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[only informed of it by the natives of Hispaniola, but having landed himself at Guadalupe on its first discovery, he beheld in several cottages the head and limbs of the human body recently separated, and evidently kept for occasional repasts. He released at the same time several of the natives of Porto Rico, who, having been brought captives from thence, were reserved as victims for the same horrid purpose. But among themselves they were peaceable, and towards each other faithful, friendly, and affectionate. They considered all strangers indeed as enemies, and of the people of Europe they formed a right estimation. The antipathy which they manifested towards the unoffending natives of the larger islands appears extraordinary, but it is said to have descended to them from their ancestors of Guiana : they considered those islanders as a colony of Arrowauks, a nation of South America, with whom the Caribes of that continent are continually at war. We can assign no cause for such hereditary and irreconcilable hostility. With regard to the people of Europe, it is allowed, that whenever any of them had acquired their confidence, it was given without reserve. Their friendship was as warm as their enmity was implacable. The Caribes of Guiana still fondly cherish the tradition of Raleigh’s alliance, and to this day preserve the English colours which he left with them at parting. (Bancroft, p. 259.) They painted their faces and bodies with arnotto so extravagantly, that their natural complexion, which was nearly that of a Spanish olive, was not easily to be distinguished under the surface of crimson. However, as this mode of painting themselves was practised by both sexes, perhaps it was at first introduced as a defence against the venomous insects so common in tropical climates, or possibly they considered the brilliancy of the colour as highly ornamental. The men disfigured their cheeks with deep incisions and hideous scars, which they stained with black, and they painted white and black circles round their eyes ; some of them perforated the cartilage that divides the nostrils, and inserted the bone of some fish, a parrot’s feather, or a fragment of tortoise-shell ; a frightful custom, practised also by the natives of New Holland ; and they strung together the teeth of such of their enemies as they had slain in battle, and wore them on their legs and arms as trophies of successful cruelty. To draw the bow with unerring skill, to wield the club with dexterity and strength, to swim with agility and boldness, to catch fish, and to build a cottage, were acquirements of indispensable necessity, and the education of their children was well
suited to the attainment of them. One method of making their boys skilful, even in infancy, in the exercise of the bow, was to suspend their food on the branch of a tree, compelling the hardy urchins to pierce it with their arrows before they could obtain permission to eat. Their arrows were commonly poisoned, except when they made their military excursions by night : on those occasions they converted them into instruments of still greater mischief ; for, by ai ming the points with pledgets of cotton dipt into oil, and set on flame, they fired whole villages of their enemies at a distance. The poison which they used was a concoction of noxious gums and vegetable juices, and had the property of being perfectly innocent when receivedinlo the stomach; but if communicated immediately to the blood through the slightest wound, it was generally mortal. As soon as a male child was brought into the world, he was sprinkled with: some drops of his father’s blood. The ceremonies used on this occasion were sufficiently painful to the father, but he submitted without emotion or complaint, fondly believing that the same degree of courage which he had himself displayed was by these means transmitted to his son. As the boy grew, he was soon made familiar with scenes of barbarity ; he partook of the horrid repasts of his nation, and he was frequently anointed with the fat of a slaughtered Arrowauk : but he was not allowed to participate in the toils of the warrior, and to share the glories of conquest, until his fortitude had been brought to the test. The dawn of manhood ushered in the hour of severe trial. He was now to exchange the name he had received in his infancy for one more sounding and significant; a ceremony of high importance in the life of a Caribe, but always accompanied by a scene of ferocious festivity and unnatural cruelty. In times of peace, the Caribes admitted of no supremacy but that of nature. Having no laws, they needed no magistrates. To their old men, indeed, they allowed some kind of authority, but it was at best ill-defined, and must at all times have been insufficient to protect the weak against the strong. In war, experience had taught them that subordination was as requisite as courage ; they thereiore elected their captains in their general assemblies with great solemnity, but they put their pretensions to the proof with circumstances of outrageous barbarity. When success attended the measures of a candidate for command, the feast and the triumph awaited his return. He exchanged his name a second time ; assuming in future that of the most formidable Arrowauk that had fallen by his hand. He was permitted to appropriate to himself as many]
