Scientific Intelligence. — Anthropology. MH^ 



their fathers. Their dislant roamings by sea made them obser- 

 vant and intelligent. The natives of the other islands only 

 knew how to divide time by day and night, by the sun and 

 moon ; whereas these had acquired some knowledge of the stars, 

 by which to calculate the times and seasons. The traditional 

 accounts of their origin, though, of course, extremely n ague, are 

 yet capable of being verified, to a great degree, by geographical 

 facts, and open one of the rich veins of curious inquiry and spe- 

 culation which abound in the New World. They are said to 

 have migrated from the remote valleys embosomed in the Apa- 

 lachian Mountains. The earliest accounts we have of them, re- 

 present them with their weapons in their hands, continually en- 

 gaged in wars, winning their way, and shifting their abode, 

 until, in the course of time, they found themselves at the extre- 

 mity of Florida. Here, abandoning the northern continent, 

 they passed over to the Lucayos, and from thence gradually, in 

 the process of years, from island to island of that vast and ver- 

 dant chain, which links, as it were, the end of Florida to the 

 coast of Paria, on the southern continent. The Archipelago, 

 extending from Porto Rico to Tobago, was their stronghold, 

 and the Island of Guadaloupe, in a manner, their citadel. 

 Hence they made their expeditions, and spread the terror of 

 their name through all the surrounding countries. Swarms of 

 them landed upon the southern continent, and overran some 

 parts of Terra Firm a. Traces of them have been discovered 

 far in the interior of the country through which flows the Oroo. 

 noko. The Dutch found colonies of them on the banks of the 

 Ikouteka, which empties into the Surinam, along the Esquibi, 

 the Maroni, and other rivers of Guayana, and in the country 

 watered by the windings of the Cayenne ; and it would appear 

 that they have extended their wanderings to the shores of the 

 Southern Ocean, where, among the aboriginals of Brazil, 

 were some who called themselves Caribs, distinguished from the 

 surrounding Indians by their superior hardihood, subtlety, and 

 enterprise. To trace the footsteps of this roving tribe through- 

 out its wide migrations, from the Apalachian Mountains of the 

 Northern Continent, along the clusters of islands which stud 

 the Gulf of Mexico and the Caribbean Sea, to the shores of 

 Paria, and so across the vast regions of Guayana and Amazo* 

 nia, to the remote coast of Brazil, would be one of the most cu- 



