THE GUESDE COLLECTION OF ANTIQUITIES IN POINTE-A- 

 PlTRE, GCJADELOUPE, WEST INDIES. 



By Otis T. Mason. 



INTEODUCilON. 



The stoue implements and other objects described in these pages be- 

 long almost exclusively to the celebrated collection of M. Louis Guesde, 

 of Pointe-^-Pitre, Guadeloupe. M. Guesde is the son of M. Mathieu 

 Guesde, whose series of Carib stone implements attracted so much at- 

 tention in the Paris Exposition of 1867, and Louise Loyseau, a Creole, 

 of Guadeloupe. He was born at Hamacas, Porto Rico, in 1844, but at 

 two years of age was brought by his parents to live at Pointe-a-Pitre. 

 From 1856 to 1867 M. Guesde pursued his studies in Paris and returned 

 to Pointe-a-Pitre as register to the minister of finance, in whose ofitice he 

 is at i)resent director of the third bureau. He has inherited from his 

 father his love for collecting the relics of the ancient Caribs, and for 

 nearly twenty years has been assiduous in his efforts. His duties call- 

 ing him to reside successively in various quarters of the island, he 

 profited by these opportunities to carry on his researches. To his zeal 

 as collector M. Guesde fortunately adds the skill of the artist, and he 

 has prepared two albums of aquarelles, in natural size and color, of all 

 the types in his museum. One of these albums is in the Trocadero 

 Museum at Paris, the other has been kindly presented to the Smith- 

 sonian Institution at Washington. So life-like are these portraits that 

 one has no difflculty in imagining the objects before hiui. 



In a former publication (Smithsonian Annual Report for 1876, pp. 

 372-393) a very large collection of somewhat similar objects, gathered 

 by Mr. George Latimer in Porto Rico, was described and some reflec- 

 tions indulged in respecting those who made them. Since that jjaper 

 appeared, Mr. E. F. im Thurn, of Georgetown, British Guiana, has given 

 great attention to this subject, and is the author of several illustrated 

 articles respecting the stoue implements of the ancient Caribs. Without 

 entering into a discussion upon this subject, and taking for granted that 

 the Indians of the " discovery " were sufficiently advanced in culture 

 to produce such works of art, we may better improve the present oppor- 

 tunity by instituting comparisons with well-known peoples. 



If we would look for the evidence of the reappearance of similar forms 

 and customs in regions wide apart, we must search out those portions 

 of the earth that present the same general features, the same natural 

 materials, and the same external suggestions or motives. While the 

 similarities in art products which point to consanguinity of their makers 

 often thrive in quite contrary circumstances, so outlandish frequently 



731 