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[ of the captives as he thought fit, and his countrymen presented to his choice the most beautiful of their daughters in reward of his valour. It was probably this last-mentioned testimony of public esteem and gratitude that gave rise in these islands to the institution of polygamy, which, as hath been already observed, prevailed universally among them, and still prevails among the Caribes of S. America ; an institution the more excusable, as their women, from religious motives, carefully avoided the nuptial intercourse after pregnancy. Though frequently bestowed as the prize of successful courage, the wife, thus honourably obtained, was soon considered of as little value as the captive. Deficient in those qualities which alone were estimable among the Caribes, the females were treated rather as slaves than companions: they sustained every species of drudgery ; they ground the maize, prepared the cassavi, gathered in the cotton, and wove the hammoc; nor were they allowed even the privilege of eating in presence of their husbands. Under these circumstances, it is not wonderful that they were less prolific than the women of Europe. Father Joseph Gumilla, in his account of the nations bordering on the Orinoco, relates (tom. i. p. 207. Fr. translation), that the Caribes of the continent punish their women caught in adultery like the ancient Israelites, “ by stoning them to death before an assembly of the people ;" a fact not recorded by any other writer. We know but little concerning their domestic economy, their arts, manufactures, and agriculture ; their sense of filial and paternal obligations, their religious rights and funeral ceremonies. Such further information, however, in these and other respects, as authorities the least disputable afford, we have abridged in the following detached observations. Besides the ornaments which we have noticed to have been worn by both sexes, the women, on arriving at the age of puberty, were distinguished also by a sort of buskin or half boot made of cotton, which surrounded the small part of the leg. The same sort of brodequin or buskin is worn by the female Hottentots and other nations of Africa; a distinction, however, to which such of their females as had been taken in the chance of war dared not aspire. In other respects, both male and female appeared as naked as our first parents before the fall. Like them, as they knew no guilt, they knew no shame ; nor was clothing thought necessary to personal comfort, where the chill blast of winter is never lelt. Their hair was uniformly of a shining black, straight, and coarse ; but they dressed it with daily care, and adorned it with great art, the men, in particular,
decorating their heads with feathers of various colours. As their hair thus constituted their chief pride, it was an unequivocal proof of the sincerity of their sorrow, when, on the death of a relation or friend, they cut it short like their slaves and captives, to whom the privilege of wearing long hair was rigorously denied. Like most other nations of the new hemisphere, they eradicated, with great nicety, the incipient beard, and all superfluous hairs on their bodies ; a circumstance which has given rise to the false notion that all the Aborigines of America were naturally beardless. On the birth of a child, its tender and flexible skull was confined between two small pieces of wood, which, applied before and behind, and firmly bound together on each side, elevated the forehead, and occasioned it and the back part of the skull to resemble two sides of a square ; a custom still observed by the miserable remnant of Red Caribes in the island of St. Vincent. It has been said by anatomists, that the coronal suture of new born children in the West Indies is commonly more open than that of infants born in colder climates, and the brain more liable to external injury. Perhaps, therefore, the Indian custom of depressing the os frontis and the occiput, was originally meant to assist the operation of nature in closing the skull. They resided in villages which resembled an European encampment, for their cabins were built of poles fixed circularly in the ground, and drawn to a point at the top ; they were then covered w ith leaves of the palm tree. In the centre of each village was a building of superior magnitude to the rest: it was formed with great labour, and served as a public hall or state house, wherein we are assured that the men (excluding the women) had their meals in common. These halls were also the theatres where their youth were animated to emulation, and trained to martial enterprise by the renown of their warriors and the harangues of their orators. Their arts and manufactures, though few, displayed a degreeof ingenuity which one would have scarcely expected to find amongst a people so little removed from a state of mere animal nature as to reject all dress as superfluous. Columbus observed an abundance of substantial cotton cloth in all the islands which he visited ; and the natives possessed the art of staining it with various colours, though the Caribes delighted chiefly in red. Of this cloth they made hammocs, or hanging beds, such as are now used at sea ; for Europe has not only copied the pattern, but preserved also the original name. All the early Spanish and French writers expressly assert, that the original Indian name for their swing-
