GUESDE COLLECTION OF ANTIQUITIES IN WEST INDIES. 735 



men and monkeys modeled ^vitli great boldness, evidently fonniug cuj)- 

 handles) and the upper rim of a cup which must have been of great 

 diameter. iSoiiie of these fragments of pottery still bear traces of a 

 fine red glazing. 



I must acknowledge that during two sojourns at Porto Rico — one of 

 six and the other of two months— 1 never came across an ax. More- 

 over there is not a single ax in the superb collection i)resented to the 

 museum at Washington by Mr. G. Latimer, and which is entirely from 

 Porto Kico. The abundance of axes in the Lesser Antilles and their 

 complete absence in Porto Rico would seem to indicate a difterence of 

 race in the inhabitants of these different islands. 



1 have been able to obtain live perfect celts and four fragments from 

 Martinique, one single celt — but very remarkable for form and i)olish — 

 from Dominica, two celts and three axes from St. Lucia, and one celt 

 from Santo Domingo (the Ilispaniola of Columbus). 



No typical difference can be established between the celts, whether 

 they come from Porto Rico or from Martinique, Guadeloupe, Dominica, 

 and St. Lucia. 



Now, since the strata of the Lesser Antilles do not contain the mate- 

 rial used in some of these celts, it is certain that they were not made 

 where they were found. Should we not, therefore, infer from this that 

 they all have the same origin, that they all come from the continent or 

 from the Greater Antilles ? 



I have in my possession a club {baton) from the Galibis of Dutch 

 Guiana. This club has a certain age. The wood, of a red color when 

 freshly cut, has assumed a very deep black hue ; the cotton thread 

 around the handle is very dirty. The weapon has seen service. This 

 club is exactly like those used by the Caribs of the islands, and which 

 Father Dutertre has described, but the peculiar part of it, the thing 

 that gives it an enormous interest, is the green celt fixed in its lower 

 extremity. Now, this celt resembles all those which I have found in 

 Guadeloupe and the other islands. Is it of modern manufacture ! Is 

 it not rather the work of the first inhabitants of the continent ? Has it 

 not been found in the soil and used by its discoverer? I would decide 

 without hesitation in favor of the latter hypothesis, for it is covered 

 with a patina which only a long continuance in the soil could give it. 



Here is another fact which seems to prove that the Caribs of Colum- 

 bus and of Father Dutertre are the same as those of Guiana. 



The exterior distinguishing color is not always that of the stone of 

 which they are made. The color, which is black, red, j^ellow, brown, 

 or bluish, i)artakes essentially of that of the soil from which they were 

 taken. Those from Grande-Terre, whose calcareous soil is covered with 

 a thin layer of black and compact vegetable earth, all have the colors 

 more or less dark — brown, red, black — while those from Guadeloupe 

 proper, whose soil is covered with a thick layer of more or less ferru- 

 ginous red earth, have the tints lighter. Yellow specimens are numer- 

 ous there. Many of them have preserved their normal tint. These 



