.chap, iv.] WEST INDIES. 
157 
SECTION III. 
ANTIGUA. 
Antigua is situated about twenty leagues to 
the eastward of St. Christopher’s, and was disco¬ 
vered at the same time with that island by Colum¬ 
bus himself, who named it from a church in Se¬ 
ville, Santa Maria de la Antigua. We are inform¬ 
ed by Ferdinand Columbus, that the Indian name 
was Jamaica. It is a singular circumstance, that 
this word, which in the language of the larger 
islands signified a country abounding in springs , 
should, in the dialect of the Charaibes, have been 
applied to an island that has not a single spring 
or rivulet of fresh water in it. 
This inconvenience, without doubt, as it render¬ 
ed the country uninhabitable to the Charaibes, de¬ 
terred for some time the European adventurers in 
the neighbouring islands from attempting a perma¬ 
nent establishment in Antigua; but nature pre¬ 
sents few obstacles which the avarice or industry of 
civilized man will not endeavour to surmount. The 
lands were found to be fertile, and it was discovered 
that cisterns might be contrived to hold rain-water A 
* The water thus preserved is wonderfully light, pure, and whole¬ 
some. 
