them to say nothing of what they had seen ; declaring, that by means of such pious frauds he collected tributes, and kept his kingdom in subjection.
The reader, I believe, will readily acquit me for declining to enter into any further detail of the vari- ous wild notions, and fantastical rites, which were founded on such arts and impostures. Happily for our islanders, however, the general system of their superstition, though not amiable, was not cruel. We find among them but few of those barbarous ceremo- nies which filled the Mexican temples with pollution, and the spectators with horror. They were even more fortunate in this respect than the otherwise happy inhabitants of the lately discovered islands in the southern Pacific ocean; amongst whom the practice of offering human sacrifices to their deities, is still
84 HISTORY OF THE [BOOK. i.
dreadfully prevalent, as it anciently was amongst most of the nations of the earth.
Having thus mentioned the natives of the South- sea islands, I cannot but advert to the wonderful similarity observable in many respects, between our ill-fated West-Indians and that placid people. The same frank and affectionate temper, the same cheer- ful simplicity, gentleness and candour; — a behaviour devoid of meanness and treachery, of cruelty and re- venge, are apparent in the character of both; — and although placed at so great a distance from each other, and divided by the intervention of the American con- tinent, we may trace a resemblance even in many of their customs and institutions; their national son^s
* o
and dances, their domestic economy, their system of government, and their funeral ceremonies. I pretend not, however, to affirm, that this resemblance is so exact, as to create the presumption of a common ori- gin. The affinity perceivable in the dispositions and virtues of these widely separated tribes, arose proba- bly from a similarity in their circumstances and situa- tion, operating on the general principles of human nature. Placed alike in a happy medium between savage life, properly so called, and the refinements of polished society, they are found equally exempt from the sordid corporeal distresses and sanguinary passions of the former state, and from the artificial necessities, the restraints and solicitudes of the latter. To a spe- culative mind, such a situation may appear, for a mo- ment, even superior to our own; " but if we admit" (says the elegant historian of the amiable Otaheiteans)
CHAP, in.] WEST INDIES. 85
" that they are upon the whole happier than we, we " must admit, that the child is happier than the man, " and that we are losers by the perfection of our na- " ture, the increase of our knowledge, and the en- " largement of our views."*
In those inventions and arts which, varying the enjoyments add considerably to the value of life, I believe the Otaheiteans were in general somewhat behind our islanders : in agriculture they were parti- cularly so.f The great support of the insular territo- ries of the South-sea consists of the bread-fruit, and the plantain ; both which flourish there spontaneously ; and although the inhabitants have likewise plantations of yams and other esculent roots, yet the cultivation of none of them appears to be as extensive, as was that of the maize in the West Indies, or to display equal skill with the preparation of the cassavi-bread from
* Hawkesworth's Voyages, vol. ii. p. 105.
•f Dr. Robertson, in his History of America, vol. i. p. 332, observes, that as the natives of the New World had no tame animals, nor the use of the metals, their agriculture must necessarily have been imperfect. It should however be remembered, that as every family raised corn for their own support, and the islands being (to use the expression of Las Casas) 11 abounding with inhabitants as an ant-hill with ants," a very small portion of ground allotted to the maintenance of each family, would comprehend in the aggregate an immense space of cultivated country. Thus we find Bartholomew Columbus observing, that the fields about Zabraba, a country in the gulph of Darien, which he viewed in 1503, «' were all covered with maize, like the corn fields of Europe, for above " six leagues together." Unacquainted with the soil of the West Indies, Dr. Robertson should have delivered his sentiments on this subject with diffidence. That soil which is known in these islands by the name of
86 HISTORY OF THE [BOOK. i.
the maniock. t The West Indians, notwithstanding that they possessed almost every variety of vegetable nature which p;rew in the countries I have mentioned,
o
the bread-fruit excepted, raised also both the maize and the maniock in great abundance; and they had acquired the skill of watering their lands from distant rivers, in time of drought. § It may likewise be ob- served, that although the Otaheiteans possess the shrub which produces cotton, they neither improve it
brick-mould, is not only superior to most others in fertility, but requires very little trouble in cultivation. Among our islanders, to whom the use of iron was unknown, instruments were ingeniously formed of stone, and of a certain species of durable wood, which were endued with nearly equal solidity and sharpness. We find them felling large trees, building canoes and houses, and forming domestic utensils of exquisite workman- ship. Possessing the tools and mateiials necessary for these purposes, they cculd not be destitute of proper implements for the ruder operations cf husbandry, on a soil incapable of much resistance.
