tag="{http://www.w3.org/1999/xhtml}a">460

Advertisements 460

List of Notes and Queries volumes and pages

Notes.

THE ABORIGINES OF ST. DOMINGO.

Perhaps you will kindly permit me to have recourse to "NOTES AND QUERIES" for the purpose of pointing out one or two errors in a letter from Sir R. Schomburgk, which was read at the meeting of the British Association on the 3rd July last, section of Geography and Ethnology. This communication, entitled "Ethnological Researches in Santo Domingo," and addressed to His Royal Highness Prince Albert, contains the following statement: I quote from the Athenæum of the 5th July:—

"The extirpation of the pure Indian race prevented me from making comparative inquiries between the still existing tribes of Guiana, and those that once inhabited St. Domingo. My researches were therefore restricted to what history and the few and poor monuments have transmitted to us of their customs and manners. Their language lives only in the names of places, rivers, trees, and fruits; but all combine in declaring that the people who bestowed these names were identical with the Carib and Arawaak tribes of Guiana."

The last sentence in this passage is obviously erroneous. That the aboriginal inhabitants of the great Antilles (Santo Domingo, Cuba, Porto-Rico, and Jamaica,) were identical with, or descended from, the Arawaaks of Guiana, is an opinion which has long prevailed, and which the circumstances stated by Sir R. Schomburgk tend to confirm. Indeed, they are described by most writers as Indians or Arawaaks. But that there was any identity between the Indians and the tribes known by the name of Caribs, is an assertion totally at variance with the established facts. In support, however, of this assertion, Sir R. Schomburgk appeals to "history;" but what history, he does not state. I have perused, and still possess, almost every work that was ever written on the history of these islands; and they all lead to the conclusion, that the Indians of Santo Domingo (also called Hispaniola and Haiti) were a totally distinct race from the Caribs. The Indians were a mild, inoffensive people; the Caribs a race of savages, some say, cannibals. The former were indolent and effeminate; the latter fierce and warlike. In short, no two races ever presented such a striking disparity, not only in their manners and customs, but in their features and personal appearance.

The second error into which Sir R. Schomburgk has fallen, is where he says:

"There are various proofs that the Caribs inhabited Santo Domingo; among others, I found at the eastern point of the island, called Junta Engaño, numerous heaps of conch shells."

The fact is, that the Caribs were the mortal enemies of the Indians. They were engaged with them in the fiercest warfare, and made frequent depredatory incursions into Santo Domingo and the other large islands. But they never formed any settlements in those islands, and cannot be said to have "inhabited" any of them, in the sense in which that word is used by Sir R. Schomburgk.

Whenever the Caribs in any of the lesser Antilles projected an expedition against the Indians, they provided themselves with clubs and poisoned arrows, and set off in their canoes. On their way, they touched at most of the other small islands; and with their conch shells, of which they always kept a supply, they summoned their brother Caribs to join the expedition. As the fleet of canoes approached St. Domingo (the principal theatre of their depredations) they glided silently along the coast, and secreted themselves in some sheltered bay, till the darkness of the night enabled them to emerge from their hiding places. Then, with the most savage yells and war-whoops, accompanied by the blowing of shells, they pounced upon the nearest village, beating down with their clubs such of the Indians as had not taken refuge in flight. In these encounters, however, the Caribs were not always victorious. If the Indians were less robust and warlike than their invaders, they were also far more numerous; and it sometimes happened that the Caribs were driven back to their canoes with much slaughter. In all hand-to-hand conflicts the conch shells would easily get detached, or, becoming an incumbrance, would be thrown aside; and the Indians, finding them on the field of battle, may be supposed to have piled them up as so many trophies.

As the Caribs were incited to these incursions by the prospect of plunder among a race of people their superiors in the arts of civilisation, but chiefly from their inveterate hatred to the Indians, so the moment they had accomplished their object, they lost no time in retreating from a country where a longer sojourn would only have afforded their enemies an opportunity of risings en masse, and exterminating them by the superiority of their numbers.

These facts are sufficient to account for the heaps of shells found by Sir R. Schomburgk, and for the other traces of the Caribs which he appears to have discovered in St. Domingo, without resorting to the supposition that the Caribs had actually "inhabited" that island, or warranting the conclusion that the two races were identical.

HENRY H. BREEN.

St. Lucia, Sept. 1851.

MITIGATION OF CAPITAL PUNISHMENT TO A FORGER.

The well-known cases of Dr. D. the divine and Mr. F. the banker, who were executed for forgery, notwithstanding the powerful intercessions that were made in their behalf, induced me to suppose that any mitigation of punishment under similar circumstances used to be a very rare occurrence; and, if so, that a curious instance of successful application for mercy may interest some readers of "NOTES AND QUERIES."

A young man of respectable Scotch connexions settled in a town in the north of England as a merchant, and soon afterwards made an offer of marriage to a young lady of the same place. Her parents rejected his suit, on the ground of his not being sufficiently established in business, and he seemed to acquiesce in their decision. In a short time, however, the young merchant took possession of larger premises than he had hitherto occupied, and showed other symptoms of wishing to have it understood that his fortunes were improving. But these appearances were of short duration. He was suddenly arrested, and committed to take his trial at the ensuing assizes on several charges of forgery. Immediately after his arrest, a sister of singularly energetic character arrived from Scotland, and applied to the father of my informant for professional aid. This gentleman told her that he never touched criminal business, and declined to interfere. But she was no common client, and it ended in his undertaking to prepare the defence of her brother, and receiving her into his house as a guest. Her immediate object was to prevent the prosecutors pressing their charges at the trial; and, by her indefatigable management, she succeeded with all, except the L——bank, the directors of which, as a matter of principle, were inexorable to her entreaties. The trial came on