FEWKES] ARCHEOLOGICAL OBJECTS 217 



Orinoco to-day. The mode of burial of .•-ome of the Venezuela tribes 

 and that of the ancient Porto Ricans were identical. Similar methods 

 of preservation of skeletons or human skulls in baskets were adopted 

 by both peoples; the}' were equally adept in canoe building; their 

 houses were similar; and we might go on pointing out resemblance 

 after resemblance, each new likeness adding in geometrical ratio to 

 the probability of the identity of Antilles n and Orinocan cultures. In 

 the author's judgment these facts admit of but one interpi-etation — 

 that the culture of prehistoric Porto Rico was South American rather 

 than Yucatec or Floridian. 



Of the many tribes of Venezuela to which the ancient people of 

 Porto Rico maj' haye been related the Carib may first be considered. 

 At the time of the discovery this people had made excursions through- 

 out the whole of the West Indies and had occupied the Lesser Antilles 

 as far north as the island of Vieques and the eastern end of Porto Rico. 

 That this vigorous stock came primarily from South America, where 

 its survivors now live, there can hardly be a doubt, and that it origi- 

 nated there seems highly probable. In peopling the islands the Carib 

 followed the same law of migration as the earliest inhabitants, their 

 predecessors, and at the time of Columbus had already concjuered the 

 Lesser Antilles. 



Of other peoples of the Orinoco akin to the prehistoric Porto Ricans 

 it would be difhcult to decide upon an}' one among the many tribes as 

 the nearest kindred of the Borinquenos, but geographical, linguistic, 

 and cultural conditions point very strongly to the Guai'ano, who once 

 lived along the Orinoco and the coast of Venezuela and now occupy 

 the delta of that great stream. 



It may be theoretically supposed that ths germ of the maritime cul- 

 ture of the island people preceding the Carib was developed on riv- 

 ers —as the Orinoco and its triliutaries — where environment made 

 canoes absolutel}' necessary for movement from place to place. This 

 fluviatile culture, the product of necessity, easily becomes maritime, 

 and when once it had passed into this stage the peopling of the adja- 

 cent islands was an inevitable result. It does not appear that environ- 

 ment in the southeastern parts of the United States was adequate to 

 develoiJ a fluviatile culture of great development, certainlj' not to the 

 extent that was found on the Orinoco, nor were conditions and neces- 

 sities favorable to it. Life on the Orinoco was specifically a river 

 life, and, with the means of river navigation, visits to the islands were 

 what would be expected. Urged by their relentless foes, the Carib, 

 the Orinoco jjeople of more peaceful nature were driven to seek ref- 

 uge in the delta or pushed out on the islands. 



The South American origin of West Indian islanders is not accepted 

 by all writers on these aborigines. The account which Davies gives of 

 the Carib he derived from a certain Master Brigstock, an English 



