The First Barbadians. 143 
the spiral central column of the giant Conch, and a knife form made from the 
thickened lip of the orifice of the same shell. These seem to be found princi- 
pally at places where boats could be hauled up, which indicates that they 
were used for the preparation of fish and probably for removing the charred 
wood from the interior of dug-out canoes in the tedious process by which they 
were manufactured before metal was introduced. These shell tools are un- 
doubtedly of Barbadian origin, as the material is at hand and plentiful and 
indeed many of those offered for sale to tourists are forgeries which have 
deceived even the elect. These forgeries have a fresh waxy look, which an old 
dead shell loses entirely, and they are made by people who do not know the 
use of them and when held in the hand in the manner in which they should be 
used betray themselves by having cutting or chaffing edges on the palm ; 
moreover the marks of a file can often be detected, though the finder of a 
genuine one will sometimes improve it by putting a new edge on it with a file. 
The genuine implement is often perforated in many places by teredos, has a 
dead chalky appearance, in fact has become more allied to a mineral sub- 
stance than to organic matter, but it is not fossilised, as a comparison of a 
genuine implement with a piece of fossil conch will immediately show by the 
great specific gravity of the latter. 
The Pottery is of two classes, the two-handled drinking cup and the caldron. 
The remains of handles and booses I saw are inspired by the same ideals of 
artistic ugliness as our Aruka specimens, but in both workmanship and material 
are greatly inferior to ours. The caldrons are found almost exclusively in the 
submerged village in Oistins Bay, which I regret I had not time or opportunity 
to visit. This village has either been submerged by erosion or was built on 
piles in the sea like the village founded in the Gulf of Maricaybo, by the first 
explorers, which gave Venezuela (little Venice) its name. The caldrons are 
sometimes washed up by the sea in an almost perfect condition, but it is said 
that on exposure to the dry air they break into many fragments as their 
porous, soft, thick material has been water-logged for centuries and much of 
their constituent fabric dissolved. They are very large indeed and their 
spherical diameter must have been about two feet or more, their use was un- 
doubtedly for cooking and their capacity suggests the scene described on the 
seashore in Robinson Crusoe. For though Alexand’er Selkirk was the pro- 
totype of the hero, our Indians from the islands and Spanish Main are the 
prototypes of Man Friday and his captors and they are drawn too from well- 
informed authorities. Shell implements and other things are found at Oistins 
Bay, some specimens of which, given me by Dr. Hutson, I have left in the 
Museum. They are much marked by teredos and therefore genuine. 
The conclusions which these remains point to are: that the first Barbadians 
were Indians, few in number, wanting in many of the implements and arts of 
their continental brethren, and unable to defend themselves from the guile or 
force of the small ship’s companies which visited the island at long intervals 
during the hundred of years which preceded the English settlement. This is 
a summary of the facts as far as my information and observation go, And 