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[ing beds was amack or hamack, but Dr. Johnson derives the English word hammoc froni the Saxon. They possessed likewise the art of making vessels of clay for domestic uses, which they baked in kilns like the potters of Europe. The ruins of many of these kilns were visible not long since in Barbadoes, where specimens of the manufacture are still frequently dug up; and Mr. Hughes, the historian of that island, observes, that they far surpassed the earthen ware made by the Negroes, in thinness, smoothness, and beauty. (Nat. Hist, of Barbadoes, p, 8.) Ligon, who visited this island in 1647, declares, that some of these vessels which he saw even surpassed any earthen ware made in England, “ both,” to use his own words, “ in finesse of mettle and curiosity of turninge.” Besides those, they invented various other utensils for economical purposes, Avhich are enumerated by Labat. The baskets which they composed of the fibres of the palmeto-leaves were singularly elegant ; and we are told that their bows and arrows, and other weapons, displayed a neatness and polish which the most skilful European artist would have found it difficult to have excelled, even with European tools. We are told, on good authority, that among the Caribes of the continent there was no division of land ; the harvests were deposited in public granaries, whence each family received its proportion of the public stock. Rochford indeed observes, that all their interests were in common. Their food, both vegetable and animal, excepting in the circumstance of their eating human flesh, seems to have been the same, in most respects, as that of the natives of the larger islands. But although their appetites were voracious, they rejected many of the best bounties of nature. Of some animals they held the flesh in abhorrence : these were the pecary or Mexican hog, the manati or sea cow, and the turtle. Labat observes, that they scrupled likewise to eat the eel, which the rivers in several of the islands supply in great plenty. The striking conformity of these, and some other of their prejudices and customs, to the practices of the Jewx, has not escaped the notice of historians. On the birth of his first son, the father retired to his bed, and fast^ ed with a strictness that often endangered life. Lafitau, observingjhat the same custom was practised by the Tybarenians of Asia, and the Iberians or ancient inhabitants of Spain, and is still in use among the people of Japan, not only urges this circumstance as a proof, among others, that the new world was peopled from the old, but pretends to discover in it also some traces of the doctrine of original sin : he supposes that the severe penance
thus voluntarily submitted to by the father was at first instituted in the pious view of protecting his issue from the contagion of hereditary guilt, averting the wrath of offended Omnipotence at the crime of our first parents, and expiating their guilt by his sufferings. The ancient Thracians, as we are informed by Herodotus, when a male child was brought into the world, lamented over him in sad vaticination of his destiny, and they rejoiced when he was released by death from those miseries which they considered as his inevitable portion in life ; but whatever might have been the motives that first itiduced the Caribes to do penance on such occasions, it would seem that grief and dejection had no great share in them ; for the ceremony of fasting was immediately succeeded by rejoicing and triumph, by drunkenness and debauchery. Their lamentations for the dead seem to have arisen from the more laudable dictates of genuine nature ; for, unlike the Thracians on these solemnities, they not only despoiled their hair, as we have before related, but when the master of the family died, the surviving relations, after burying the corpse in the centre of his own dwelling, with many demonstrations of unaffected grief, quitted the house altogether, and erected another in a distant situation. The dead body they placed in the grave in a sitting posture, with the knees to the chin. It is asserted, and we believe with truth, that the expectation of a future state has prevailed amongst all mankind in all ages and countries of the world. It is certain that the idea of a future state prevailed among the Caribes ; they not only believed that death was not the final extinction of their being, but pleased themselves also with the fond conceit, that their departed relations were secret spectators of their conduct; that they still sympathized in their sufferings, and participated in their welfare. To these notions they added others of a dreadful tendency ; for, considering the soul as susceptible of the same impressions, and possessing the same passions as when allied to the body, it was thought a religious duty to their deceased heroes, to sacrifice at their funerals some of the captives which had been taken in battle. It was their custom to erect in every cottage a rustic altar, composed of banana leaves and rushes, whereon they occasionally placed the earliest of their fruits and the choicest of their viands, as humble peace-o.ff’erings, through the mediation of their inferior deities, to incensed Omnipotence : for it is admitted, that their devotions consisted less in the effusions of thankfulness, than in deprecations of wrath. They not only believed in the existence of demons and evil spirits, but offered to them also, by the hands of their]
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[boyes. or pretended magicians, sacrifices and worship ; wounding themselves on such solemnities with an instrument made of the teeth of the agouti, which inflicted horrible gashes ; conceiving, perhaps, that the malignant powers delighted in groans and misery, and were to be appeased only by human blood,]
Caribe, a settlement of the same province and government ; situate on the windward coast of the cape of Tres Puntas. In its district are 26 plantations, 15 of cacao, and the rest of vines and maize, which yield but indifferently, from a want of water; although they find means of supplying this in some degree by the rain. The community consists of 1070 souls ; and is five leagues distant from the settlement of Carupano.
