ABORIGINES OF THE WEST INDIES. 377 



to point to the fact that there were other Indians living in some of 

 the islands besides Arrowauks and Caribs. We know that from 

 time to time Indian traders from the mainland visited the islands, 

 and some of them may have remained and settled in them. On his 

 fourth voyage Columbus met some of these trading canoes, and 

 Peter Martyr gives a detailed account of the event from a letter 

 written by Columbus himself. 



Leaving the islands of Cuba and Jamaica on his right hand toward the 

 north, he [Columbus] writeth that he chanced upon an island more south- 

 ward than Jamaica, which the inhabitants call Guamassa, so flourishing 

 and fruitful that it might seem an earthly paradise. Coasting along by 

 the shores of this island, he met two of the canoes or boats of those prov- 

 inces, which were drawn of two naked slaves against the stream. In these 

 boats were carried a ruler of the island, with his wife and children, all 

 naked. The slaves, seeing our men aland, made signs to them to stand 

 out of the way, and threatened them if they would not give place. Their 

 simpleness is such that they neither feared the multitude or power of our 

 men, or the greatness and strangeness of our ships. They thought that 

 our men would have honored their master with like reverence as they did. 

 Our men had intelligence at the length that this ruler was a great mer- 

 chant, which came to the mart from other coasts of the island, for they ex- 

 ercise buying and selling by exchange with their confines. He had also 

 with him good store of such ware as they stand in need of, or take pleas- 

 ure in : as laton bells, razors, knives, and hatchets, made of a certain sharp 

 yellow stone, with handles of a strong kind of wood ; also many other 

 necessary instruments, with kitchen stuff, and vessels for all necessary 

 uses ; likewise sheets of gossampine cotton, wrought of sundry colors. 

 Our men took him prisoner, with all his family, but Columbus com- 

 manded him to be loosed shortly after, and the greatest part of his goods 

 to be restored to win his friendship. 



The Arrowauks were ignorant of the working of metals, so the 

 mention of " laton bells " as part of the stock in trade of this roving 

 trader points to his having come from the mainland, where the Zuhis, 

 Aztecs, Mayas, and Peruvians were all workers of bronze, or laton, 

 though they had not progressed so far as the use of iron. 



That the Caribs were later comers in the Antilles than the Ar- 

 rowauks seems likely from the fact that they had only established 

 themselves in the smaller islands, and made thence raids on the in- 

 habitants of the larger ones; for it is highly improbable that, had 

 so fierce and domineering a people had time to increase and multiply, 

 they would have left their weaker neighbors in possession of all the 

 larger islands, though it is possible they regarded the latter as stock 

 farms whence to draw supplies for their larders. Some authors 

 even assert that the arrival of Caribs in the islands could only have 

 shortly preceded the Columban discovery. The Spaniards were 

 astonished to observe that the Carib women spoke a different Ian- 



