AMONG THE CARIBS. 95 
voyage, with a large fleet, fully equipped, September 
25, 1493- On the second day of November he first 
sighted land, and in exploring the shores of the island 
— Guadeloupe — he found the people of whom he 
was in search. “Here the Spaniards first saw the 
anana, or pine-apple, the flavor and fragrance of 
which astonished and delighted them. But what 
struck them with horror was the sight of human bones, 
vestiges, as they supposed, of unnatural repasts, and 
skulls apparently used as vases and other household 
utensils. These dismal objects convinced them that 
they were now in the abodes of the Cannibals, or 
Caribs, whose predatory expeditions and ruthless char- 
acter rendered them the terror of these seas. 
“In several hamlets they met with proofs of the 
cannibal propensities of the natives. Human limbs 
were suspended to the beams of the houses as if curing 
for provisions; the head of a young man, recently 
killed, was yet bleeding ; some parts of his body were 
roasting before the fire, others boiling with the flesh 
of geese and parrots.” 
On the following day the boats landed and suc- 
ceeded in taking and bringing off a boy and several 
women. From them Columbus learned that the in- 
habitants of this island were in league with two neigh- 
boring islands, but made war upon all the rest. They 
even went on predatory enterprises, in canoes made 
from the hollowed trunks of trees, to the distance of 
one hundred and fifty leagues. 
Their arms were bows and arrows, pointed with the 
bones of fishes or shells of tortoise, and poisoned with 
the juice of a certain herb. They made descents 
upon the islands, ravaged the villages, carried off the ° 
