Some years after the death of Dubois, one of these Carib apostates was at Martinico. He spoke French correctly, could read and write, had been baptized, and was then upwards of fifty years old. When reminded of the truths he had been taught, and reproached for his apostasy, he replied, “that if he had been born of Christian parents, or if he had continued to live among the French, he would still have professed Christianity; but that, having returned to his own country and his own people, he could not resolve to live in a manner differing from their way of life, and by so doing expose himself to the hatred and contempt of his relations.” Alas! it is small matter of wonder that the Carib thought the Christian religion was only a _profession_. Had those who bore that name always been Christians in reality, and treated the poor ignorant savages with the justice, truth, and mercy which the gospel enjoins, what a different tale the settlement of the New World would have furnished!
The Caribs, who spread themselves over the main land contiguous to their islands, were similar in characteristics to those of the West Indies, of whom they are supposed to have been the original stock. They formed an alliance with the English under Sir Walter Raleigh, in one of his romantic expeditions on that coast, in 1595, and for a long time preserved the English colors which were presented to them on that occasion. The Caribs of the continent are said to have been divided into the Maritimos and the Mediterraneos. The former lived in plains, and upon the coast of the Atlantic, and are said to have been the most hostile of any of the Indians who infest the settlements of the missions of the River Orinoco, and have been sometimes called the Galibis. The Mediterraneos inhabited the south side of the source of the River Caroni, and are described as of a more pacific nature, and began to receive the Jesuit missionaries and embrace the Christian faith in 1738.
[1] For an account of these, see “Manners and Customs of the Indians” in “The Cabinet Library.”
According to the annals preserved by the Mexicans, the country embraced in the vale of Mexico was formerly called Anahuac. The rest of the territory contained the kingdoms of Mexico, Acolhuacan, Tlacopan, Michuacan, and the republics of Tlaxcallan or Tlascala, Cholollan, and Huexotzinco. The people who settled the country came from the north. The first inhabitants were called Toltecs or Toltecas, who came from a distant country at the northwest in the year 472. They migrated slowly, cultivating and settling as they proceeded, so that it was 104 years before they reached a place fifty miles east of the situation where Mexico was afterwards built; there they remained for twenty years, and built a city called Tollantzinco. Thence they removed forty miles to the westward, and built another city called Tollan or Tula.