108 



SCIENCE. 



[N. S. Vol. XVI. No. 394. 



River, but the majority have been de- 

 stroyed, the flat bounding stones having 

 been used for pavements or other purposes. 

 It is conjectured that the rows of stones 

 which form the periphery of these enclo- 

 sures are the remains of seats for spectators, 

 the judges or cacique occupying seats in 

 the middle, as Oviedo describes. "While ball 

 games may have taken place in them, it 

 seems to me highly probable from their 

 mode of construction, situation, and other 

 characters that they were also used as dance 

 courts, in which were celebrated some of 

 the solemn religious ceremonies of the 

 clans. 



From this imperfect sketch, and much 

 more of a like import — which will be de- 

 veloped later in a more extended account 

 of Antillean archeology — certain general 

 conclusions have been drawn which have 

 a relation to the early migrations of man 

 on the American continent. The peopling 

 of the Antilles is believed to have occurred 

 at a comparatively modern date and to 

 have been brought about by off-shoots of 

 the Arawak stock migrating in old times 

 from South America to Boriquen via the 

 chain of islands forming the Lesser An- 

 tilles. 



The peculiar culture of this race at- 

 tained its highest development in Hayti 

 and Porto Rieo, where conditions M'ere 

 most favorable to its growth. Cuba and 

 the Bahamas had likewise been peopled by 

 the same race, but in neither of these 

 islands was the culture the same as in the 

 islands mentioned. The Lesser Antilles, 

 exposed to inroads from savage South 

 American tribes of the same stock as those 

 of Porto Rico, were unable, from physical 

 and agricultural conditions, to preserve the 

 sedentary culture of the more central is- 

 lands. They were practically the starting 

 points of the foraging parties which con- 

 stantly attacked Boriquen. 



The cradle of the prehistoric Antillean 

 culture was on the banks of the Orinoco 

 and its tributaries in the great republic of 

 Venezuela. His ancestors belonged to the 

 Arawak stock of South America. His 

 culture having naturally developed certain 

 distinctive features in fluviatile waters, 

 among great forests, became maritime, and 

 spread from island to island until it came 

 to Boriquen. There a part of the race be- 

 came sedentary, but with the adoption of 

 this kind of life lost much of its early 

 prowess and daring, retaining only certain 

 linguistic and other kinship with South 

 American relatives. 



In the same way the Caribs, another race 

 related in some respects but distinct in 

 others, swarmed out of the same Orinoco 

 valley, coasted from island to island in 

 the wake of its predecessor, and extended 

 its excursions to Florida and our Southern 

 States. This race also yielded to the in- 

 sular environment, and, commingling its 

 blood with that of the former, developed 

 the composite culture we have called Antil- 

 lean. These two peoples, and others of like 

 kin, at first tribally distinct, though mem- 

 bers of the same great stock by admixture 

 and changed by environment, were fast 

 coming to be homogeneous and thoroughly 

 amalgamated when the advent of the Eu- 

 ropean practically exterminated the Bori- 

 queiios and reduced the insular Carib to a 

 wretched remnant of one of the finest native 

 races of America. 



Imperfect as is the data now available or 

 possible to determine the nature of the 

 prehistoric Porto Rico I will remind you 

 that the problem of primitive culture is 

 that of all the Antilles, and that we are 

 on the threshold of a great subject, for, 

 judging from collections of antiquities 

 from the neighboring islands, I have no 

 hesitation in saying that a vast amount 



