retreats among the mountains, slain like wild beasts, or brought into the most servile and hopeless bondage, they attempted no resistance, and submitted to the cruel yoke of their tyrants.

The reduction of the eastern province of Higucy, and the execution of its noble and gigantic chief Cotubanama, completed the Spanish conquests on the island of Hispaniola. The details of the barbarities attendant upon this last warfare, as given by Las Casas, are too horrible and disgusting for minute recital. It is sufficient that, not content with the destruction of the conquered people, without regard to age and sex, the Spaniards tasked their ingenuity, to devise the most cruel and lingering torments in the murder of their prisoners.

By such a course of atrocities were the West India islands depopulated of their original inhabitants. The summary with which Purchas concludes his enumeration of various scenes of Spanish cruelty, is too quaint and forcible to be omitted. "But why do I longer trace them in their bloody steps; seeing our author that relates much more than I, yet protests that it was a thousand times worse. How may we admire that long-suffering of God, that rained not a flood of waters, as in Noah's time, or of fire, as in Lot's, or of stones, as in Joshua's, or some vengeance from heaven upon these models of hell? And how could hell forbear swallowing such prepared morsels, exceeding the beastliness of beasts, inhumanity of wonted tyrants, and devilishness, if it were possible, of the devils."

CHAPTER III.

THE CARIBS.

THEIR ISLANDS FIRST VISITED BY COLUMBUS. — ORIGIN AND LOCATION OF THE RACE. — TOKENS OF CANNIBALISM SEEN BY THE SPANIARDS.-CRUISE AMONG THE ISLANDS. — DEMEANOR OF PRISONERS TAKEN. - RETURN TO HISPANIOLA DESTRUCTION

OF THE FORTRESS AT THAT ISLAND. - CAPTURE OF CAONABO: HIS DEATH. EXPULSION OF THE NATIVES FROM THE CARIBBEE ISLANDS.

Ar the time of the discovery of America by Christopher Columbus, the fierce and celebrated race of cannibals, which forms the subject of the present chapter, was principally located upon the beautiful tropical islands, extending from Porto Rico to the main land of South America. The terror of their invasions, felt by the more gentle and peaceable natives of the greater Antilles, inspired no little curiosity and interest in the minds of the early voyagers, and Columbus had promised the assistance of the Spanish power to check their ravages. Upon his second voyage, in 1493, the first land made was one of the Caribbean islands, and on the following day, (November 4th,) a landing was effected at Guadaloupe. Here the first intercourse took place with the terrible Caribs.

This singular race of savages, according to tradition, had its origin upon the continent of North America, among the mountain districts of the central United States. Perhaps they might have sprung from the same stock as the warlike Monacans and other savage tribes of the interior, spoken of by early historians. "They are said to have migrated," says Mr. Irving, " from the remote valleys embosomed in the Appalachian mountains. The earliest notices we have of them represent them with their weapons in their hands; continually engaged in wars; winning their way and shifting their abode, until in the course

of time they found themselves on the extreme end of Florida." Hence they made their way from one island to another to the southern continent. "The archipelago extending from Porto Rico to Tobago, was their strong-hold, and the island of Guadaloupe in a manner their citadel.”

Whether the foregoing account of the original derivation of the race be the correct one, it would be difficult to decide at this distance of time. When first known to Europeans the different nations of Caribs were widely diffused upon the continent of South America. They were to be found upon the banks of the Orinoco, where their descendants are living at this day, and, still farther south, in Brazil. They were every where noted for the same fierce and warlike spirit. Something of the physical characteristics of the inhabitants of eastern Asia has been observed in the Caribs and the Guarani tribes who inhabited the country north of the Amazon. As described by D'Orbigny, the following peculiarities are noticeable in most of them. Complexion yellowish; stature middle; forehead not so much arched as in other races; eyes obliquely placed, and raised at the outer angle."

66

To return to the experience of the discoverer of the New World at the Caribbee islands. At the landing of the Spaniards, the natives fled from a neighboring village into the interior. In order to conciliate them, the visitors fastened hawks'-bells and attractive ornaments to the arms of some children who had been left behind in the hurry of flight. The sight of human remains, among other things, "the head of a young man, recently killed, which was yet bleeding, and some parts of his body boiling with the flesh of geese and parrots, and others roasting before the fire," at once suggested the thought that this must be the country of the Caribs. Columbus took a number of the natives prisoners, and carried off several women who had been held in captivity by the islanders. It appeared that

most of the men of the island were away upon some warlike excursion.

Pursuing his course towards Hispaniola, or Hayti, where the first colony had been planted upon his preceding voyage, Columbus sailed by numerous islands of the Caribbean group. He landed at Santa Cruz, called Ayay by the Indians, and secured a further number of prisoners. Some of these were in a canoe, and offered a fierce resistance when they saw their retreat intercepted by one of the Spanish boats. There were two women of the party, one of them apparently a female cacique, and these showed no less valor than the men. They were taken by upsetting their canoe; but, even in the water, they resisted stoutly to the last, availing themselves of every point of sunken rock, where they could obtain a foothold, to discharge their arrows. One of the men was a son of the queen, and his "terrible frowning brow, and lion's face," excited the admiration of his captors. The demeanor of the whole party reminds one strongly of the early descriptions of the Maquas or Mohawks when in captivity.

"When on board," says Irving, "the Spaniards could not but admire their untamed spirit and fierce demeanor. Their hair was long and coarse, their eyes encircled with paint, so as to give them a hideous expression; they had bands of cotton bound firmly above and below the muscular parts of the arms and legs, so as to cause them to swell to a disproportionate size, which was regarded by them as a great beauty, a custom which prevailed among various tribes of the new world. Though captives, in chains, and in the power of their enemies, they still retained a frowning brow and an air of defiance."

Arriving at Hayti, Columbus found the settlement at La Navidad laid waste and abandoned. Its destruction was owing to a Carib chief named Caonabo, whose warlike and commanding nature had gained him unbounded au

thority over the natives of the island. The fact of his uniting himself with another race by which his own nation was regarded with the utmost detestation and dread, and his attainment of rank and influence under such circumstances, are sufficient proofs of his enterprise and capacity.

The friendly Indian chief Guacanagari had in vain extended his assistance to the little band of Spanish colonists. Caonabo had heard at his establishment among the mountains of Cibao, of the outrages and excesses committed by the whites, and during the absence of the admiral, he made a descent upon the fort. All of the Spaniards perished, and Guacanagari was wounded in the encounter. As a further punishment for his espousal of the cause of the detested strangers, his village was destroyed by the revengeful Carib.

Guacanagari and other Haytian Indians were taken on board the Spanish vessels, and, among other proofs of superiority and power, were shown the Carib prisoners, confined in chains. This seemed to affect them more powerfully than any thing else that they witnessed. These captives were afterwards sent over to Spain for instruction in the Spanish language and in the true religion, it being intended that they should thereafter act as missionaries among their own savage countrymen.

The circumstances attending the capture of the Spaniards' most dreaded enemy, Caonabo, are too singular and well attested to be passed over. This was accomplished by the celebrated Alonzo de Ojeda, commandant of the fortress of St. Thomas. The Carib chief was able, it is asserted, to bring no less than ten thousand warriors into the field, and his personal strength and courage rendered him no despicable foe in open combat. Ojeda had recourse to the following stratagem to secure his enemy: He proceeded, accompanied by only ten mounted companions,