" Timehri " or Pictured Rocks. 5 



always wandering in search of food and never got enough unless they 

 were victors in great fights. Starvation was the rule with wanderers 

 like the Caribs, hence only a victory with a cannibal feast could satisfy 

 their hunger, Possibly in some cases years might pass with hardly 

 enough food to keep life together ; the victory and the feast were worth 

 commemorating. 



The Carib invaders of Guiana necessarily had little in the way of 

 provisions. They did not stop long in one place and though they fished 

 and collected molluscs their real food supply came from prisoners and 

 those killed in their raids. We have an account by an early voyager 

 of the capture of a corial at the bottom of which was a bound captive 

 ready to be eaten when the Caribs stopped for the night. We can get 

 a fair idea of the position from " Robinson Crusoe." There is plenty of 

 evidence to prove their cannibal propensities as well as their over- 

 powering strength. 



The evidence of the mounds in the North- West points to the former 

 existence of communities in that district far more numerous than can now 

 be found in any part of Guiana. The kitchen-middens twenty feet in 

 diameter and as high, either represent large communities or peaceful 

 occupation for a long time ; probably both. 



The people who lived there were more civilised than those we know 

 and probably defended themselves against the invaders. But it is evident 

 that they were killed and eaten and that probably only a few escaped 

 into the interior. This, however, took some time and the invaders did not 

 enter the large rivers at once ; centuries may have passed before the 

 coast people were captured or driven away. The invaders probably 

 divided, one section conquered and occupied the Caribbean Islands, the 

 other invaded Trinidad and the coast down to Cayenne. There is a 

 possible explanation that the invaders of the great rivers were people 

 who had been driven from the coast and not Caribs, they would be natural 

 enemies to the inland peoples. 



The problem of the origin of the various tribes found in South 

 America on the arrival of Europeans is insoluble. Certain facts, how- 

 ever, point to a series of migrations from the North, partly through 

 Central America and partly by corials through the Gulf of Mexico and 

 Caribbean Sea. The American race appears to have developed in what is 

 now the United States where evidence of paleolithic implements in 

 enormous quantities points to a very long and slow development before 

 much migration took place. Few can appreciate the fact that the distri- 

 bution of chipped implements in North America points to long ages of 

 gradual progress before the Mexican and Peruvian civilisation could be 

 pessible. Everywhere we can find evidence not only of man's presence in 

 the past but of his long residence. Dwellings and everything th it decay 

 may be absent and yet stone implements and pottery are almost eternal. 

 Even in Guiana the neolithic relics are everywhere and it is noticeable 

 that in no district are they wanting. They may be found on the surface 



