CHAP, ii.] WEST INDIES. 39 



vered by Columbus, were evidently a similar people 

 to those of Hispaniola.* Besides, it is sufficiently 

 known that there existed anciently many numerous 

 and powerful tribes of Charaibes, on the southern pe- 

 ninsula, extending from the river Oronoko to Esse- 

 quebe, and throughout the whole province of Suri- 

 nam, even to Brasil ; some of which still maintain 

 their independency. It was with one of those tribes 

 that our countiyman Sir Walter Raleigh formed an al- 

 liance, when that commander made his romantic ex- 

 pedition to the coast of Guiana in 1595 ;f and by him 

 we are assured, that the Charaibes of that part of the 

 continent spoke the language of Dominica. J I in- 

 cline therefore to the opinion of Martyr, and con- 

 clude, that the islanders were rather a colony from 

 the Charaibes of South America, than from any nation 

 of the north. Rochefort admits that their own tradi- 

 tions referred constantly to Guiana. || It does not ap- 

 pear that they entertained the most remote idea of a 

 northern ancestry. 



It may be thought, perhaps, that the continental 

 Charaibes were themselves emigrants from the nor- 



* Herrera, lib. ix. chap. ii. 



f Bancroft's History of Guiana, p. 259. 



t Hakluyt, vol. iii. p. 668. 



P. Martyr, Decad. ^. lib. i. 



jj Rochefort, liv. ii. c. vii. See also, note 94. to Dr. Robertson's 

 History of America. The people ealled Galibis, mentioned by Dr. R. 

 are the Charaibes of the continent, the term Galibis or Calibis (as it is 

 written by Du Tertre) being, as I conceive, corrupted from Caribbee. 

 Vide Lafitau, torn. i. p. 197, and Du Tertre, torn. ii. p. 360. 



