CAITNTBAI,I5M AND HUMAN SACJliriCES. 
413 
killed liim, and hid the body behind a copse of thick trees, 
near Esmeralda. This crime, like many others among the 
Indians, would have remained unknown, if the murderer had 
not made preparations for a feast on the following day. He 
tried to induce his children, born in the mission and become 
Christians, to go with him for some parts of the dead body. 
They had much difficulty in persuading him to desist from 
his purpose; and the soldier who was posted at Esmeralda, 
learned from the domestic squabble caused by this event, 
what the Indians would have concealed from his knowledge. 
It is known that cannibalism and the practice of human 
sacrifices, with which it is often connected, are found to 
exist in all parts of the globe, and among people of very 
different races;* but what strikes us more in the study of 
history is to see human sacrifices retained in a state of 
civilization somewhat advanced ; and that the nations who 
hold it a point of honour to devour their prisoners are not 
always the rudest and most ferocious. The painful facts 
have not escaped the observation of those missionaries who 
are sufficiently enlightened to reflect on the manners of 
the surrounding tribes. The Cabres, the Guipunaves, and 
the Caribs, havo always been more powerful and more 
civilized than the other hordes of the Orinoco ; and yet 
the two former are as much addicted to anthropophagy as 
the latter are repugnant to it. ¥e must carefully distin- 
guish the different branches into which the great family 
°f the Caribbee nations is divided. These branches are as 
numerous as those of the Mongols, and the western Tartars, 
°r Turcomans. The Caribs of the continent, those who 
inhabit the plains between the Lower Orinoco, the liio 
franco, the Essequibo, and the sources of the Oyapoc, 
hold in horror the practice of devouring their enemies. 
This barbarous custom, + at the first discoveiy of America, 
* Some casual instances of children carried off by the negroes in the 
island of Cuba have led to the belief, in the Spanish colonies, that there 
ar e tribes of cannibals in Africa. This opinion, though supported by 
?°Qie travellers, is not borne out by the researches of Mr. Barrow on the 
i Q terior of that country. Superstitious practices may have given rise to 
imputations perhaps as unjust as those of which Jewish families were the 
Vl ctims in the ages of intolerance and persecution. 
1* See Geraldini Itinerarium, p. 18(i, and the eloqueut tract of cardinal 
Bembo on the discoveries of Columbus. *'Insularum partem homines 
