Isolated in the little island-worlds of the Pacific Ocean, man is found again and again, in a condition which seems to involve all but absolute privation of the materials on which his constructive faculty can operate. The extensive archipelago interposed between the Society and Gambier Islands and the Marquesas, consists exclusively of coral islands. There the native arts are mostly of an inferior character; though their small and slight canoes are propelled with great rapidity by means of a paddle ingeniously formed with a curved blade. But every idea of rudeness in their arts gives way to wonder and admiration on discovering the limited materials at the command of the workmen. The cocoa-palm furnishes supplies for matting and weaving, and the cassytha stems and cocoa-nut fibre are plaited into ropes. A finer cord is made of human hair; and bones of the turtle and the larger kinds of fish supply the only material for fish-hooks and spears. There are no natural productions on the islands harder than shell or coral; and from these accordingly the native tools are made. Here, therefore, we see what reason is capable of achieving in the development of ingenious arts, amid a privation of nearly all that seems indispensable to the first efforts at constructive skill. Compared with such inadequate means, the flint, stone, horn, and bone of Europe’s stone-period seem little less ample, than the contrast of her later metallurgic riches with the resources of that primitive era. Though the natives of the Antilles possessed some natural advantages over the inhabitants of the volcanic and coral islands of the Pacific: yet the abundance of large and easily-wrought shells invited their application to many useful purposes; and accordingly when first visited by the Spaniards, the large marine shells with which the neighbouring seas abound, constituted an important source for the raw material of their implements and manufactures. The great size, and the facility of workmanship of the widely-diffused _pyrulæ_, _turbinella_, _strombi_, and other shells, have indeed led to a similar application of them among uncivilised races, wherever they abound. Of such, the Caribs made knives, lances, and harpoons, as well as personal ornaments; while the mollusc itself was sought for and prized as food. In Barbadoes the _Strombus gigas_ still furnishes a favourite repast; and numerous weapons and implements made from its shells have been dug up on the island. The accompanying illustrations (Fig. 48) are selected from specimens illustrative of the primitive manufactures of the Antilles presented to me by Dr. Bovell. They were dug up with other relics, in the island of Barbadoes, where traces of the aboriginal Carib blood continued till very recently to mark a portion of the coloured population. The Christy collection includes various examples of axes believed to be of Carib workmanship, from Porto Rico, St. Juan, and St. Thomas.