Sketches of the Manners, Customs, and History of the Indians of America.
(Continued from page 144.)
CHAPTER III.
The West Indies continued.—Columbus discovers the Antilles.—Cannibalism reported.—Appearance of the people.—Their origin.—Arts.—Customs.—Character.—Their extermination.
Columbus discovered the islands of the Caribs during his second voyage to America, in 1493. The first island he saw he named Dominico, because he discovered it on Sunday. As the ships gently moved onward, other islands rose to sight, one after another, covered with forests, and enlivened with flights of parrots and other tropical birds, while the whole air was sweetened by the fragrance of the breezes which passed over them.
This beautiful cluster of islands is called the Antilles. They extend from the eastern end of Porto Rico to the coast of Paria on the southern continent, forming a kind of barrier between the main ocean and the Caribbean sea;—here was the country of the Caribs. Columbus had heard of the Caribs during his stay at Hayti and Cuba, at the time of his first voyage. The timid and indolent race of Indians in those pleasant islands were mortally afraid of the Caribs, and had repeatedly besought Columbus to assist them in overcoming these their ferocious enemies. The Caribs were represented as terrible warriors, and cruel cannibals, who roasted and eat their captives. This the gentle Haytians thought, truly enough, was a good pretext for warning the Christians against such foes. Columbus did not at first imagine the beautiful paradise he saw, as he sailed onward among these green and spicy islands, could be the residence of cruel men; but on landing at Guadaloupe he soon became convinced he was truly in a Golgotha, a place of skulls. He there saw human limbs hanging in the houses as if curing for provisions, and some even roasting at the fire for food. He knew then that he was in the country of the Caribs.
On touching at the island of Montserrat, Columbus was informed that the Caribs had eaten up all the inhabitants. If that had been true, it seems strange how he obtained his information.
It is probable many of these stories were exaggerations. The Caribs were a warlike people, in many respects essentially differing in character from the natives of the other West India Islands. They were enterprising as well as ferocious, and frequently made roving expeditions in their canoes to the distance of one hundred and fifty leagues, invading the islands, ravaging the villages, making slaves of the youngest and handsomest females, and carrying off the men to be killed and eaten.
These things were bad enough, and it is not strange report should make them more terrible than the reality. The Caribs also gave the Spaniards more trouble than did the effeminate natives of the other islands. They fought their invaders desperately. In some cases the women showed as much bravery as the men. At Santa Cruz the females plied their bows with such vigor, that one of them sent an arrow through a Spanish buckler, and wounded the soldier who bore it.
There have been many speculations respecting the origin of the Caribs. That they were a different race from the inhabitants of the other islands, is generally acknowledged. They also differed from the Indians of Mexico and Peru; though some writers think they were culprits banished either from the continent or the large islands, and thus a difference of situation might have produced a difference of manners. Others think they were descended from some civilized people of Europe or Africa. There is no difficulty attending the belief that a Carthaginian or Ph[oe]nician vessel might have been overtaken by a storm, and blown about by the gales, till it entered the current of the trade-winds, when it would have been easily carried to the West Indies. If they had no women with them, they might have discovered the large islands or the continent, and procured wives from them. In process of time, their numbers might have increased so as to form the scanty population of St. Vincent, Martinico, Guadaloupe, Dominica, and other small islands where the Caribs were settled.
The Caribs had as many of the arts as were necessary to live at ease in that luxurious climate. They knew how to build their carbets or houses; how to make their boats, baskets, arms, hammocks, and to prepare their provisions.
The hammocks of the Caribs strengthens the supposition that they were descended from some maritime adventurers. They were made of coarse cotton cloth, six or seven feet long, and twelve or fourteen wide; each end was ornamented with cords, which they called ribands; these were more than two feet long, twisted, and well made. All the cords at each end were joined together, and formed loops, through which a long rope was inserted, in order to fasten the hammocks to the posts at the side of the house, and to support the persons within them. These hammocks were woven by the women, entirely by hand labor, as they had no looms, and was a very tedious process. But when completed, and painted red, as was the usual fashion, they were very strong, and quite ornamental in their carbets.
Carib Carbet.
