The Hijlory of Book I. 



the word fhould be Ant-Jjles, as being compos'd of the Greek 

 word 'Avt:1 3 which fignifies oppoftte i and Ijles or lies : But the 

 Englifh commonly call them the Caribby-lfiands, and the Carib* 

 bus. There are alfo who call them the Cannibal-lfands, from 

 the names of the ancient Inhabitants $ and they are read in 

 iome under the name of the Camer;ane Iflands. 



Thefe Iflands were firft difcovered by Chriftopher Columbus, 

 under the Reign of Ferdinand and Ifabella, Ring and Queen of 

 Cafiile and Leonjn the year of our Lord,One thoufandfour hun- 

 dred ninety and two. 



There are numbred of them in all twenty eight, lying under 

 the Torrid Zone., acounting from the eleventh degree of the 

 ./Equator, to the nineteenth Northward. Some Authors, as 

 Linfcot in his Hiftory of Americajaking the name of the Antilles 

 in a more general fignification, attribute it to the four greater 

 Iflands, to wit, Hij]>aniola, Cuba, Jamaica, and Porto-Rico, as well 

 as to thefe twenty eight. 



The Air of all thefe Iflands is temperate,and healthy enough, 

 efpecially to fuch as have lived any time in them. The Plague 

 heretofore was not known in thefe Parts, no more than it was 

 in China, and fome other places of the Eaft .* But fome years 

 fince molt of thefe Iflands were much troubled with malignant 

 Fevers, which the Phyfitians held to be contagious. That cor- 

 ruption of the Air was occafion'd by fome Ships which came 

 from the Coaft of Africk\ but now there is no talk of any 

 fuch Difeafes. 



The heats are not greater in thefe parts than they are in 

 France during the Months of July and Augufi ^ and through a 

 particular care of Divine Providence, between eight and nine 

 in the morning there rifes a gentle Eaft-wind, which many times 

 continues till four in the afternoon, refrelhing the Air, and al- 

 laying the foultrinefs of the heat. Jofephus Acojia affirms, That 

 in the greater Iflands of America this cooling wind blows about 

 Noon. Thus through all the compafs of the Torrid Zone, the 

 wife Difpofer of humane concernments hath ordered cool and 

 regular Winds, to alleviate the torching heats of the Sun. 



Jt is never cold in the Caribbies, and Ice is a thing was never 

 feen in thofe parts 5 nay, it would be accounted a kind of pro- 

 digy to find that where, 



All things are clad in a perpetual green, 

 And Winter only in the Snow of Lillies feen. 



But the Nights there are extreamly cool $ and if a Man be un- 

 covered during that time, he is apt to catch Colds, and great 

 and dangerous pains in the Cheft and Stomach : Nay, it hath 

 been oblerv'd. That thofe who have expos'd themfelves unco- 

 ver'd to that pleafing coolnefs, if they have efcaped pains and 



griping? 



OS) 



