APPENDIX TO Vol. III. ^^S 



fltill and Ingenuity in arts and fcicnces, as juftly railed the admiration 

 of their Eiu-opcan difcoverers. The Spaniards looked with anonifh- 

 nient on a race of men, who, in this fequeftered part of the world, by 

 mere dint of natural genius, unaided by books or information, had at- 

 tained fuch lengths towards perfeftion in contrivance, delicacy, ele- 

 gance, and utility, as appeared in their various fabrics, apparel, and or- 

 naments; edifices, and utenfils; public works, and regulations; their 

 methods of computing time, and of communicating or recording 

 events: fo apt and lively wei'e their faculties, that, as foon as the Spani- 

 ards inftrufted them in the art of writing, they immediately wrote 

 their prayers, and traditional odes or fongs, which before that period 

 they had been ufed to recite; and quickly copied every other European 

 model introduced among them. We are, I think, upon the whole, to 

 conlider Mexico and Peru as the two grand feats of Indian arts, civili- 

 zation, knowledge, government, and trade; that the Iflands were peo- 

 pled with colonies emigrating from thele mother ftates; that they were 

 children of the empire, but paid no tribute, nor acknowledged any 

 fealty or dependance ; that they retained fome traits, but thofe ex- 

 tremely imperfeft, of the religion, manners, and cuftoms, of the larger 

 body, from whom they had fcparated, lofing, by confequence of that 

 reparation, in procefs of time, much of the civility, and thofe arts, in- 

 ventions, and refinements, which diftinguifhed the Indians of the conti- 

 nent fo greatly above thefe fmall and difperfed communities. 



The Caribes, or hihabitants of the lefler Antilles, feem to be a 

 tribe proceeding from the more Southern parts of the continent, and 

 maritime anceftors. 



We find them fligmatized by the other iflanders with the name of 

 canibals, yet they were not wholly deftitute of mechanic fkill ; for 

 when Columbus firfl: landed at Guadaloupe, he difcovered in one of 

 their huts a large quantity of fpun cotton, and a curious fort of loom 

 for weavnig it; this dlfcovery proves alfo, that they pradifed agricul- 

 ture, and cultivated cotton, as well as the natives of the larger Antilles, 

 But they differed very widely from the latter in many other refpefts, 

 for they were fierce, favage, and rapacious ; led a roving piratical kind 

 of life, like the corfairs of Barbary, and made frequent defcents on the 

 larger iflands, even as far as Cuba, carrying off captives, but forming 

 no fettlements on their coaH. Thefe were the only foreign enemies 



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