The carbet is thus described by a French missionary: “The Carib dwelling I entered was about sixty feet long and twenty-four wide. The posts on which it was erected were rough and forked, and the shortest of them about nine feet above the ground; the others were proportioned to the height of the roof. The windward end was enclosed with a kind of wicker-work of split flags; the roof was covered with the leaves of the wild plantain, which here grows very large; the laths were made of reeds. The end of the carbet which was covered had a doorway for a passage to the kitchen; the other end was nearly all open. Ten paces from the great carbet was another building, about half the size of the large one, which was divided by a reed partition. The first room was the kitchen; here six or eight females were employed in making cassada. The second room was for a sleeping apartment for such of the women and children as were not accommodated in the great carbet.
“All the rooms were furnished with hammocks and baskets. The men had their weapons in the great carbet. Some of the men were making baskets—two women were making a hammock. There were many bows, arrows, and clubs attached to the rafters. The floor was smooth and clean; it was made of well-beaten earth, and sloped towards the side. There was a good fire, about one third the length of the carbet, round which a number of Caribs were squatted on their haunches. They were smoking and waiting till some fish were roasted, and made their salutations to me without rising.”
The Caribs were hunters and fishermen. Their food was much better cooked than that of the Indians of the northern continent, who lived by the chase and fishing, though to us it would not appear very refined. Their meat and small birds they stuck on a kind of wooden spit, which was fixed in the ground before the fire, and they turned it, till all the slices of meat or the birds were roasted.
This was quite a civilized method of management compared with their treatment of the large birds, such as parrots, pigeons, &c. These they threw on the fire, without picking or dressing them, and when the feathers were burnt, they raked the bird up in the cinders till it was done. On taking it from the ashes, the crust formed by the burnt feathers peeled off, and the bird was perfectly clean and delicate. It is said this manner of roasting was much approved by the Europeans who had an opportunity of trying it.
The Caribs usually spread two tables at their meals; on one was placed their bread, (cassada,) on the other the fish, fowls, crabs and pimentado. This pimentado was made of the juice of manioc, boiled, a quantity of pimento, and the juice of lemon or some other acid. It was their favorite sauce; they used it with all their meats, but they made it so hot that nobody but themselves could eat it. A favorite dish with them was stewed crabs. None of their food was eaten raw; in general their taste seemed inclined to overdone and high-seasoned dishes.
The manioc, from which the cassada is made, was a great article of food among the Caribs. The ordinary size of the roots is equal to that of the beet; they are of the consistency of parsnips, and commonly ripen in about eight months.
The manioc was planted in trenches, about two feet and a half apart, and six inches deep. It was necessary to keep the plant free from weeds. When ripe, the shrub and roots were all dug up together, like potatoes. When the roots were taken up, the bark or skin was scraped off, just as parsnips are scraped; then they were washed clean and grated fine, something like horseradish. Then the grated mass was put into a strainer of split flags, or the bark of a tree.
The strainer was six or seven feet long, and four or five inches in diameter. It was woven something like a cotton stocking, in order that it might be expanded to receive the manioc, and contract for the purpose of expressing the juice. When filled, it was hung on the limb of a tree, with a basket of stones fastened to the bottom, which gradually forced out the juice of the manioc, which is of a poisonous quality unless it is boiled.
Caribs preparing Manioc.
When the manioc was sufficiently dry, they took daily what they wanted, and having passed the flour through a sieve made of reeds, they then made it into paste, and baked it upon flat stones. It is a very nourishing kind of bread, and is to this day used in many parts of tropical America.
The Caribs had discovered the art of making intoxicating beverages, so that they really needed a temperance society,—not quite so much, perhaps, as their civilized invaders. In this respect the Caribs had far outstripped the inventions of the northern barbarians.
Carib Vessels.
No people in the world were more expert than the Caribs in the management of a boat. They had two sorts of vessels—becassas, with three masts and square sails, and piroques, with only two masts. The last were about thirty feet long by four and a half feet wide in the middle. The becassa was about forty-two feet long and seven feet wide in the middle. They had sometimes figures of monkeys painted red at the stern of their vessels. These vessels were built of the West India cedar tree, which there grows to a prodigious size. One tree made the keel of the vessel. It was felled with immense labor, hewed to a proper degree of thickness, made very smooth, and if any addition to the height was necessary, planks were added to the sides. This work was all performed with sharp hatchets made of flint.
