THE HUMAN SPECIES. 277 



and persisting dialects. This last observation is already per- 

 ceptible in the catechisms and prayers printed in the Huron 

 and other languages, by French missionaries, not quite a cen- 

 tury ago, and now only understood in consequence of daily 

 repetition and careful explanation. At least, such was the 

 information we received on the spot. One people we must, 

 however, except from the rest, namely, the Carib, or that por- 

 tion of the Carib tribes which still occupies parts of the mari- 

 time border of north-eastern South America, because, as we 

 have before observed, many opinions, institutions, and even 

 words in their language, bespeak an intercourse that once 

 appears to have existed between the ancestors of the present 

 families and a Semitic nation, perhaps Phoenician or Hebrew. 

 That they were once not a sedentary nation is evinced, since 

 they still refrain from travelling in the interior, unless previ- 

 ously prepared for it by peculiar ceremonies, excepting one 

 tribe, which is remarkable for enterprise, and, in a small com- 

 pany, will fearlessly penetrate among hostile nations, much in 

 the character of fighting pedlers. The Caribs were, like their 

 prototypes of the Old World, a nautical people, partly cannibals 

 and conquerors, over all the islands of the West Indian seas ; 

 having commenced, some generations before the arrival of 

 Columbus, their career of invasion by those nearest the coast, 

 and gradually extending their enterprise to the north and west, 

 till they had subdued all to the east of Hayti, where, at the 

 time of the Spanish discovery, they had, as yet, only secured 

 dominion for themselves in the vicinity of Samana Eay. It is 

 erroneously asserted that no indigenous people of America had 

 contrived sea-going vessels of any size ; for if the information 

 we received while in the country be trustworthy, within a 

 sandy portion of the border of the river Yuna, in this very bay 

 of Samana, a sunken canoe was found buried, which was 

 nearly 100 feet in length, proportionally broad ; and what was 

 considered to be sufficient evidence of the period when it had 

 perished, was the discovery of a stone vessel, a stone casse-tete, 

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