J L'Abbe Raynal, in opposition to the testimony of all the early Spa- nish historians who have treated of the discovery and productions of Ame- rica, (none of whom indeed does he appear to have consulted), asserts, that the maniock plant was originally introduced into the West Indies from Africa, and that the Indians were first instructed by the negroes in the art of converting the poisonous root into wholesome food. For the satis- faction of such of my readers as are not intimately acquainted with the American History, I think it necessary to observe, that P. Martyr, in his first decad, which bears date November, 1493, seven months only af- ter the return of Columbus from his first voyage, particularly mentions the maniock, or jucca> as furnishing great part of the food of the island- ers, and he describes their manner of making the cassavi bread from it j observing that the raw juice is as strong a poison as aconite. Negroes were not imported into the islands till many years after this account was pub- lished.
§ Martyr, decad. iii.
CHAP, in.] WEST INDIES. 87
by culture, nor have the knowledge of converting its wool into cloth ;|| but content themselves with a far meaner production as a substitute. Our islanders had not only the skill of making excellent cloth from their cotton, but they practised also the art of dying it with a variety of colours > some of them of the ut- most brilliancy and beauty.*
In the science of ship-building (if the construction of such vessels as either people used may be distin- guished with that appellation) the superiority is on the side of Otaheite; yet the Piraguas of the West In- dians were fully sufficient for the navigation they were employed in, and indeed were by no means contempt- ible sea-boats. We are told that some of these vessels were navigated with forty oars ;| and Herrera relates, that Bartholomew Columbus, in passing through the gulph of Honduras, fell in with one that was eight feet in breadth, and in length equal to a Spanish gal- ley. Over the middle was an awning, composed of mats and palm-tree leaves; underneath which were disposed the women and children, secured both from rain and the spray of the sea. — It was laden with com- modities from Jucatan.J
|| Forster's Observations.
* Oviedo. Purchas, vol. iii. p. 985.
f Martyr, decad. i.
J Herrera, decad. i. lib. v. These vessels were built either of cedar, or the great cotton-tree hollowed, and made square at each end like punts. Their gunnels were raised with canes braced close, and smeared over with some bituminous substance to render them water-tight, and they had sharp keels. P. Martyr, decad.
§8 HISTORY OF THE [BOOK. j.
On the other hand, our islanders far surpassed the people of Otaheite, in the elegance and variety of their domestic utensils and furniture ; their earthenware, curiously woven beds, and implements of husbandry. Martyr speaks with admiration of the workmanship of some of the former of these. In the account he gives of a magnificent donation from Anacoana to Bar- tholomew Columbus, on his first visit to that Princess, he observes that, among other valuables, she present- ed him with fourteen chairs of ebony beautifully wrought, and no less than sixty vessels of different sorts, for the use of his kitchen and table, all of which were ornamented with figures of various kinds, fan- tastic forms, and accurate representations of living animals. § The industry and ingenuity of our Indians therefore must have greatly exceeded the measure of their wants. Having provided for the necessities of their condition, they proceeded to improve and adorn it.
But I must now leave them to the miserable fate in which it pleased infinite, but inscrutable, wisdom, to permit their merciless invaders to involve them for ever! — It may, I think, be safely affirmed, that the whole story of mankind affords no scene of barbarity equal to that of the cruelties exercised on these inno- cent and inoffensive people. All the murders and de- solations of the most pitiless tyrants that ever diverted themselves with the pangs and convulsions of their fellow-creatures, fall infinitely short of the bloody
§ P. Martyr, decad. J.