Some of these vessels had topmasts, and the Caribs could rig out fleets of thirty sail at a time. After the French had been some years settled at Martinico, they were surprised one foggy morning by the appearance of a fleet on their coast. The whole island was instantly in alarm and commotion; every man seized his arms, thinking a large squadron from Europe was come to attack the island. But the fog cleared away, and there, close-hauled in shore, were twenty sail of becassas and piroques, filled with Caribs, who had come for a friendly trading visit.
The Caribs were usually rather above the middle stature, well proportioned, and their countenances were rather agreeable. Their foreheads had an extraordinary appearance, as they were flattened by having a board bound tight on the forehead when they were infants, and kept there till the head had taken the fashionable form. The forehead then continued flat, so that they could see perpendicularly when standing erect, and over their heads when lying down. These were the objects aimed at, and so they, at least, had a reason for their ridiculous custom; which is more than can be said of all the customs of modern refined society.
They had small black eyes, beautiful teeth, white and even, and long, glossy, black hair. The hair was always kept well anointed with oil of palmachristi. It was difficult to judge of the color of their skin, because they were always painted with rouco, which gave them the appearance of boiled lobsters. The coat of paint preserved their skins from the hot rays of the sun, and from the stings of the musquito and gnat. It was thus far a useful invention, but they also considered it highly ornamental. When they wished to appear exceedingly grand, they added black mustaches, and other black strokes on their red-painted faces, with the juice of the geripa apple.
The men wore ornaments, called caracolis, in their ears, noses, and the under lip. The metal of which these ornaments were formed came from the South American continent, but no one but an Indian could ever find it. It is exceedingly brilliant, and does not tarnish. A full-dressed Carib wore a caracolis in each ear. The ornament was in the form of a crescent, suspended by chains about two and a half inches long, which were fastened in the ear by a hook. Another caracoli of the same size was attached to the gristle which separates the nostrils, and hung over the mouth. The under part of the lower lip was pierced, and thence hung another caracoli, which reached to the neck; and in the last place, they had one six or seven inches long, enchased in a small board of black wood, and suspended from the neck by a small cord.
When they did not wear the caracolis, they inserted little pieces of wood in their ears, &c., that the holes might not grow up; sometimes they stuck the feathers of parrots in these holes, and thus looked very queerly. They had a habit of sticking the hair of their children full of feathers of different colors, which was done very prettily, and looked quite appropriate with their round, red faces, and bright, laughing eyes.
The women were smaller than the men, but equally well-formed. They had black hair and eyes, round faces, their mouths were small, and teeth beautiful. They had a gay and lively air, and their countenances were smiling and very agreeable; but they were in their behaviour perfectly modest.
Their hair was tied at the back of their heads, with a cotton fillet. They wore belts and a little apron called a camisa. It was made of cotton cloth, embroidered with beads, and had a bead fringe. They wore scarfs of cotton cloth, about half a yard wide, called a pagn. It was wrapped twice round the body under the armpits, and then was tied, and the ends hung down to the knee. They wore necklaces, composed of several strings of beads, and bracelets of the same. They had buskins also, which were ornaments for the legs, very tasteful, and in high fashion. The females performed most of the cooking, and made the hammocks; and they had likewise to carry all the burdens which were borne in baskets. A man would have been dishonored forever if he had spun or woven cotton, or painted a hammock, or carried a market-basket. But all the hard labor was performed by the men, and they were very kind to their wives and children.
They had some singular customs respecting deceased persons. When a Carib died, he was immediately painted all over with the red paint, and had his mustaches, and the black streaks on his face, made very deep and shining. He was next put into a hole surrounded with mats, and kept till all his relations could see and examine the body. No matter how distant they lived, if on another island, they must be summoned and appear, before the dead body could be buried. But the thick coat of paint preserved it from decay for a long time.
In their wars, I have told you, the Caribs were murderous and cruel. They often poisoned their arrows, and probably often eat their captives. They fought with bows and arrows, and clubs. But when their angry passions became cool, they treated their prisoners with humanity, and never tortured them like the northern savages.
