There have been many speculations respecting the origin of the Caribs. That they were a different race from the inhabitants of the other islands is generally acknowledged. They also differed from the Indians of Mexico and Peru; though some writers think they were culprits banished either from the continent or the large islands, and thus a difference of situation might have produced a difference of manners. Others think they were descended from some civilized people of Europe or Africa, and imagine that there is no difficulty attending the belief, that a Carthaginian or Phœnician vessel might have been overtaken by a storm, and blown about by the gales, till it entered the current of the trade-winds, when it would have been easily carried to the West Indies. The Caribs possessed as many of the arts as were necessary to live at ease in that luxurious climate. Some of these have excited the admiration of Europeans.[1] In their subsequent intercourse with the Europeans, they have, in some instances, proved faithless and treacherous. In 1708, the English entered into an agreement with the Caribs in St. Vincent to attack the French colonies in Martinico. The French governor heard of the treaty, and sent Major Coullet, who was a great favorite with the savages, to persuade them to break the treaty. Coullet took with him a number of officers and servants, and a good store of provisions and liquors. He reached St. Vincent, gave a grand entertainment to the principal Caribs, and, after circulating the brandy freely, he got himself painted red, and made them a flaming speech. He urged them to break their connection with the English. How could they refuse a man who gave them brandy, and who was red as themselves? They abandoned their English friends, and burned all the timber the English had cut on the island, and butchered the first Englishmen who arrived. But their crimes were no worse than those of their Christian advisers, who, on both sides, were inciting these savages to war. But the Caribs are all gone, perished from the earth. Their race is no more, and their name is only a remembrance. The English and the French, chiefly the latter, have destroyed them. There is, however, one pleasant reflection attending their fate. Though destroyed, they were never enslaved. None of their conquerors could compel them to labor. Even those who have attempted to hire Caribs for servants have found it impossible to derive any benefit or profit from them; they would not be commanded or reprimanded. This independence was called pride, indolence, and stubbornness, by their conquerors. If the Caribs had had historians to record their wrongs, and their resistance to an overwhelming tyranny, they would have set the matter in a very different light. They would have expressed the sentiment which the conduct of their countrymen so steadily exemplified,--that it was better to die free than to live slaves.