CHAP, in.] WEST INDIES. 89
enormities committed by the Spanish nation in the conquest of the New World ; — a conquest, on a low estimate, effected by the murder of ten millions of the species ! But although the accounts which are trans- mitted down to us of this dreadful carnage, are au- thenticated beyond the possibility of dispute, the mind, shrinking from the contemplation, wishes to resist conviction, and to relieve itself by incredulity. — Such at least is the apology wThich I would frame for the author of the American History, when I find him at- tempting, in contradiction to the voice and feelings of all mankind, to palliate such horrible wickedness. || Yet the same author admits, that in the short inter- val of fifteen years subsequent to the discovery of the West Indies, the Spaniards had reduced the natives of Hispaniola " from a million to sixty thousand."* It is in vain that he remarks on the bodily feebleness of these poor Indians, and their natural incapacity for labour. Such a constitutional defect, if it existed, en- titled them to a greater lenity , but the Spaniards dis- tributed them into lots, and compelled them to dig
|| Introduction to the History of America, by Dr. Robertson, vol, i. p. 10. " It is to be hoped" (says this author) " that the Spaniards will " at last discover this system of concealment to be no less impolitic than " illiberal. From what I have experienced in the course of my inquiries, <c I am satisfied, that upon a more minute scrutiny into their early cpera= " tions in the New World, however REPREHENSIBLE," (a tender ex- pression), "the actions of individuals may appear, the conduct of the " nation will be placed in a more favourable light.1' This opinion, how- ever, needs no other refutation than that which is to be found in the sub- sequent pages of the learned Author's History.
* History of America, vol. i. book iii. p. 185, Vol. I. M
90 HISTORY OF THE [BOOK i.
in the mines, without rest or intermission, until death, their only refuge; put a period to their sufferings. Such as attempted resistance or escape, their merci- less tyrants hunted down with dogs, which were fed on their flesh. They disregarded sex and age, and with impious and frantic bigotry even called in religion to sanctify their cruelties ! Some, more zealous than the rest, forced their miserable captives into the wa- ter, and after administering to them the rite of bap- tism, cut their throats the next moment, to prevent their apostacy! Others made a vow to hang or burn thirteen every morning, in honour of our Saviour and the twelve Apostles! Nor were these the excess- es only of a blind and remorseless fanaticism, which exciting our abhorrence, excites also our pity: The Spaniards were actuated in many instances by such wantonness of malice, as is wholly unexampled in the wide history of human depravity. — Martyr relates, that it was a frequent practice among them to mur- der the Indians of Hispaniola in sport, or merely, he observes, to keep their hands in use. They had an emulation which of them could most dexterously strike off the head of a man at a blow; and wagers frequently depended on this hellish exercise. f To fill up the measure of this iniquity, and demonstrate to the world, that the nation at large participated in the guilt of individuals, the court of Spain not only neglected to punish these enormities in its subjects, but when rapacity and avarice had nearly defeated their own purposes, by the utter extirpation of the
f P. Martyr, decad. i. lib.
