The history of the Caribby-islands, viz, Barbados, St Christophers, St Vincents, Martinico, Dominico, Barbouthos, Monserrat, Mevis, Antego, &c in all XXVIII in two books : the first containing the natural, the second, the moral history of those islands : illustrated with several pieces of sculpture representing the most considerable rarities therein described : with a Caribbian vocabulary / rendred into English by John Davies ...

CHAP. XXI. Of the Treatment which the Caribbians make their Prisoners of War.

WE are now going to dip our Pen in Blood, and to draw a Picture which must raise horrour in the beholder; in this there must appear nothing but Inhumanity, Barbarism, and Rage; We shall find rational Creatures cruelly devouring those of the same species with them, and filling themselves with their Flesh and Blood, after they had cast off Humane Nature, and put on that of the most bloody and furious Beasts: A thing which the Pagans themselves, in the midst of their darkness, heretofore thought so full of execration, that they imagin'd the Sun withdrew himself, because he would not shew his light at such Repasts.

When the Cannibals, or Anthropophagi, that is, Eaters of Men (for here it is that we are properly to call them by that Name, which is common to them with that of the Caribbians); when I say they bring home Prisoner of War from among the Arou∣agues, he belongs of right to him who either seiz'd on him in the Fight, or took him running away; so that being come in∣to his Island, he keeps him in his house; and that he may not get away in the night, he ties him in an Amac, which he hangs up almost at the roof of his dwelling; and after he has kept him fasting four or five days, he produces him upon some day of solemn debauch, to serve for a publick Victim to the immor∣tal hatred of his Country-men towards that Nation.

If there be any of their Enemies dead upon the place, they there eat them ere they leave it: They design for slavery only the young Maids and Women taken in the War: They do not eat the Children of their She-prisoners, much less the Children they have by them themselves: They have heretofore tasted of all the Nations that frequented them, and affirm, That the French are the most delicate, and the Spaniards of hardest di∣gestion; but now they do not feed on any Christians at all.

They abstain also from several cruelties which they were wont to use before they kill'd their Enemies; for whereas at present they think it enough to dispatch them at a blow or two with the Club, and afterwards cut them into pieces, and having broyl'd them, to devour them; they heretofore put them to several torments, before they gave them the mortal blow: We shall not think it besides our purpose to set down in this place some of the inhumanities which they exercis'd upon these sad occasions, as they themselves have given an account thereof to

those have had the curiosity to inform themselves from their own mouths.

The Prisoner of War who had been so unfortunate as to fall into their hands, and was not ignorant that he was design'd to receive the most cruel treatment which rage could suggest, arm'd himself with constancy, and, to express how generous a people the Arouagues were, march'd very chearfully to the place of execution, not being either bound or drag'd thereto, and presented himself with a smiling and steady countenance in the midst of the Assembly, which he knew desir'd nothing so much as his death.

As soon as he perceiv'd those people who express'd so great joy at the approach of him, who was to be the mess of their abominable Entertainment, not expecting their discourses and their bitter abuses, he prevented them in these termes;

I know well enough upon what account you have brought me to this place; I doubt not but you are desirous to fill your selves with my blood, and that you are impatient to exercise your teeth upon my body; but you have not so much reason to triumph to see me in this condition, nor I much to be troubled there∣at: My Country-men have put your Predecessors to greater miseries than you are now able to invent against me; and I have done my part with them in mangling, massacring, and devouring your people, your friends, and your fathers; be∣sides that I have Relations who will not fail to revenge my quarrel with advantage upon you and upon your Children, for the most inhumane treatment you intend against me: What torments soever the most ingenious cruelty can dictate to you for the taking away of my life, is nothing in compa∣rison of those which my generous Nation prepares for you in exchange: therefore delay not the utmost of your cruelty any longer, and assure your selves I both slight and laugh at it.

Somwhat of this nature is that brave and bloody Bra∣vado which may be read of a Brasilian Prisoner, ready to be devour'd by his Enemies;

Come on boldly, said be to them, and feast your selves upon me; for at the same time you will feed on your Fathers and Grandfathers, who serv'd for nourishment to my Body: These Muscles, this Flesh, and these Veins are yours, blind Fools as you are; you do not observe, that the substance of the Members of your Ance∣stors are yet to be seen in them; taste them well, and you will find the taste of your own Flesh.

But let us return to our Arouagues.

His soul was not only in his lips, but shew'd it self also in the effects which follow'd that Bravado; for after the Company had a while endur'd his menaces and arrogant defiances with∣out touching him, one among them came and burnt his sides with a flaming brand; another cut good deep pieces out of him,

and would have made them bigger, had it not been for the bones, in several parts of the body: Then they cast into his smarting wounds that sharp kind of Spice which the Caribbians call Pyman: Others diverted themselves in shooting Arrows at the poor Patient; and every one took a pleasure in tormenting him; but he suffer'd with the same countenance, and expres∣sed not the least sentiment of pain: After they had made sport thus a long time with the poor wretch, at last growing weary of insulting, and out-brav'd by his constancy, which seem'd still the same, one of them came and at one blow dispatch'd him with his Club. This is the Treatment which the Caribbi∣ans made heretofore to their Prisoners of War; but now they think it enough to put them to a speedy death, as we have al∣ready represented.