In some instances these islanders were faithless and treacherous. In 1708 the English entered into an agreement with the Caribs in St. Vincents, to attack the French colonies in Martinico. The French governor heard of the treaty, and sent Major Coullet, who was a great favorite with the savages, to persuade them to break the treaty. Coullet took with him a number of officers and servants, and a good store of provisions and liquors. He reached St. Vincents, gave a grand entertainment to the principal Caribs, and after circulating the brandy freely, he got himself painted red, and made them a flaming speech. He urged them to break their connection with the English. How could they refuse a man who gave them brandy, and who was red as themselves? They abandoned their English friends, and burnt all the timber the English had cut on the island, and butchered the first Englishman who arrived. But their crimes were no worse than those of their christian advisers, who, on either side, were inciting these savages to war.
But the Caribs are all gone, perished from the earth. Their race is no more, and their name is only a remembrance. The English and the French, chiefly the latter, have destroyed them.
There is, however, one pleasant reflection attending their fate. Though destroyed, they were never enslaved. None of their conquerers could compel them to labor. Even those who have attempted to hire Caribs for servants, have found it impossible to derive any benefit or profit from them; they would not be commanded or reprimanded.
This independence was called pride, indolence, and stubbornness by their conquerors;—if the Caribs had had historians to record their wrongs, and their resistance to an overwhelming tyranny, they would have set the matter in a very different light. They would have expressed the sentiment which the conduct of their countrymen so steadily exemplified—that it was better to die free than to live slaves.
So determined was their resistance to all kinds of authority, that it became a proverb among the Europeans, that to show displeasure to a Carib was the same as beating him, and to beat him was the same as to kill him. If they did anything it was only what they chose, how they chose, and when they chose; and when they were most wanted, it often happened that they would not do what was required, nor anything else.
The French missionaries made many attempts to convert the Caribs to Christianity, but without success. It is true that some were apparently converted; they learned the catechism, and prayers, and were baptized; but they always returned to their old habits.
A man of family and fortune, named Chateau Dubois, settled in Guadaloupe, and devoted great part of his life to the conversion of the Caribs, particularly those of Dominica. He constantly entertained a number of them, and taught them himself. He died in the exercise of these pious and charitable offices, without the consolation of having made one single convert.
As we have said, several had been baptized, and, as he hoped, they were well instructed, and apparently well grounded in the christian religion; but after they returned to their own people, they soon resumed all the Indian customs, and their natural indifference to all religion.
Some years after the death of Dubois, one of these Carib apostates was at Martinico. He spoke French correctly, could read and write; he had been baptized, and was then upwards of fifty years old. When reminded of the truths he had been taught, and reproached for his apostasy, he replied, “that if he had been born of christian parents, or if he had continued to live among the French, he would still have professed Christianity—but that, having returned to his own country and his own people, he could not resolve to live in a manner differing from their way of life, and by so doing expose himself to the hatred and contempt of his relations.” Alas, it is small matter of wonder that the Carib thought the christian religion was only a profession. Had those who bore that name always been Christians in reality, and treated the poor ignorant savages with the justice, truth and mercy which the Gospel enjoins, what a different tale the settlement of the New World would have furnished!
A good Reply.—A countryman drove up his cart to a grocer’s door, and asked him what he gave for eggs. “Only seventeen cents,” he replied, “for the grocers have had a meeting and voted not to give any more.” Again the countryman came to market, and asked the grocer what he gave for eggs. “Only twelve cents,” said the grocer, “for the grocers have had another meeting and voted not to give any more.” A third time the countryman came and made the same inquiry, and the grocer replied, that “the grocers had held a meeting and voted to give only ten cents. Have you any for sale?” continued the grocer. “No,” says the countryman; “the hens have had a meeting too, and voted not to trouble themselves to lay eggs for ten cents a dozen.”
Pet Oyster.—There is a gentleman at Christ Church, Salisbury, England, who keeps a pet oyster of the largest and finest breed. It is fed on oatmeal, for which it regularly opens its shell, and is occasionally treated with a dip in its native element; but the most extraordinary trait in the history of this amphibious pet is, that it has proved itself an excellent mouser, having already killed five mice, by crushing the heads of such as, tempted by odoriferous meal, had the temerity to intrude their noses within its bivalvular clutches. Twice have two of these little intruders suffered together.—Eng. Journal, 1840.
