Notes and Queries, Vol. IV, Number 110, December 6, 1851 / A Medium of Inter-communication for Literary Men, Artists, Antiquaries, Genealogists, etc.

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VOL. IV.—No. 110.
SATURDAY, DECEMBER 6. 1851.
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Perhaps you will kindly permit me to have recourse to NOTES AND QUERIES for the purpose of pointing out one or two errors in a letter from Sir R. Schomburgk, which was read at the meeting of the British Association on the 3rd July last, section of Geography and Ethnology. This communication, entitled Ethnological Researches in Santo Domingo, and addressed to His Royal Highness Prince Albert, contains the following statement: I quote from the Athenæum of the 5th July:—
The extirpation of the pure Indian race prevented me from making comparative inquiries between the still existing tribes of Guiana, and those that once inhabited St. Domingo. My researches were therefore restricted to what history and the few and poor monuments have transmitted to us of their customs and manners. Their language lives only in the names of places, rivers, trees, and fruits; but all combine in declaring that the people who bestowed these names were identical with the Carib and Arawaak tribes of Guiana.
The last sentence in this passage is obviously erroneous. That the aboriginal inhabitants of the great Antilles (Santo Domingo, Cuba, Porto-Rico, and Jamaica,) were identical with, or descended from, the Arawaaks of Guiana, is an opinion which has long prevailed, and which the circumstances stated by Sir R. Schomburgk tend to confirm. Indeed, they are described by most writers as Indians or Arawaaks. But that there was any identity between the Indians and the tribes known by the name of Caribs, is an assertion totally at variance with the established facts. In support, however, of this assertion, Sir R. Schomburgk appeals to history; but what history, he does not state. I have perused, and still possess, almost every work that was ever written on the history of these islands; and they all lead to the conclusion, that the Indians of Santo Domingo (also called Hispaniola and Haiti) were a totally distinct race from the Caribs. The Indians were a mild, inoffensive people; the Caribs a race of savages, some say, cannibals. The former were indolent and effeminate; the latter fierce and warlike. In short, no two races ever presented such a striking disparity, not only in their manners and customs, but in their features and personal appearance.