(CARIBEANA, now called Paria or New Andalucia, which see.)
CARIBES, a barbarous and ferocious nation of Indians, who are cannibals, inhabiting the province which by them is called Caribana. They are divided under the titles of the Maritiraos and Mediterraneos : the former live in plains and upon the coast of the Atlantic, are contiguous to the Dutch and French colonies, and follow the laws and customs of the former, with whom they carry on a commerce. They are the most cruel of any that infest the settlements of the missions of the river Orinoco, and are the same as those called Galibis. The Mediterraneos, who inhabit the s. side of the source of the river Caroni, are of a more pacific nature, and began to be reduced to the faith by the regular order of the abolished society of the Jesuits in 1738, The name of Caribes is given not only to these and other Indians of the Antilles, but to all such as are cannibals. See Caribe.
(CARIBOU, an island towards the e. end of lake Superior in N. America, n. w. of Cross cape, and s. w. of Montreal bay.)
CARICARI, a settlement of the province and corregimiento of Paria in Peru ; annexed to the curacy of Toledo.
Caricari, also called Laguacina, a point of land on the coast of the province and government of the Rio del Hacha.
CARICHANA, a settlement of the province of Guayana, and government of Cumana ; one of the missions of the Rio Meta, which was under the care of the society of Jesuits, of the province of Santa Fe. It is situate on the shore of the Orinoco, by the torrent of its name ; and is at present under the care of the religious order of Capuchins.
Carichana, Torrent of, a strait of the river
Orinoco, formed by different islands, some covered by, and some standing out of, the water, so that the navigation is very difficult and dangerous. It is near the mouth of the river Meta.
CARIJANA, a settlement of the province and corregimiento of Larecaja in Peru ; annexed to the curacy of Camata.
=CARILLON==, a fort belonging to the French, in New France.
(CARIMBATAY, a parish of the province and government of Paraguay ; situate a little to the n. w. of the town of Curuguaty. Lat. 24° 33' 35". Long. 55° 57' w.)
Carimbatay, a river of the above province and government, which runs w. and enters the Xexuy near the town of Curuguato.
CARIMU, a small river of the province and colony of the Dutch, in Surinam ; one of those which enter the Cuium on the s. side.
CARINIS, a small river of the province and captainship of Para in Brazil. It rises in the country of the Aritus Indians, runs e. and enters the Guiriri.
CARIOCOS, a lake of the country of the Amazonas, in the Portuguese territories, on the shore of the river. It is formed by the Topinambaranas, which, according to Mr. Bellin, makes this sheet of water before it enters the former river.
CARIPE, a settlement of the province and government of Cumaná in the kingdom of Tierra Firme, situate in the middle of a serranía; one of the missions in that province belonging to the Aragonese Capuchin fathers.
CARIPORES, a settlement of S. America, to the n. of Brazil and of the river of Las Amazonas : although of barbarian Indians, it deserves particular mention, on account of its virtuous and pacific customs, so different from the brutality and sloth of the surrounding nations. These Indians are handsome, lively, bold, valorous, liberal, honest, and affable, and in short the most polished nation of Indians in all America ; they esteem honour, justice, and truth; are enemies to deceit, eat bread made of cazave, which they have a method of preserving good for three or four years. They do not scruple to eat the flesh of some ugly snakes found in their woods, but are not cannibals ; neither do they revenge upon their prisoners taken in war the cruelties they experience from their enemies.
CARIUITOS, a settlement of the province and government of Venezuela in the kingdom of Tierra Firrae.
(CARIY, a parish of the province and govern-
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ment of Paraguay ; situate on a small river about l5 leagues e. of Asuncion. Lat. 23° 30' 27" Long. 56° 52' w.)
CARLISLE, a settlement of the island of Jamaica ; situate on the s.
