GEOGRAPHY OF SAMANA 15 



island of the group. The peninsula of Yucatan is 120 miles distant 

 from the western end of Cuba, or twice the distance from Florida to 

 the Bahamas. Some of the islands known as the Lesser Antilles, 

 namely Grenada and Tobago, are 80 miles off the Venezuelan coast 

 of South America. At neither of its outlying points therefore, are 

 the West Indies at all remote from the continental mainland of North 

 or South America. ^° 



The delta of the Orinoco River empties itself into the Gulf of 

 Paria on the Venezuelan coast, which is in part inclosed by the 

 large island of Trinidad. Point Galera on the island of Trinidad, 

 is separated from Tobago, of the Lesser Antilles, by only 25 miles 

 of water. The entire area surrounding the delta of the Orinoco is 

 now and in pre-Columbian times probably had been occupied by 

 the Warrau, a coast tribe related linguistically neither to the Carib 

 nor to the Arakak Indians, who occupy the Guiana coast of South 

 America southeast of Venezuela. The Orinoco discharges its water 

 into the Gulf of Paria and elsewhere along the coast through 20 

 distributaries covering 160 miles of South American coast directly 

 facing the Lesser Antillean Islands. It is therefore very probable 

 that a canoe culture developed by the coast Arawak and Carib 

 groups of northern South America reached the Greater Antilles by 

 way of the smaller outlying Lesser Antilles. Dislodged groups 

 followed the outgoing current of the Orinoco in their dugout canoes, 

 paddled their way along the leeward side of the island chain, and 

 gradually approached the large islands of Porto Rico, Haiti, Cuba, 

 and Jamaica. In this northwestward migration wind and ocean 

 currents were favorable factors. 



Lesser Antilles. — Columbus found the islands of this group in 

 possession of the Carib Indians, who had but recently displaced an 

 earlier Arawakan group, the Igneris. He observed unmistakable 

 evidence of cannibalistic practices at Guadaloupe and Dominica on 

 his arrival in the West Indies during the second voyage. He thought 

 he had found representatives of the same cannibalistic Caribs at 

 Samana during the first voyage, but later found this observation 

 to be erroneous. 



Several of the islands of the Lesser Antilles are of marine forma- 

 tion and are coralline reefs or of limestone formation. The islands 

 of Grenada and Dominica are volcanic in origin and have volcanic 

 peaks of considerable elevation. The high peak of Mount Pelee, 

 on Martinique, is visible at a distance of 45 miles and must have 

 afforded a navigation aid to natives traversing some of the larger 



10 An excellent monograph on the physical basis of prehistoric tribal and culture migra- 

 tions in the West Indies is that by Adolfo de Ilostos, entitled "Notes on West Indian 

 Hydrography in Its Relation to Prehistoric Migrations." This careful study appeared In 

 the XX Congresso Internacional de Americanistas, p. 239. Rio de Janeiro, 1924. 