(C fC
« se
tc
CHAP, m.] WEST INDIES, 91
natives of Hispaniola, the king gave permission to seize on the unsuspecting inhabitants of the neigh- bouring islands, and transport them to perish in the mines of St. Domingo. " Several vessels" (says Dr. Robertson) " were fitted out for the Lucayos, the " commanders of which informed the natives3 with " whose language they were now well acquainted, that " they came from a delicious country, in which their " departed ancestors resided, by whom they were sent to invite them to resort thither, to partake of the bliss which they enjoyed. That simple people lis- tened with wonder and credulity, and fond of visit- ing their relations and friends in that happy region, followed the Spaniards with eagerness. By this ar- " tifice, above 40,000 were decoyed into Hispaniola, " to share in the sufferings which were the lot of the " inhabitants of that island, and to mingle their groans " and tears with those of that wretched race of men»"J
:£ History of America, book iii. p. 186. See likewise P* Martyr, decad. vii. This author relates the following affecting particulars of the poor Lucayans thus fraudulently decoyed from their native countries. '* Many of them in the anguish of despair, obstinately refuse all manner <c of sustenance, and retiring to desert caves and unfrequented woods, si- (< lently give up the ghost. Others, repairing to the sea coast on the '* northern side of Hispaniola, cast many a longing look towards that " part of the ocean where they suppose their own islands to be situated; <f and as the sea-breeze rises, they eagerly inhale it 5 fondly believing, " that it has lately visited their own happy vallies, and comes fraught " with the breath of those they love, their wives andthtir children. With " this idea, they continue for hours on the coastj until nature becomes *f utterly exhausted} when stretching out their arms towards the ocean, tc as if to take a last embrace of their distant country and relations, they ts sink down and expire without a groan. "—*•" One of the Lucayans" (continue* the same author j " who vas more desirous of life) ov had
92 HISTORY OF THE [BOOK. i.
After reading these accounts, who can help forming an indignant wish that the hand of Heaven, by some miraculous interposition, had swept these European tyrants from the face of the earth, who like so many beasts of prey, roamed round the world only to deso- late and destroy; and, more remorseless than the fiercest savage, thirsted for human blood, without having the impulse of natural appetite to plead in their defence !
On the whole, if we consider of how little benefit the acquisition of these islands has since proved to the Spanish nation, and count over the cost of the con- quest, wre must find it extremely difficult to include such an event as the massacre of ten millions of inno- cent people (comprehending the butcheries in Mexico and Peru) amongst the number of those partial evils which ultimately terminate in general good: Nor can we possibly reconcile its permission to our limited ideas of infinite wisdom and goodness ! Divines there-
" greater courage than most of his countrymen, took upon him a bold and " difficult piece of work. Having been used to build cottages in his na- " live country, he procured instruments of stone, and cut down a large c< spongy tiee called jaruma, (the bombax, or wild cotton tree), the body " of which he dexterously scooped into a canoe. He then provided him- '* self with oars, some Indian corn, and a few gourds of water, and pre- (f vailed on another man and woman to embark with him on a voyage to " the Lucayos islands. Their navigation was prosperous for near 200 " miles, and they were almost within sight of their own long lost shores, " when unfortunately they were met by a Spanish ship, which brought " them back to slavery and sorrow. The canoe is still preserved in Hi- " spaniola as a singular curiosity, considering the circumstances under 41 vrhich it was made."
CHAP, in.] WEST INDIES. 93
fore justly conclude, that no stronger proof than that which arises from hence need be given of the exist- ence of a future and better state, wherein the un- equal distribution of misery and happiness in this life shall be adjusted, " when the crooked shall be made " straight, and the rough places plain /"§
§ In 1585 Sir Francis Drake made a descent on Hispaniola, and in his account of that island, which is preserved in Hakluyt, vol. iii. he re- lates, that the Spaniards, having utterly exterminated the ancient Indians, (not a single descendant being, I doubt, at that time living), had never- theless derived so little advantage from their cruelty, as to be obliged to convert pieces of leather into money j all the silver, in the attainment of which from the bowels of the earth so many thousands of poor wretches had perished, having long since found its way to Europe, and the inha- bitants had no means of getting a fresh supply.
