plies of fresh meat, and their women for wives and
bondservants.
T he Bahamas were somewhat sparsely peopled, as
they are at present, and the inhabitants called themselves
Yucayos, which became corrupted to Lucayos
when the Spanish adopted for these scattered islands
the designation L os Cay os, or “ T he K e y s .” T hey
were a simple people, and in the genial climate,
where they passed much of their time in the tepid
waters, they were wont to be ‘ ‘ naked and not
ashamed.” T h e y were short of stature, sturdy of
form, and of a rich reddish-brown, or copper, colour,
and had a practice of flattening the head in infancy,
which gave it a regular backward slope from the
brows. This they seem to have regarded as an improvement
upon nature, but they were not otherwise
addicted to personal adornment. There was not
much tillable soil over the calcareous skeleton of
their islands, and they lived mainly on fish, molluscs,
eggs of sea-birds and turtles, the flesh of the
turtle and the iguana, bread made from the wild
cassava plant, and pineapples and such other fruit
as was to be had without cultivation. T h e y were
wonderful swimmers and divers, and were accustomed
to go down into the clear water among the
coral reefs for part of their food supplies. Their
shelter, when they needed any, was a hut of reeds
and palm leaves, and their dress was little else than
their native innocence. T h e y used bows and arrows
and a slender lance tipped with fish bone, and pad-
died about in broad-bottomed canoes, some of which
would carry forty persons or more. T h e y wrought
¡cotton and other fibres into rude nets and the ham-
lacas (hammocks) which were their beds. Skulls of
Ithese people and some rude stone implements have
been found in caves on L o n g Island and the Caicos
Kind Turks. There is a hatchet made of a smooth
I r e e n stone, of a kind not found on the islands,
presumably indicating an occasional interchange of
Koods with the other islands or the mainland. A
curious seat carved from lignum-vitae is presumed to
have been the humble throne of a chief. T h e Y u cayos
were leading a tranquil and harmless life when
itu dely disturbed by the discoverers.
I The people of Cuba were of the same race, for
they spoke substantially the same language and had
similar physical characteristics, but they had developed
peculiarities of their own. There may have
been some mingling of blood with the Mayas across
the channel in Yucatan, for there is a similarity in the
relics found on the two shores, though those of the
^mainland indicate greater advancement. Hatchets
of polished serpentine or diorite found near
iBayamo, other relics discovered in caves near Cape
flMaisi, and those deposits of human remains called
.Jffcaneys, are believed to indicate considerable antiquity.
The principal tribe of Cuba at the time of
Jffihe ‘ ‘ disco ve ry ” was the Ciboneys, or Cebuneys,
who had the wide skulls, flattened foreheads, straight
black hair, and coppery complexion of the Yucayos.
Jjfrhey had the same gentle and peaceable characteristics
; but, their land having a variety of fertile soil,
they were largely occupied in agricultural pursuits.
They raised large fields of maize and manioc; they