OCCIDENTAL STOCK. 



The preceding is the portrait of Thayendaneega, a chief of the 

 Mohawks, or Six Nations, in whom, as in the Algonquin tribes, the 

 Chippeways, and the natives of Florida, the nose is elevated, the eyes 

 are large, and the face is broad and flat. 



In the Carib tribes, the flatness of the forehead is still more con- 

 spicuous. The Caribs, or Caribbees,* are tribes which inhabit the 

 missions of the Cari in the Llanos of Cumana, the banks of the Caura, 

 and the plains to the north-east of the sources of the Orinoco, and are 

 distinguished, among the American nations, by their almost gigantic 

 stature. It was a branch of this race which occupied certain of the West 

 Indian Islands at the time of their discovery by Columbus :f in physical 

 characters, they agreed with the Caribs still extant^on the Continent, from 

 whom they were originally derived. European encroachment and perse- 

 cution confined the last remnant of this race to the Isle of St. Vincent : 

 they were here distinguished under the name of Red Caribs, in contra- 

 distinction to a tribe termed Black Caribs, the descendants of some 

 Negroes, who escaped from a shipwreck, and whose numbers became gra- 

 dually augmented. Between these Negro-Caribs and the true Caribs an 

 inveterate hostility has subsisted, to the almost total extirpation of the 

 latter. (See Edwards's Hist. West Indies, vol. i. p. 411.) The museum 

 of the Royal College of Surgeons contains two skulls of the Carib race, 

 both of which are very characteristic. 



In these specimens, one of which is shewn at fig. 234, we are struck 

 with the singular depression, not only of the frontal bone, but of the 

 upper surface altogether (which, however, has a slight rise at the vertex), 

 and with the preponderating volume of the posterior portion. The parietal 

 bones are boldly convex ; the nasal bones are tolerably prominent ; the 



* These people were termed Carives by the first navigators, and are still known by this name in 

 Spanish America. 



t " As early as the first voyage of Columbus, he received information that several of the islands 

 were [inhabited by Caribbees, a fierce race of men, nowise resembling their timid neighbours. In 

 his second expedition to the New World, he found this information to be just, and was himself a wit- 

 ness of their intrepid valour." Robertson's Hist. Amer. 



The following is a note upon the above passage : " Aprobable conjecture maybe formed with respect 

 to the cause of the distinction between the Caribbees and the inhabitants of the larger islands. The 

 former appear to be manifestly a separate race. Their language is totally different from that of their 

 neighbours in the larger islands. They themselves have a tradition, that their ancestors came origin- 

 ally from some part of the Continent, and, having conquered and exterminated the ancient inhabit- 

 ants, took possession of their lands and of their women. . (Rochefort, 381 ; Tertre, 360.) Hence they 

 call themselves Bana-ree, which signifies a man come from beyond sea. (Labat, vi. 131.) Accordingly, 

 the Caribbees still use two distinct languages, one peculiar to the men, and the other to the women. 

 (Tertre, 361.) The language of the men has nothing in common with that spoken in the large islands. 

 The dialect of the women greatly resembles it. (Labat, vi. 131.) This strongly confirms the tradition 

 I have mentioned. The Caribbees themselves imagine that they were a colony from the Galabis, a 

 powerful nation of Guiana, in South America. (Tertre, 361 ; Rochefort, 348.) But, as their fierce 

 manners approach nearer to those of the people in the northern Continent than to those of the 

 natives of South America, and as their language has, likewise, some affinity to that spoken in Florida, 

 their origin should be deduced rather from the former than the latter. (Labat, 128; Herrera, dec. i. 

 lib. ix. c. 4.) In their wars they still observe the ancient practice of destroying all the males, and 

 preserving the women, either for servitude or for breeding." 