(Carlisle, the chief town of Cumberland county, Pennsylvania, on the post-road from Philadelphia to Pittsburg ; is 125 miles w. by n. from the former, and 178 e. from the latter, and 18 s. w. from Harrisburgh. Its situation is pleasant and healthy, on a plain near the s. bank of Conedogwinet creek, a water of the Susquehannah. The town contains about 400 houses, chiefly of stone and brick, and about 1500 inhabitants. The streets intersect each other at right angles, and the public buildings are a college, court-house, and gaol, and four edifices for public worship. Of these the Presbyterians, Germans, Episcopalians, and Roman Catholics, have each one. Dickinson college, named after the celebrated John Dickinson, esq. author of several valuable tracts, has a principal, three professors, a philosophical apparatus, and a library containing near SOOO volumes. Its revenue arises from 4000/. in funded certificates, and 10,000 acres of land. In 1787 there were 80 students, and its reputation is daily increasing. About 50 years ago this spot was inhabited by Indians and wild beasts.)
(Carlisle, a bay on the w. side of the island of Barbadoes in the West Indies ; situated between James and Charles forts, on which stands Bridge-town, the capital of the island.)
CARLOS, San, a settlement of the province and captainship of Rey in Brazil ; situate on the shore of a small river which enters the head of that of Curituba.
Carlos, San, another, of the missions which were held by the regulars of the company of Jesuits, in the province and government of Buenos Ayres ; situate on the shore of a small river near the river Pargua, about five leagues s. w. of Candelaria. Lat. 27° 44' 36" s. Long. 55° 57' 12" w.
Carlos, San, another, of the missions of the province and government of Tucuman, in the jnrisdiction of the city of Salta; situate on the shore of the river of Guachipas.
Carlos, San, a city of the province and government of Venezuela ; situate on the shore of the river Aguirre, to the n. of the city of Nirua. [It owes its existence to the first missionaries of Venezuela, and its increase and beauty to the activity of its inhabitants. The greatest part of its population is composed of Spaniards from the Canary islands ; and as these leave their native country
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but to meliorate their condition, they arrive with a willingness to work, and a courage to undertake any thing that they think the most proper to answer their views. Their example even inspires a sort oT emulation among the Creoles, productive of public prosperity. Cattle forms the great mass of the wealth of the inhabitants. Oxen, horses, and mules, are very numerous. Agriculture, although not much followed, is yet not neglected. Indigo and coffee are almost the only things they grow. The quality of the soil gives the fruits an exquisite flavour, but particularly the oranges, which are famed throughout the province. The city is large, handsome, and well divided ; they compute the inhabitants at 9300. The parish church, by its construction and neatness, answers to the industry and piety of the people. The heat at San Carlos is extreme ; it would be excessive if the n. wind did not moderate the effects of the sun. It lies in 9° 20' lat. 60 leagues s. w. of Caracas, 24 s. s.e. of St. Valencia, and 20 from St. Philip’s.
(Carlos, San, a town of the province and government of Buenos Ayres ; situate on a small river about two leagues n. of Maldonado. Lat. 34° 44' 45" s. Long. 55° 44' zw.)
(Carlos, San, Real, a parish of the province and government of Buenos Ayres ; situate on a river of the same name, about five leagues n. of Colonia del Sacramento. Lat. 34° 25' 8" s. Long, 57° 50' w.')
(San Carlos de Monterey|Carlos, San, de Monterey]]==, the capital of New California, founded in 1770, at the foot of the cordillera of Santa Lucia, which is covered with oiiks, pines, (foliis lernis J, and rose bushes. The village is two leagues distant from the presidio of the same name. It appears that the bay of Monterey had already been discovered by Cabrillo on the 13th November 1542, and that he gave it the name of Bahia rle los Pinos, on account of the beautiful pines with which the neighbouring mountains are covered. It received its present name about 60 years afterwards from Viscaino, in honour of the viceroy of Mexico, Gaspar deZunega, Count de Monterey, an active man, to whom we are indebted for considerable maritime expeditions, and who engaged Juan de Onate in the conquest of New Mexico. The coasts in the vicinity of San Carlos produce the famous aurum merum (ormier) of Monterey, in request by the inhabitants of Nootka, and which is employed in the trade of otter-skins. The population of San Carlos is 700.)
Carlos, San, a fort of the province and government of Guayana, situate on the shore of the