jo HISTORY OF THE [BOOK i. 



tlicrn to the southern peninsula: but, without at- 

 tempting to controvert the position to which recent 

 discoveries seem indeed to have given a full confirma- 

 tion, namely, that the Asiatic continent first furnish- 

 ed inhabitants to the contiguous North -Western parts 

 of America, I conceive the Charaibes to have been a 

 distinct race, widely differing from all the nations of 

 the new hemisphere ; and I am even inclined to adopt 

 the opinion of Hornius and other writers, \vho ascribe 



to them an oriental ancestrv from across the Atlan- 



j 



tic.* 



Inquiries, however, into the origin of a remote and 

 unlettered race, can be prosecuted with success only 

 by comparing their ancient manners, laws, language, 

 and religious ceremonies, with those of other nations. 

 Unfortunately, in all or most of these particulars re- 

 specting the Charaibes, our knowledge is limited with- 

 in a narrow circle. Of a people engaged in perpetual 

 warfare, hunted from island to island by revenge and 

 rapacity, few opportunities could have offered, even 

 to- those who might have been qualified for such re- 

 searches, of investigating the natural dispositions an4 

 habitual customs with minuteness and precision. Nei- 

 ther indeed could a just estimate have been formed of 

 their national character, from the manners of such of 

 them as were at length subjugated to the European 

 yoke; for they lost, together with their freedom, ma- 

 in v of their original characteristics; and at last even the 



. o * 



f Some arguments in support of this opinion are subjoined in the Ap 

 pendix to- Book. I. 



