8
AMUSEMENTS OF THE CARIBS.
captivating in the eyes of the " nice-judging fair," or if to make them more hideous in the sight of their enemies ; but most probably it was for the latter purpose, although it has been said " that women always like the monsters I" Their amusement, which has also been before observed, was war ; nothing else seemed to please or interest them, it was “ their gain, their glory, their delight !" They had their dances, but they were rather a serious ceremony than indulged in as a pastime. Their principal assemblies were held before starting upon a warlike expedition, when a leader or chief was elected with the barbarities before described ; or upon the return of a victorious warrior, when these ceremonies concluded with a dance. In the foregoing review, the character of the red Caribs, the aborigines of Antigua, has been described ; but in different islands were found different tribes. Guadaloupe was inhabited by a race of Amazons, who, upon the first appearance of Columbus, rushed out of a wood, armed with bows and arrows, and attacked the crew with such determined fury, that he was obliged to open a fire upon them before they would disperse ; that they were also cannibals was evident from the relics of their disgusting feasts found in their huts. Some of the other islands were inhabited by a similar race; but the people of Hispaniola, Cuba, Jamaica, and Porto Rico were decidedly of a different family—mild, temperate, and indolent, they were a certain prey to the ferocious cannibals. The Caribs of Antigua were first conquered by the Spaniards in 1521, and after trying to make them work as slaves without effect, they were finally driven from off the island. As in the other islands, fire and sword came among them, and the ancient people of the soil are no more. Their manners and customs, their hopes and fears, their enjoyments and distresses, are almost buried in oblivion, only now and then, here and there, we find a few traces of them in the wide page of history. There are, however, vestiges of their dwellings still to be met with in different parts of the