It may be proper in this place to observe, that some of the circumstan- ces which I have related above, respecting the cruelties of the Spaniards, are extracted from the writings of Bartholomew De Las Casas, who is ac- cused by Dr. Robertson of exaggeration ;— but Oviedo himself, who en- deavours to palliate the monstrous barbarities of his countrymen towards the natives, by asserting that they were addicted to unnatural vices, which rendered them properly obnoxious to punishment, (a charge by the way, which Herrera admits to be groundless), — Oviedo, I say confesses, that in 1535, only forty-three years posterior to the discovery of Hispaniola, and when he was himself on the spot, there were not left alive in that island above five hundred of the original natives, old and young j for he adds, that all the other Indians at that time there, had been forced or decoyed into slavery, from the neighbouring iflands. (Oviedo, lib. iii. c. vi.) Las Casas, it is true, when he speaks of numbers in the gross, certainly over-rates the original inhabitants. But it does not appear that he meant to deceive ; nor is there any just reason to suspect his veracity when he treats of matters susceptive of precision ; more especially in circumstan- ces of which he declares himself to have been an eye-witness. Let the reader judge of Las Casas from the following narrative, in which his falsehood (if the story were false) could have been very easily detected. " I once beheld" (says he) <f four or five principal Indians roasted alive
94 HISTORY OF THE [BOOK. i.
<f at a slow firej and as the miserable victims poured forth dreadful te screams, which disturbed the commanding officer in his afternoon " slumbers, he sent word that they should be strangled ; but the offi- " cer on guard (I KNOW HIS NAME, AND I KNOW HIS RELATIONS IN " SEVILLE) would not suffer it ; but causing their mouths to be gagged, " that their cries might not be heard, he stirred up the fire with his own " hands, and roasted them deliberately till they all expired.— I SAW IT " MYSELF."!!!
It may be necessary perhaps, on my own account, to add, that I have no other edition of Las Casas, than that which was published at An- twerp, in 1579. From a copy of that edition I have extracted the fore- going horrid relation ; my hand trembling as I write, and my heart de- voutly wishing it could be proved to be false.
CHAP, iv.] WEST INDIES, 95
CHAPTER IV.
Land animals used as food. — Fishes and wild fowl. — Indian method of fishing and fowling. — Esculent vegetables, be. — Conclusion.
IN tracing the several tribes of quadrupeds, pro- perly so called, which anciently existed in the West Indies, it will be found that the Windward or Charaibean islands, possessed all that were pos- sessed by the larger islands, and some species which in the latter were unknown. It is likewise observa- ble, that all the animals of the former are still found in Guiana, and few or none of them in North Ame- rica: These are additional proofs that the Windward islands were anciently peopled from the South. The enumeration of them follows:
1, the Agouti;
2, the Pecary;
3, the Armadillo;
4, the Opossum;
5, the Racoon ;
6, the Musk-rat;
7, the Alco;
8, the smaller Monkey of several varieties.
HISTORY OF THE [BOOK, i,
These I think are their most general appellations; but from the variety of Indian languages, or dialects rather of the same language, which anciently pre- vailed in the islands and on the neighbouring conti- nent, some of these animals have been distinguished by so many different names, that, in reading the ac- counts of them transmitted by the French and Spanish historians, it is often difficult to understand of which in particular they mean to speak.
The agouti is sometimes called couti, and coati. It was corrupted into uti and utia, by the Spaniards; and at present it is known in some parts of the West Indies by the terms pucarara and Indian coney. It is the mns aguti of Linnasus, and the cavy of Pennant and Buffon.
To these writers it is sufficient to refer, for a de- scription of its nature and properties. — I shall briefly observe that, in comparing it with the quadrupeds of Europe, it seems to constitute an intermediate spe- cies between the rabbit and the rat; and of the ani- mals which I have enumerated above, this and the last are, I fear, the only ones that have escaped the common fate of all the nobler inhabitants of these unfortunate islands, man himself (as we have seen) not excepted! The agouti is still frequently found in Porto-Rico, Cuba and Hispaniola, and sometimes in the mountains of Jamaica. In most of the islands to windward, the race, though once common to them all, is now I believe utterly extinct.
GHAP. iv.] WEST INDIES, 97
The pecary, which was not known in the larger islands, has been honoured with no less variety of names than the agouti. According to Rochefort it was also called javari and pacquire. By Dampier it is named pclas. By Acosta saino and zaino. It is the sus tajacu of Linnseus, and the pecary and Mex- ican musk-hog of our English naturalists.
Of this animal