COOK — THE COCONUT PALM IN AMERICA. 291 



Even when the lands along the coast were extensively cultivated, as 

 described by Columbus in Hayti, it was difficult to find people or 

 houses. One of Peter Martyr's letters to the Pope gives an account 

 of the Caribs and reflects the impression of the early explorers regard- 

 ing the havoc wrought by them in the West Indies. 



Theyr common meate, is Ages, Tucca, Maizium, Battata, with suche other rootes 

 and frutes of trees, and also suche fysshe as they vse in the Ilandes and other regions 

 of these prouinces. They eate mans fleshe but seldome, bycause they meete not 

 oftentyrnes with strangiers, except they goo foorth of theyr owne dominions with a 

 mayne armye of purpose to hunt for men, when theyr rauenynge appetite pricketh 

 them forwarde. For they absteyne from them selues, and eate none but suche as 

 they take in the warres or otherwyse by chaunce. But suerly it is a miserable thynge 

 to heare howe many myriades of men these fylthy and vnnaturall deuourers of mans 

 flesshe haue consumed, and lefte thousandes of moste fayre and frutfull Ilandes and 

 regioDs desolate withowte menne: By reason wherof owre men founde so many 

 Ilandes whiche for theyr fayrenes and frutefulnesse myght seeme to bee certeyne 

 earthly Paradyses, and yet were vtterly voyde of men. Hereby yowre holynesse may 

 consider howe pernitious a kynde of men this is.& 



With such enemies to pounce upon them from the sea it is easy to 

 understand that the coconut palm could not be popular among the 

 coast-dwelling natives of the West Indies after the Carib invasions 

 began. To plant coconut palms, or even to allow them to grow 

 where they could be seen from the sea, would only invite the attacks 

 of the cannibals by showing them where their human prey could be 

 found . 



THE PALMS OF COCOS ISLAND. 



Another piece of definite evidence regarding the habits and history 

 of the coco palm comes from a small island in the Pacific Ocean 

 about 300 miles to the west of Panama. The name Cocos Island 

 was given by the early navigators because of the abundance of 

 coconut palms found on it. Since the coming of the Spaniards, 

 however, the island has not been inhabited and the coconut palms 

 have almost completely disappeared. Prof. H. Pittier, who visited 

 Cocos Island in May, 1898, and again in February, 1902, in the 

 interest of the Costa Rican Government, reports that the palms 

 that now abound on Cocos Island are not coconut palms, but belong 

 to the genus Euterpe. Some of the American palms that have been 

 referred to Euterpe have a superficial resemblance to coconut palms, 



a He believed that the villages must be at a distance from the sea, whither they went 

 when the ships arrived; for they all took to flight, taking everything with them, and 

 they made smoke-signals, like a people at war. — The Journal of Columbus, trans, by 

 C. R. Markham, p. 104, Hakluyt Society, 1893. 



& Martire in Arber, op. cit., p. 159. (See footnote, p. 276, above.) 



