Great age of the Caribbeeans.
The Caribbeeans attain to an exceeding great Age: Charles de Rotchfort witnesseth, That in his time there liv’d Men who remembred the first Arrival of the Spaniards under the Command of Christopher Columbus, which consider’d, they could not be less than each of them a hundred and sixty years old. Many Women also were found there, who bare Children after they were eighty years of age: yet nevertheless they are not free from Sicknesses and Distempers, which cannot justly be attributed to the Climate, that being extraordinary healthful, but to their ill Diet. Besides the troublesom Disease call’d Pyans, which makes their Bodies swell full of great Knobs, they have been much troubled with pestilential Sores, occasion’d by the eating of Crabs, and poysonous Tortoises, Lamantins, and Hedg-hogs. Against which Evils they wanted not Medicines, consisting of Herbs, Roots, Gums, and Oyl. The bitter Bark of the Chipiou-Tree, steep’d in Water, and mix’d with Lanbys, hath a soveraign operation. The like vertue is in the Juyce of the Myby-Tree, which they us’d to take inwardly: and for outward Means, they us’d a Salve made of burnt Cane-ashes, temper’d with a Water press’d out of a certain Tree. To draw the Matter out of the Sores, they us’d the Juice of Junipa. Letting Blood was never customary amongst them, but to cut and scratch the sore part was to them in stead of Phlebotomy. But if all the fore-mention’d Medicines would not help them, they fled for aid to the Boyez, who immediately order’d the Hut wherein the Patient lay to be made clean, the Table call’d Matoutou to be over-spread with Cassave, Ouycou, and Garden Fruits, for an Offering to the evil Spirit Maboya, and as many Stools to be plac’d about the same as there were People to be present at the Ceremony; and after that all the Fire and Candles were put out, the Boye enter’d into the Hut about Midnight with a Lighted Roll of Tobacco, then muttering some words to himself, stamp’d with his left Foot, and blew the Smoak of the Tobacco up into the Air, which done, and tearing the Tobacco in pieces, he threw the same over the Hut, and call’d up his Spirit, who shaking the Roof of the House, made a terrible noise; then the Boye drew near to the Patient, suck’d his Sores, and anointed them with the Juice of Junipa; after which if the sick Person recover’d, he made a great Feast, and an Offering to the aforesaid Spirit: But if the Distemper were mortal, then the Boye inform’d the Patient’s Relations, That his Spirit had compassion upon the Sick, and was resolv’d to carry him above the Stars, to accompany the other Gods which reside there.
Thus much in general of the Inhabitants of the Isles that lie before Northern America; it will next be requisite to give you an Account of them in particular.
The number of the Caribbee Islands.
Their several Names.
There are generally reckon’d of these Islands twenty eight by Name, though there are many more in number; for besides that there are a multitude of small obscure Islands that are not nam’d, there are of the more considerable sometimes two or three that go under one Name; the twenty eight are these following: Anegada, Sombrero, Las Virgines, Anguilla, Saba, St. Crux, St. Martin, St. Bartholomew, Barbouthos or Barboude, Rotonda, Nevis, Eustathius, Antego, Montserrat, Guadalupe, Deseado, Marigalanta, Todos Sanctos, De Aves, Dominico, Martinego, St. Lucia, Barbados, St. Vincent, Bekia, Granada, Tabago, St. Christopher.
Sect. II.
Anegada and Sombrero.
Situation of Anegada and Sombreros.
Towards the North-East of Porto Rico, at eighteen Degrees and thirteen Minutes, The Mansfeny. lies Anegada, seven Leagues long, surrounded with Shoals and The Colibry. Banks, as also the neighboring Sombrero, being in the same Latitude with the other, and so call’d by the Spaniard, because it appears like a Hat: Both of them being uninhabited, harbor abundance of Birds, amongst which is the Mansfeny, a little Eagle, and the remarkable Colibry, whose Body being a little bigger than a Wren, is adorn’d with divers colour’d Feathers, resembling a Rain-bowe; about its Neck is a Carbuncle red Circle; the Belly and ends of the Feathers are of a Golden colour, the Sides of an Emerauld green, the Bill and Legs black like polish’d Ebony, the Eyes glittering like Diamonds, on the Head a curious green tuft of Feathers: the Cocks far exceed the Hens in beauty; they flie swifter than any Bird whatsoever, and the fluttering of their Wings makes a noise like a Whirlwind: they live upon the Juice of Flowers, and especially of Cotton-Flowers; they smell like Amber, and build their Nests amongst the thick Leaves of a little Bough, where they cannot easily be found; the Nest it self open towards the South, is curiously made of the fine Fibres of the Plant Pite, surrounded with pieces of Bark, and within fill’d with Cotton, douny Feathers, and Silk; the Eggs oval, are somewhat bigger than an ordinary Pearl.
Painted Crabs.