COOK—THE COCONUT PALM IN AMERICA. 291 
Even when the lands along the coast were extensively cultivated, as 
described by Columbus in Hayti, it was difficult to find people or 
houses.* One of Peter Martyr’s letters to the Pope gives an account 
of the Caribs and reflects the impression of the early explorers regard- 
ing the havoc wrought by them in the West Indies. 
Theyr common meate, is Ages, Tucca, Maizium, Battata, with suche other rootes 
and frutes of trees, and also suche fysshe as they vse in the Ilandes and other regions 
of these prouinces. They eate mans fleshe but seldome, bycause they meete not 
oftentymes with strangiers, except they goo foorth of theyr owne dominions with a 
mayne armye of purpose to hunt for men, when theyr rauenynge appetite pricketh 
them forwarde. For they absteyne from them selues, and eate none but suche as 
they take in the warres or otherwyse by chaunce. But suerly it is a miserable thynge 
to heare howe many myriades of men these fylthy and vnnaturall deuourers of mans 
flesshe haue consumed, and lefte thousandes of moste fayre and frutfull Ilandes and 
regions desolate withowte menne: By reason wherof owre men founde so many 
Ilandes whiche for theyr fayrenes and frutefulnesse myght seeme to bee certeyne 
earthly Paradyses, and yet were vtterly voyde of men. Hereby yowre holynesse may 
consider howe pernitious a kynde of men this is. 
With such enemies to pounce upon them from the sea it is easy to 
understand that the coconut palm could not be popular among the 
coast-dwelling natives of the West Indies after the Carib invasions 
began. To plant coconut paims, or even to allow them to grow 
where they could be seen from the sea, would only invite the attacks 
of the cannibals by showing them where their human prey could be 
found. 
THE PALMS OF COCOS ISLAND. 
Another piece of definite evidence regarding the habits and history 
of the coco palm comes from a small island in the Pacific Ocean 
about 300 miles to the west of Panama. The name Cocos Island 
was given by the early navigators because of the abundance of 
coconut palms found on it. Since the coming of the Spaniards, 
however, the island has not been inhabited and the coconut palms 
have almost completely disappeared. Prof. H. Pittier, who visited 
Cocos Island in May, 1898, and again in February, 1902, in the 
interest of the Costa Rican Government, reports that the palms 
that now abound on Cocos Island are not coconut palms, but belong 
to the genus Euterpe. Some of the American palms that have been 
referred to Euterpe have a superficial resemblance to coconut palms, 
a He believed that the villages must be at a distance from the sea, whither they went 
when the ships arrived; for they all took to flight, taking everything with them, and 
they made smoke-signals, like a people at war.—The Journal of Columbus, trans. by 
©, R. Markham, p. 104, Hakluyt Society, 1893. 
6 Martire in Arber, op. cit., p. 159. (See footnote, p. 276, above.) 
