64 ISLAND CULTURE AREA OF AMERICA [eth. anx.34 



tives are on the contrary white [lighter in color?] and have long, 

 straight, blond hair." '" 



According to Las Casas, who is said to have possessed accounts 

 of the third voj'age of the great admiral which are now lost, the 

 sailors of Columbus saw human footprints on the shore of Trinidad 

 and discovered implements showing that the aborigines were lisher- 

 men. As Columbus skirted this coast he observed houses and culti- 

 vated fields " bien probada a labrada," indicating that agriculture 

 as well as fishing was practiced by the natives. In the meager refer- 

 ence to the people given by Las Casas he says incidentally that " they 

 were lighter and better proportioned than those of the other Antilles, 

 and wore their hair long, like the women of Castile. They wore 

 variegated cloth headbands, and girdles on the loins. The men were 

 armed with bows and arrows, and, unlilce the inhabitants of the 

 other Antilles, had [war] shields."^^ The identity of these people is 

 not clear from this early account, but somewhat later they were re- 

 ferred to as Arawak. 



Sir Robert Duddeley in 1595 made a journey through Trinidad 

 and lodged in " Indian towns," finding the natives a fine-shaped and 

 gentle"* (sic) people, naked and painted red. 



Later, Sir Walter Kaleigh enumerated the following " nations " 

 or races in Trinidad : Yaios, Amecos (Arawak), Sal vagay (Salivas). 

 Nepoios, and Carinepagotos. At the end of the seventeenth century 

 there were said to have been 15 Indian towns in Trinidad, but the 

 2,032 aborigines recorded as inhabiting the island in 1783 had 

 dwindled to 1,082 ten years later. ^^ 



In some of the early historical references to Trinidad all the 

 natives are classed as Arawak.-* Thus Davies ^^ writes : " It was 

 when the captain was engaged for the war against the Arawages 

 who inhabit Trinity [Trinidad] Island, and to that purpose he made 

 extraordinary preparations." In other references to the Trinidad 

 aborigines which might be quoted the name of Carib does not occur. 



^ It Is not improbable that in ancient times there was frequent communication 

 between the inhabitants of the mainland nf South America and Trinidad — a communi- 

 cation that was liept up until quite recently, for it was only a few years ago that canoe 

 loads of Indians were accustomed to land at Erin Ba.v, at rare intervals, and make their 

 way by an old Indian trail to the present city of San Fernando, via Siparia. through the 

 original forests. These visits are now made primarily for trade and are probably a 

 survival of a custom quite common in prehistoric times. Well-marked *' Indian trails '* 

 can still be followed through the forest depths. 



^ The Warrau, who lived on the mainland, have a large square shield called ha-ha, 

 used in athletic sports. (See E. F. im Thurn, Among the Indians of Guiana, London, 

 18.S3, p. 327. J 



2^ This is not characteristic of the Carib, according to ideas current then or in later 

 times. It may be noticed, en passant, that there is no mention of Carib in the early 

 accounts of the Indians in Trinidad seen by Columbus. 



23 On Bryan Edwards's map of the West Indies an " Indian town " appears on the east 

 coast of Trinidad. 



"•The historical evidences all agree that the people of this Island were an agricultural 

 race allied in culture to .\rawak. 



» History of the Carribby-Isiands, 1666. 



