ple in
fear by gross and extravagant means; but as to any formulated system
of religious worship, it may be doubted if the aborigines of Cuba
recognized any at the time of its discovery by Columbus. Unbroken
peace reigned among them, and they turned their hands against no other
people.

These aborigines exhibited many of the traits universally evinced by
savage races, such as painting their bodies with red earth and
adorning their heads with the feathers of brilliant birds. Much of the
soil is red, almost equal to a pigment, for which purpose it was
employed by the natives. They lived mostly in the open air, weaving
themselves hammocks in which they slept, suspended among the trees.
The cotton which they spun grew wild, but tobacco they planted and
cultivated after a rude fashion. The iguana and the voiceless dog,
already spoken of, were hunted and eaten, the former of the lizard
family, the latter scarcely more than fifteen inches long. They had
domestic birds which they fattened and ate. Their only arms were
lances tipped with sea-shells, and a sort of wooden sword, both of
which were more for display than for use. Fish they caught in nets and
also with hooks made of bones. Their boats, or canoes, were formed of
the dug-out trunks of trees, and some of these canoes, as Columbus
tells us, were sufficiently large to accommodate fifty men. An ancient
writer upon this subject says the oars were well formed and properly
fitted, but were used only with the power of the arms, that is as
paddles, no rowlocks being cut in the boat. The speed attained by
them was remarkable, reaching four leagues an hour when an effort to
that end was made by the occupants. A large canoe, made from the
straight trunk of a mahogany tree, is described as having been five
feet in width and seventy-five feet long. This craft was propelled by
twenty-five oarsmen on each side, a steersman in the stern, and a
lookout at the prow. This was a cacique's barge, in which he made
visits of state along shore and up the rivers.

History has preserved a remarkable and characteristic speech made by a
venerable cacique, who approached Columbus with great reverence on the
occasion of his second visit to Cuba, and who, after presenting him
with a basket of ripe fruit, said: "Whether you are divinities or
mortal men, we know not. You have come into these countries with a
force, against which, were we inclined to resist, it would be folly.
We are all therefore at