90 THE ABORIGINES OF PORTO RICO [eth. ann. 25 



rocognized, additional efforts will be made to preserve such specimens 

 for the archeologist. Porto Rico has l)een particularly fortunate in this 

 regard. It has had man\- local students who have been interested in 

 the aboriginal historj- of the island and manv more who have pre- 

 served relics, awaiting the time when scientific men would use them in 

 their studies. 



One finds few writings on this subject prior to the middle of the 

 nineteenth century and can count almost on his fingers the published 

 works on Porto Rican archeology up to the present time, although 

 several collections of prehistoric objects made l)v local collectors have 

 drifted into museums or private hands in the I'nited States and Europe 

 or still remain on the island. 



The Latimer collection, which is the largest ever made on the island, 

 and has attracted the most attention, was presented to the Smithsonian 

 Institution by George Latimer. It was described in 187t> by Pro- 

 fessor O. T. Mason, the nestorof American ethnology. This publica- 

 tion, the most complete account of Porto Rican antiquities which has 

 appeared, stimulated an ever-increasing interest in the subject that 

 was heightened by the annexation of the island to the United States. 

 In 1898, more than a quarter of a century after Mason's catalogue of 

 the Latimer collection first appeared in print, owing to the increased 

 demand for information regarding the antiquities of the island, the 

 Smithsonian Institution reprinted it as Ijcing still the best work extant 

 on the sul)ject. 



The author considers himself fortunate in being able to include in this 

 article descriptions of the objects in the Latimer collection, and he has 

 drawn largely from Professor Mason's work in many quotations scat- 

 tered through the following pages. 



In considering the material from Porto Rico, when necessary com- 

 parative data from other islands, as Santo Domingo and the Lesser 

 Antilles, have been introduced. Porto Rico was the center of an Antil- 

 lean culture but the same or an allied culture was found in neighboring- 

 islands, so that it is not well at present to limit this report to Porto 

 Rico, notwithstanding the relatively great size of collections from that 

 island. 



It is unfortunate in some ways that the exact localities where the 

 objects were found can not be stated definitely, and it is equally to be 

 regretted that we do not know accurately whether one or two of the 

 specimens were collected in Santo Domingo or Porto Rico. There 

 were two, perhaps three, different races — the Carib, the Arawak, 

 and possibly an archaic population of cave dwellers — in Porto Rico 

 before the advent of Columbus. It may be possible later to distinguish 

 the objects which belonged to each of these different peoples, but at 

 present it is not. 