As soon as this unfortunate person is thus laid dead upon the place, the young men take the body, and having wash'd it cut it in pieces, and then boyl some part, and broil some upon wooden Frames, made for that purpose, like Gridirons: When this detestable Dish is ready, and season'd according to their palates, they divide it into so many parts as there are persons present, and joyfully devour it, thinking that the World can∣not afford any other repast equally delicious: The Women lick the very sticks on which the fat of the Arouague dropp'd; which proceeds not so much from the deliciousness they find in that kind of sustenance, and that fat, as from the excessive pleasure they conceive in being reveng'd in that manner of their chiefest Enemies.

But as they would be extreamly troubled that the enraged hatred they bear the Arouagues should ever end, so do they make it their main endeavour to foment and heighten it: thence it comes, that while this poor Carcass is a dressing, they care∣fully gather and save all the fat that comes from it; not to put into Medicines, as Chirurgeons sometimes do; or to make wild∣fire of it, to set their Enemies houses on fire, as the Tartars do; but they gather together that fat to be afterwards distributed among the chiefest of them, who carefully keep it in little Gourds, to pour some few drops thereof into their Sauces at their solemn Entertainments, so to perpetuate, as much as lies in their power, the motive of their Revenge.

I must needs acknowledge, the Sun would have more reason to withdraw himself from these Barbarians, than to be present at such detestable Solemnities; but it would be requisite that he withdrew himself at the same time from most of the Coun∣tries of America, nay from some parts of Africk and Asia, where the like and worse cruelties are daily exercis'd: For instance, the Tapinambous make in a manner the same treatment to their prisoners, as the Caribbians do to theirs; but they add thereto divers expressions of barbarism, which are not to be seen in the

Caribbies: They rub the bodies of their Children with the blood of those miserable Victims, to animate them to future Cruelties: He who had been the Executioner of the Captive caus'd himself to be mangled and flash'd, and cut in several parts of the body, as a Trophey of Valour, and a mark of Glory: And what is yet superlatively strange, is, That those Barbarians bestowing their Daughters for Wives on those Ene∣mies, as soon as they fall into their hands, when they come to cut them in pieces, the Wife her self eats first, if it be possible, of the flesh of her Husband; and if it happen that she hath any Children by him, they are serv'd in the like manner, kill'd, rosted, and eaten; somtimes as soon as they come into the World. The like Barbarism hath somtimes been observ'd in several Provinces of Peru.

Divers other barbarous Nations do also exceed the Caribbians in their inhumanity; but above all, the Inhabitants of the Country of Antis are more cruel then Tygers: If it happens that by right of War or otherwise, they make a Prisoner, and that they know him to be a person of small account, they im∣mediately quarter him, and bestow the Members on their Friends or Servants, that they may eat them if they please, or sell them in the Shambles; but if he be a person of quality, the chiefest among them meet together, with their Wives and Children, to be present at his death: Then these unmerciful people having strip'd him, fasten him stark naked to a post, and cut and slash him all over the body with a sort of Knives and Rasours made of a certain Stone, such as may be Flint: In this cruel Execution they do not presently dismember him, but they only take the flesh from the parts which have most, as the calf of the Leg, the Thighs, the Buttoeks, and the Arms; that done, they all pell-mell, Men, Women, and Children, dye themselves with the blood of that wretched person; and not staying for the rosting or boyling of the Flesh they had taken away, they devour it like so many Cormorants, or rather swallow it down without any chewing: Thus the wretch sees himself eaten alive, and buried in the bellies of his Enemies: The Women adding yet somwhat to the cruelty of the Men, though excessively barbarous and inhumane, rub the ends of their Breasts with the blood of the Patient, that so their Chil∣dren may suck it in with their Milk. And if these inhumane Executioners have observ'd, that amidst all the torments they put the miserable deceas'd person to, he express'd the least sence of pain, either in his countenance or other parts of his body; or that he so much as groan'd or sigh'd, then they break his bones, after they have eaten the flesh about them, and cast them into some nasty place, or into a River, with an extream contempt.

Thus also do several other Nations cruelly insult over the

wretched remainders of their murthered Enemies, and exercise their inhumane revenge and barbarous animosity on that which hath no feeling thereof: Thus some Inhabitants of Florida, to satiate their brutality, hang up in their houses, and carry about them, the skins and hair of their Enemies; the Uirginians wear about their necks a dry'd hand; some Savages of New-Spain hang about some part of their bodies, after the manner of a Medal, a piece of their flesh whom they had massacred: The Lords of the Island by the French call'd Belle-Iste neer China, wear a Crown made up of Deaths-heads, hideously dispos'd, and interlac'd with silk strings: The Chineses make drinking∣cups of the Spaniards skuls whom they have kill'd, as heretofore the Scythians were wont to do with their Enemies, as Herodo∣tus affirms: The Canadians and the Mexicans dance on their Festival days, wearing about them the skins of those whom they had fley'd and eaten: The Huancas, an ancient Nation of Peru, made Drums of such skins, affirming, that when they were bea∣ten they had a secret virtue to make those who fought against them to run away.

