CAITNIBALIGM AND HUMAN SACEIFICE8. 413 



killed him, and hid the body behind a copse of thick trees, 

 near Esmeralda. This crime, like many others among the 

 Indians, would have remained unknown, if the murderer had 

 not made preparations for a feast on the following day. He 

 tried to induce his children, born in the mission and become 

 Christians, to go with him for some parts of the dead body. 

 They had much difficulty in persuading him to desist from 

 his purpose ; and the soldier who was posted at Esmeralda, 

 learned from the domestic squabble caused by this event, 

 what the Indians would have concealed from his knowledge. 

 It is known that cannibalism and the practice of human 

 sacrifices, with which it is often connected, are found to 

 exist in all parts of the globe, and among people of very 

 different races ;* but what strikes us more in the study of 

 history is to see human sacrifices retained in a state of 

 civilization somewhat advanced ; and that the nations who 

 hold it a point of honour to devour their prisoners are not 

 always the rudest and most ferocious. The painful facts 

 have not escaped the observation of those missionaries who 

 are sufficiently enlightened to reflect on the manners of 

 the surrounding tribes. The Cabres, the Gruipunaves, and 

 the Caribs, have always been more powerful and more 

 civilized than the other hordes of the Orinoco; and yet 

 the two former are as much addicted to anthropophagy as 

 the latter are repugnant to it. We must carefully distin- 

 guish the different branches into which the great family 

 of the Caribbee nations is divided. These branches are as 

 numerous as those of the Mongols, and the western Tartars, 

 or Turcomans. The Caribs of the continent, those who 

 inhabit the plains between the Lower Orinoco, the Rio 

 Branco, the Essequibo, and the sources of the Oyapoc, 

 hold in horror the practice of devouring their enemies. 

 This barbarous custom,f at the first discovery of America, 



* Some casual instances of children carried off by the negroes in the 

 island of Cuba have led to the belief, in the Spanish colonies, that there 

 are tribes of cannibals in Africa. This opinion, though supported by 

 gome travellers, is not borne out by the researches of Mr. Barrow on the 

 interior of that country. Superstitious practices may have given rise to 

 imputations perhaps as unjust as those of which Jewish families were the 

 victims in the ages of intolerance and persecution. 



f See Gerald i ni Itinerarium, p. 186, and the eloquent tract of cardinal 

 Bern bo on the discoveries of Columbus. ''Insularum parlem hominet 



