CHAP, ii.] WEST INDIES, * 43 



their general assemblies with great solemnity ; but 

 as hath been observed* they put their pretensions to 

 the proof with circumstances of outrageous barbarity : 

 the recital however is disgusting, and may well be 

 suppressed. 



If it appears strange that where so little was to be 

 gained by pre-eminence, so much should be endured 

 to obtain it, it must be considered that, in the estima- 

 tion of the candidate, the reward was doubtless more 

 than adequate to the cost of the purchase. If success 

 attended his measures, the feast and the triumph 

 awaited his return. He exchanged his name a second 

 time 3 assuming in future that of the most formidable 

 Arrowauk that had fallen by his hand.|| He was per- 

 mitted to appropriate to himself, as many of the cap- 

 tives as he thought fit, and his countrymen presented 

 to his choice the most beautiful of their daughters in 

 reward of his valour.* 



It was probably this last mentioned testimony of 

 public esteem and gratitude that gave rise in these 

 islands to the institution of polygamy, which, as hath 

 been already observed, prevailed universally among 

 them, and still prevails among the Charaibes of South 

 America ;f an institution the more excusable, as 

 their women, from religious motives, carefully avoid- 



Rochefort, ch. xxiii. p. 553. 

 || Rochefort, ch. xxiii. p. 553. 

 * Rochefort, ch. xxii. p. 

 f Bancroft, p. Z54-. 



Vol. I. 



