FEWKEsl AECHEOLOGICAL OBJECTS 219 



The various accounts which we have of the tribes of the AntiUes 

 indicate that the Indians of Boriuquen were a composite race, a mix- 

 ture of Arawak and Carib. 



Davies writes: "But those who have convers'd a long time together 

 among the savages of Dominico relate that the Caribhian inhabitants 

 of that island are of the opinion that their ancestors came from out of 

 the continent, from among the Calibites, to make a war against a 

 nation of the Arouagues, which inhabited the islands, which nation 

 they utterly destroy'd, excepting only the women whom they toolv to 

 themselves, and bj' that means i-epeopK^d the island. Whence it comes 

 that the wives of the Caribbian inha)>itants of the island have a lan- 

 guage different from that of the men in many things, and in some 

 consonant to that of the Arouagues of the continent." 



Whether the West Indies had a population antedating both Carib 

 and Arawak is a ciuestion upon which little light can be thrown at 

 present by archeology or ethnology. The resemblances between pre- 

 historic stone w^ork from Guiana and that from the islands would seem 

 to connect the peoples of these localities, although there are some 

 objects, like the stone rings, which are peculiar to the islanders. 



It is difficult, perhaps impossible, properly to assign the place of 

 Antillean culture among primitive men except in a comparative way, 

 but that they excelled their neighbors in certain arts there can hardly 

 be a doubt. The technic of stoneworking among them certainly 

 equaled that of other American tribes, and was not far below the 

 highest. To fashion the stone collars peculiar to them and to orna- 

 ment their idols required both skill and industry. The smoothness of 

 their stone implements, often made of the hardest rock, is unsurpassed, 

 and their textiles were of a high order of merit. 



That the race was inferior to that which built the great cities of 

 Central America there is little doubt; but it was superior to people 

 of contiguous regions of North and (South America. The character of 

 the stoneworking and the forms into which I'ock was cut are char- 

 acteristic, showing a specialized culture, indicating long residence on 

 the islands. 



It is pertinent in the consideration of the peopling of the West 

 Indies to give weight to the possibility that profound geological 

 changes in the contours of the islands may have taken place since man 

 first colonized them. Have the Lesser Antilles been geologically con- 

 nected with South America in times so recent that man may have 

 migrated to them dry-shod, or was Cuba continuous with North America 

 at the time when the former receiv^ed its first human inhabitants^ 



There is no doubt that the chain of islands, from Trinidad to Porto 

 Rico, is of volcanic origin, and it is held by some geologists that the 

 Caribbean sea, and possibly the Gulf of Mexico, constituted an inland 

 lake in comparatively recent times. Well-mai"ked changes of level 



