28 HISTORY OF THE [BOOK i. 



The great difference in language and character be- 

 tween these savages and the inhabitants of Cuba, Hi- 

 spaniola, Jamaica, and Porto-Rico, hath given birth 

 to an opinion that their origin also, was different. Of 

 this there seems indeed to be but little doubt; but 

 the question from \vhence each class of islands was 

 first peopled, is of more difficult solution. Rochefort, 

 who published his account of the Antilles in 1658, 

 pronounces the Charaibes to have been originally a 

 nation of Florida, in North America. He supposes 

 that a colony of the Apalachian Indians having bean 

 driven from that continent, arrived at the Windward 

 islands, and exterminating the ancient male inhabi- 

 tants, took possession of their lands, and their women. 

 Of the larger islands he presumes, that the natural 

 strength, extent, and population, affording security to 

 the natives, these happily escaped the destruction 

 which overtook their unfortunate neighbours ; and thus 

 arose the distinction observable between the inhabi- 

 tants of the larger and smaller islands. || 



To this account of the origin of the insular 

 raibes, the generality of historians have given their 

 assent; but there are doubts attending it that are not 

 easily solved. If they migrated from Florida, the im- 

 perfect state and natural course of their navigation, 

 induce a belief, that traces of them would have been 

 found on those islands which are near to the Florida 

 shore; yet the natives of the Bahamas, when disco- 



j| Rocbefort Histoire des Isles Antilles, liv. ii. c. vii. See also, P* 

 Labat nouveau Voyage aux Isles de I/Amerique, torn. iv. c. xv 



