CHAP, ii.] WEST INDIES. 33 



session of the Charaibes, declares it to be his opinion 

 that instances of this abominable practice among them, 

 were at all times extremely rare ; the effect only of 

 a sudden impulse of revenge arising from extraordina- 

 ry and unprovoked injury; but that they ever made 

 premeditated excursions to the larger islands, for the 

 purpose of devouring any of the inhabitants, or of sei- 

 zing them to be eaten at a future time, he very con- 

 fidently denies. 



Nevertheless, tfiere is no circumstance in the histo- 

 ry of mankind better attested than the universal pre- 

 valence of these practices among them. Columbus 

 was not only informed of it by the natives of Hispani- 

 ola, as I have already related, but having landed him- 

 self at Guadaloupe on its first discovery, || he beheld 

 in several cottages the head and limbs of the human 

 body recently separated, and evidently kept for occa- 

 sional repasts. He released, at the same time, seve- 

 ral of the natives of Porto Rico, who, having been 

 brought captives from thence, were reserved as vic- 

 tims for the same horrid purpose.* 



Thus far, it must be confessed, the disposition of 

 the Charaibes leaves no very favourable impression on 



Labat, torn. iv. p. 32z. 



|| November 4, 1493. 



* F. Columbus, cap. xlvi. Peter Martyr, Decad. I. lib. ii. Herrera, 

 lib. ii. cap. vii. See also Bancroft's History of Guiana, p. 259, who is 

 of opinion, that no other tribe of Indians in Guiana eat human flesh but 

 the Chnraibes. Amongst these, the proof that this practice still subsists 

 is incontestible. 



Vol. I. 



