952 APPENDIX TO Vol. III. 



yucca; maize, tomatoes, potatos, cocos, pulfe of various fpecies, and 

 a pepper named axi (Indian pepper) ; to which may be added Teveral 

 other indigenous fruits; they had likewife a fermented Hquor re- 

 fcmbling ale, which was prepared from the maize ; this does not 

 appear to have been their common drink, but produced only on 

 feftive occalions, when it anfwered the purpofe of intoxication full 

 as well as our European ftrong liquors. 



Cotton they cultivated in fuch vaft plenty, as would incline us to 

 think they exported a confiderable quantity ; for they confumed 

 but little of it themfelves in their cloathing ; they went almoft 

 naked) their cotton manufadlure confifted chiefly oi hamacs or beds, 

 muiTceeto-nets for thefe beds ; a fort of caps to cover their heads ; 

 and fmall aprons for decency. Their fiQiing-lines and nets were of 

 bark. They rcfembled the people of Hayti or Hifpaniola in cuf- 

 toms, religion, hiftorical fongs ; in their tools for agriculture and 

 other work, their domeftic utenfils, and their weapons of war. 

 The flrudure of their canoes was likewife the fame. The larger 

 fort of thefe velTels were called piraguas. They were made of 

 cedar, or the great cotton tree, hollowed, and fquare at each end 

 like punts. Thefe piraguas were not flat-bottomed like the canoes, 

 but much deeper. Their gunnels were raifed with canes braced 

 clofe, and fmeared over with a bituminous fubftance, to render 

 them water-tight -, and they had fliarp keels. The canoe was pro- 

 bably intended only as a fifliing-fkiff to ply in flioal water along the 

 coaft, or up the rivers; but the piragua for voyages at fea, and car- 

 rying on trade with their neighbours. Some of their habitations 

 were furnifhed with chairs of highly poliflied ebony; and none were 

 deficient in variety of utenfils, both earthen and of wood, very cu- 

 rioufly wrought. 



From the refemblance which the language of thefe iflanders bears, 

 in fome refpedls, to the Spanifh, I am apt to fufped that many of 

 their words have been altered by the Spanifh mode of pronuncia- 

 tion, and the difficulty which the difcoverers found in articulating 

 and accenting them, without fome intermixture of their own pa- 

 tronymic. In fome this is exceedingly obvious, where the letter b 

 is ufed indifcriminately for v, agreeably to their idiom. This per- 

 verfion may eafily lead us to afcribe a Spanifh or Moori/li origin 



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