From all this Discourse it may be deduced, to what degree of rage and fury Hatred and the desire of Revenge may ascend: And in these Examples there are are many circumstances more bloody, and some more detestable discoveries of cruelty and barbarism, then there are in the treatment which our Cannibals make to their Prisoners of War, the Arouagues.

But to make this treatment appear the less horrid, it were easie to bring on the Stage divers Nations, who besides that fu∣rious animosity, and that unquenchable thirst of Revenge, do further discover a barbarous and insatiable gluttony, and an ab∣solutely brutish passion of feeding on Mans flesh.

And in the first place, whereas our Cannibals ordinarily feed only upon the Arouagues, their irreconcileable Enemies, sparing the Prisoners they take of any other Nation, some Floridians, who live neer the Streight of Bahama, cruelly devour all the Strangers they can get into their hands, what Nation soever they be of; so that if any people land in their Country, and that they chance to be the stronger party, they must infallibly expect to be their next days Commons: They think Mans flesh extreamly delicate, from what part soever of the Body it be ta∣ken; but they affirm, that the sole of the foot is the most deli∣cious bit of any; thence it comes, that the said part is ordina∣rily serv'd up to their Carlin, who is their Lord, whereas anci∣ently the Tartars cut off the breasts of young Maids, and reser∣ved them for their chief Commanders, whose ordinary food they were. To these Barbarians we may add those of the Pro∣vince of Hascala, and of the Region of the City of Darien in New-Spain, who did eat not only the flesh of their Enemies, but also that of their own Country-men: And Historians af∣firm,

that the Yncas, Kings of Peru, subdued divers Provinces, the Inhabitants whereof thought no Law so rigorous and insup∣portable, among all those which the said victorious Princes im∣posed on them, as those which prohibited the eating of mans flesh, so much were they addicted to that execrable diet; for not staying till he whom they had mortally wounded, had gi∣ven up the ghost, they drunk off the blood which issued out of his wound; and they did the like when they cut him up into quarters, greedily sucking it, lest a drop should be lost: They had publick Shambles for the selling of mans flesh, whereof they took pieces and mine'd them very small, and of the en∣trails they made puddings and saucages: And particularly the Cheriganes, or Chirrhuanes, a people inhabiting the Mountains, had so strange and so insatiable an appetite to mans flesh, that they gluttonously eat it raw, not sparing their neerest Relations when they dyed: The same thing is at this day affirmed of the Tapuyes, a certain other oriental Nation; and Herodotus assures us of such a thing in his time; nay it is averred, that the peo∣ple of Java are so barbarous and so great lovers of that abo∣minable nourishment, that, to satisfie their damnable appetite, they deprive their Parents of their lives, and toss the pieces of their flesh one to another like balls, to see who shall have most of them: The Amures, a people of Brasil, are yet more inhu∣mane and detestable; so that we need not feign Saturnes de∣vouring their own children; for if we may credit Historians, these Barbarians eat in effect their own Children, member after member, and sometimes opening the wombs of great belly'd women, they take out the fruit thereof, which they immedi∣ately devour, longing so strangely after the flesh of their own species, that they go a hunting of men, as they do beasts, and having taken them they tear them in pieces, and devour them after a cruel and unmerciful manner.

By these examples it is sufficiently apparent, that our Canni∣bals are not so much Cannibals, that is, Eaters of men, though they have the name particularly attributed to them, as many other savage Nations; and it were an easie matter to find yet elsewhere certain discoveries of Barbarism answerable to that of our Caribbian Cannibals, nay such as far exceeds theirs: But we have done enough, let us draw the Curtains on these hor∣rours, and leaving the Cannibals of all other Nations, return to those of the Caribbies, to divert our eyes, wearied with be∣holding so many inhumanities and bloudy Tragedies, by a pro∣spect of their Marriages.

Notes

• Montagn's Essays, l. 1. c. 30.
• De Lery, c. 15. Ch. 8.
• Garcilas. l. 1. c. 12.
• Ibid.
• De Laet. hist. of America.
• Somedo hist. of China, p. 1. c. 2.
• Lib. 4.
• Garcil. l. 6. c. 10.
• Bergeron's Treatise of the Tartars.
• Garcil▪ de Laet, & Linscot.
• Garcilas. Com. Royal.
• Garcil. l. 7. c. 17. Rou∣lox, Baro, & Rubriques in their Tra∣vels. Vin. le Blanc. p. 1. c. 15. & 25.
• Lib. 3.
• Vin. le Blanc. p. 1. c. 24.
• De Laets Hi∣story of Ame∣rica.