74 CAMPS IN THE CARIBBEES. 



and cocoa palm, embowering their dwellings in per- 

 petual shade ; and the calabash (furnishing nearly all 

 their vessels lor culinary use) spreads its gnarled 

 branches, with a wealth of useful products, at their 

 doors. Guavas grow wild, and the berries and buds 

 of the mountain palm, with many other fruits and nuts 

 of the forest, furnish them with food. The many 

 rivers yield to them delicious crayfish, water snails, 

 and limpets. If they can get rum, now and then, they 

 drink it and are happy — they are happy any way, 

 even without this occasional luxury. 



In a land that is theirs by right ; beneath a sky 

 ever genial, though not always smiling ; able to satisfy 

 hunger by little toil in the garden, or exertion upon 

 the sea, or in the river, it is not strange that they 

 should be content with the bounties of the present, nor 

 care to question the precarious prospects of the future. 



In the morning the coolness of the bath provokes 

 one to linger, and later the warmth of the sun seems 

 to warn one from much exertion, while the heat of 

 mid-day positively forbids it. The increased coolness 

 of the afternoon, when the sun dips down behind the 

 mountain ridge, leaving two good hours of dreamy 

 shadow, tempts one to give one's self over to the enjoy- 

 ment of mere existence. Thus the days pass away 

 in this delightful clime. And now, that you, reader, 

 may better understand who are these people whom I 

 would describe in the following pages, allow me to go 

 back a few centuries ; let me turn, in fact, to the first 

 page in American history, and let the same great navi- 

 gator who opened the way for the discovery of our 

 continent, relate the story of the finding of the Caribs. 



Columbus sailed away from Cadiz, on his second 



