106 CAMPS IN THE CARIBBEES. 



Caribs received them as friends, but eventually the 

 negroes possessed themselves of the best lands and 

 drove their benefactors to the most worthless. Having 

 intermarried with the Yellow Caribs, they departed 

 from the negro type in a few years, but sufficiently 

 resembled the slaves, beginning to be introduced into 

 the island by the French in 1720, as to cause them 

 alarm, and they took to the woods and mountains, 

 living there for quite another generation. They also 

 adopted the Carib practice of flattening the foreheads 

 of their children, so that succeeding generations dif- 

 fered generally from their fathers. They now form a 

 small community on the northwestern shore of St. 

 Vincent, at a place called Morne Roncle. 



Throughout the island of St. Vincent I found traces 

 of occupation by the ancient Caribs. These were in 

 the shape of implements of war and utensils for do- 

 mestic use, of the rudest description : hatchets, axes, 

 battle-axes, gouges, chisels, and spear-heads, of stone, 

 generally classed under the head of "celts." The 

 negroes, ever superstitious, attribute to these stones, 

 which they occasionally find in the fields, a celestial 

 origin, declaring they are "thunderbolts," and that 

 they come down from the sky during thunderstorms. 

 This they prove to their entire satisfaction, by citing 

 the fact that they are always more abundant after a 

 rain. This is evident from the fact that rain washes 

 away the earth from these ancient stones which have 

 lain so long buried. 



The Caribs did not possess that advancement in 

 civilized art that enabled them to produce such sculp- 

 tured works of intricate and beautiful design, both in 

 stone and wood, as the Spaniards found among the 



