CHAP, i.] WEST INDIES. 5 



mentioned, although commonly known by the gene- 

 nal appellation of the Mexican gulph, is itself pro- 

 perly subdivided into three distinct basins : the gulph 

 of Mexico, the bay of Honduras, and the Charaibean 

 sea. [| The latter takes its name from that class of 

 islands which bound this part of the ocean to the east. 

 Most of these were anciently possessed by a nation of 

 Cannibals, the scourge and terror of the mild and in- 

 offensive natives of Hispaniola x who frequently ex- 

 pressed to Columbus their dread of those fierce and 

 warlike invaders, stiling them Charaibes, or Carib- 

 bees.* And it was in consequence of this informa- 

 tion, that the islands to which these savages belong- 

 ed, when discovered afterwards by Columbus, were 

 by him denominated generally the Charaibean islands. 



Of this class, however, a group nearly adjoining to 

 the eastern side of St. John de Porto Rico, is like- 

 wise called the Virgin Isles; a distinction of which 

 the origin will be explained in its place. 



{] Vide Introduction to the West Indian Atlas, by Jefferies. 

 * Herrera, lib. i. Fer. Columbus, chap, xxxiii. 



f- It may be proper to observe, that the old Spanish navigators, in 

 speaking of the West Indian islands in general, frequently distinguish 

 them also into two classes, by the terms Barlovento and Sotavento, from 

 whence our Windward^n^. Leeward islands j the Charaibean constituting 

 in strict propriety the former class (and as such I shall speak of them in 

 the course of this work), and the four large islands of Cuba, Jamaica, 

 Hispaniola, and Porto Rico, the latter. But our English mariners ap- 

 propriate both terms to the Charaibean islands only, subdividing them 

 according to their situation in the course of the trade wind ; the windward 

 islands by their arrangement terminating, I believe, with Martinico, and 

 the leeward commencing at Dominica, and extending to Porto Rico. 



