Notes and Queries, Vol. IV, Number 110, December 6, 1851: A Medium of Inter-communication for Literary Men, Artists, Antiquaries, Genealogists, etc.Various
History
Notes and Queries, Vol. IV, Number 110, December 6, 1851: A Medium of Inter-communication for Literary Men, Artists, Antiquaries, Genealogists, etc.
Various
Questions and answers -- Periodicals
The last sentence in this passage is obviously erroneous. That the
aboriginal inhabitants of the great Antilles (Santo Domingo, Cuba,
Porto-Rico, and Jamaica,) were identical with, or descended from, the
Arawaaks of Guiana, is an opinion which has long prevailed, and which
the circumstances stated by Sir R. Schomburgk tend to confirm. Indeed,
they are described by most writers as Indians _or_ Arawaaks. But that
there was any identity between the Indians and the tribes known by the
name of Caribs, is an assertion totally at variance with the established
facts. In support, however, of this assertion, Sir R. Schomburgk appeals
to "history;" but what history, he does not state. I have perused, and
still possess, almost every work that was ever written on the history of
these islands; and they all lead to the conclusion, that the Indians of
Santo Domingo (also called Hispaniola and Haiti) were a totally distinct
race from the Caribs. The Indians were a mild, inoffensive people; the
Caribs a race of savages, some say, cannibals. The former were indolent
and effeminate; the latter fierce and warlike. In short, no two races
ever presented such a striking disparity, not only in their manners and
customs, but in their features and personal appearance.
The second error into which Sir R. Schomburgk has fallen, is where he
says:
"There are various proofs that the Caribs inhabited Santo Domingo;
among others, I found at the eastern point of the island, called
Junta Engaño, numerous heaps of conch shells."
The fact is, that the Caribs were the mortal enemies of the Indians.
They were engaged with them in the fiercest warfare, and made frequent
depredatory incursions into Santo Domingo and the other large islands.
But they never formed any settlements in those islands, and cannot be
said to have "inhabited" any of them, in the sense in which that word is
used by Sir R. Schomburgk.
Public-domain text, read in full here on John Shaqi.
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