CHAP. I I I ]
C H R I S T O P H E R COLUMBUS.
317
and of other parts of the New World, to preserve the remains of their deceased relatives and friends; sometimes the entire body; sometimes only the head, or some of the limbs, dried at the fire; sometimes the mere bones.
These, when found in the
dwellings of the natives of Hispaniola, against whom no preju dice of the kind existed, were correctly regarded as relics of the deceased, preserved through affection or reverence; but any re mains of the kind found among the Caribs, were looked upon with horror as proofs of cannibalism. The warlike and unyielding character of these people, so dif ferent from that of the pusillanimous nations around them, and the wide scope of their enterprises and wanderings, like those of the nomade tribes of the Old World, entitle them to distinguished attention.
They were trained to war from their infancy.
As
soon as they could walk, their intrepid mothers put in their hands the bow and arrow, and prepared them to take an early part in the hardy enterprises of their fathers.
Their distant
roamings by sea made them observant and intelligent.
The
natives of the other islands only knew how to divide time by day and night, by the sun and moon; whereas these had acquired some knowledge of the stars, by which to calculate the times and seasons.* The traditional accounts of their origin, though of course extremely vague, are yet capable of being verified to a great degree by geographical facts, and open one of the rich veins of curious inquiry and speculation which abound in the New World. They are said to have migrated from the remote valleys embo somed in the Apalachian mountains.
The earliest accounts we
have of them represent them with weapons in their hands, con tinually engaged in wars, winning their way and shifting their * Hist. del Almirante, cap. 62.