Arawakan / Caräibes
Aborigines of the West Indes
Posted: Monday| April 9 2018 | Administration
A NEGLECTED field of Scientific research, yet lying adjacent to and between the two great continents of America, is that comprising the vast collection of islands known as the West Indies. Although containing the first islands intrusion by Columbus, and including the seas first traversed by Spanish ships, in the New World, it was many years before the actual condition and population of those islands were made known to the civilized world. Even now, less, per-haps, is known respecting them than of many portions of lands considered as unexplored. No longer ago than 1878, I had the pleasure of discovering some twenty species of birds, which had until that time rested in obscurity, unknown and undescribed, and of sending to the United States the first collection of aboriginal implements used by the Caribs of the Lesser Antilles.
The West Indies are divided, as is well known, into the Greater and the Lesser Antilles, the former comprising the islands of Cuba, Jamaica, Santo Domingo or Haiti, and Puerto Rico, to which we may add the Bahamas ; the latter, that crescent-shaped archipelago called the Caribbean Chain, connecting the larger islands with the continent of South America. These, again, are locally divided into Windward and Leeward, with reference to their situation respecting the prevailing trade-winds.
All these islands were inhabited, at the time of their intrusion, by people culled, by Columbus, " Indians," who were possessed of characteristics which distinguished them from any others at that time known to Europeans.
One of the 700 Island of The Bahamas. The Island of Eleuthera depicts the Atlantic Ocean on the right and the Caribbean sea on the left. Glass Window Bridge of Eleuthera is a popular tourist spot, traveler often stops at the Glass Windo Bridge to comper the difference between the Caribbean Sea and the Atlantic Ocean.
...Its My purpose to attempt to designate the chief centers of popula-tion, at the period of intrusion; to indicate the status of civilization, as shown by the remains yet in existence; the distribution of these Indians in ancient times; and such of their descendants as still dwell in these islands. The first islands to which we shall give our attention are those first discovered by Columbus in October, 1492.
THE BAHAMAS.—The incidents of that first voyage across the Atlantic are, of course, familiar to all. I myself have traced the wanderings of Columbus throughout Spain, have followed in his footsteps after the Court of Ferdinand and Isabella, have visited the convent of La Rábida, and sailed the historic Rio Tinto. Again, I have visited and explored all the islands discovered by him, have investigated the matter of the first Landfall, and have studied circum-stances of his different actions on the scenes of their occur-rence. It is not my intention to revive these incidents of the voyages of Columbus ; but to recall the people and intrusion of his time.
We are told by the historian that the people seen on the islands where Columbus first landed, were of a tawny or copper complexion, that they went about naked, and pos-sessed but few of the articles considered necessary to civilized man. For a full description, I must refer you to the " Life of Columbus," by Washington Irving, and the narra-tion of Las Casas, from which Irving drew his material,-— the Journal of Columbus. They possessed no article of iron or bronze, their weapons being lances tipped with fish-bones or stone, and bows and arrows. Their huts were of the simplest materials, made of palm-leaves, such being amply sufficient in the delightful climate of those tropical islands. The fact, that remains of these Indians have been found in caves, and under overhanging rocks, does not warrant us in the inference that they were in any sense Troglodytes ; since the Bahamas abound in such caverns, and to them these people naturally turned for refuge, when subsequently pursued by the Spaniard and for settlers.
The Lucayans, or Ceboyans as they have been termed, few remains have been found, and these few mainly in caves. Several skeletons have been recovered, but I can not learn that any skeleton in its entirety has been deposited in any museum. In the public library of Nassau, New Providence, are two crania of the aboriginal Ceboyans, and I bought one skull from Watling's Island, which was exhibited at the Chicago Exposition and afterward given to the Columbian Museum. Of these crania. Prof. W". K. Brooks, of Johns Hopkins University, says: "The skulls are extremely broad in proportion to their length and are among the most brachycephalic of all human skulls, the greatest breadth being more than nine-tenths of their greatest length.
The brain was large, and the capacity of the cranium about equal to that of an average Caucasian skull. The Ceboyans flattened their heads artificially in infancy, so that the vertical part of the forehead is completely obliterated in all adult skulls, and the head slopes backward immediately above the eyes." I myself found bones and many fragments in the caves I explored on Watling's and Cat Islands; but all the caves of the Bahamas have long since been thoroughly investigated, during the search for cave-earth or bat guano. As these investigations were not conducted in the interests of science (I may remark), such bones and crania as were found were not taken into account, and in most instances were lost to the museums.
The dry earth of the caves was the best medium possible for preserving objects deposited therein, and not only bones but various articles of domestic use among the Lucayans, have been discovered. At the Jamaica Exposition, of 1891, were exhibited many such articles, and among them a few that are almost entirely unique: such as a carved seat of lignum vitae, a stone axe inserted in a handle of wood, and another with head and haft of one stone.
The seats of wood are described by the early historians, as seats used by the chiefs, made in the form of beasts and reptiles, and carved out of one piece of wood. One such specimen is now preserved in the Smithsonian Institution, at Washington, and another is in the public library of Grand Turk's Island, Bahamas. The Spanish Consul at Grand Turk, Mr. Geo. J. Gibbs, owns the celebrated stone axe in one piece, a cast of which was obtained by Prof. Henry, of the Smithsonian, twenty years ago. Prof. Henry, at that time, valued the original at $500, but I have information that Mr. Gibbs will dispose of it now for some $200 if a purchaser can be found.
This specimen is considered absolutely unique, and I trust that some museum in America will be fortunate enough to secure it.
In addition to these important relics of native workmanship, which were found in caves in the Caicos and Grand Turk, the usual "celts" are discovered, though rarely, throughout the entire chain. As the Bahamas include some two thousand islands and rocks, and the character of the calcareous rock is such that caves and pot-holes abound everywhere, it is possible that many articles may yet be found, that have escaped the eyes of the guano hunter.
Throughout the islands, the smaller celts are known as "thunder-bolts," and are treasured by the present natives as of celestial origin, and possessing supernatural virtues. They declare that they fall fr, and I have met with individuals who told me they themselves saw some descend. One old the stormom the clouds, in time of darkey declared to me that he saw one strike a tree, in the midst of a flash of lightning, and afterward recovered the identical stone. This name is of universal application, and in the Spanish islands the stones are called 'piedras de rayo," — thunderbolts, — as well as in the English and French islands. A strange fact may be noticed with reference to these celts, and that is, that all, or nearly all, are made from stone not to be found within the area of the Bahaman chain. They are most assuredly of foreign origin and were probably brought here from the .................................CONTINUED TO PAGE 7 ON PDF Below