Personal Narrative Of Travels To The Equinoctial Regions Of America During The Years 1799-1804 - Volume 3 - By Alexander Von Humboldt And Aime Bonpland.
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I Have Visited Those Coasts In Going From The Havannah To
Porto Bello; And I There Learned That The Cape Which Bounds The Gulf
Of Darien Or Uraba On The East, Still Bears The Name Of Punta
Caribana.
An opinion heretofore prevailed pretty generally that the
Caribs of the West India Islands derived their origin, and even their
name, from these warlike people of Darien.
"From the eastern shore
springs Cape Uraba, which the natives call Caribana, whence the Caribs
of the island are said to have received their present name."* (* Inde
Vrabam ab orientali prehendit ora, quam appellant indigenae Caribana,
unde Caribes insulares originem habere nomenque retinere dicuntur.)
Thus Anghiera expresses himself in his Oceanica. He had been told by a
nephew of Amerigo Vespucci that thence, as far as the snowy mountains
of St. Marta, all the natives were e genere Caribium, vel Canibalium.
I do not deny that Caribs may have had a settlement near the gulf of
Darien, and that they may have been driven thither by the easterly
currents; but it also may have happened that the Spanish navigators,
little attentive to languages, gave the names Carib and Cannibal to
every race of people of tall stature and ferocious character. Still it
is by no means probable that the Caribs of the islands and of Parima
took to themselves the name of the region which they had originally
inhabited. On the east of the Andes and wherever civilization has not
yet penetrated, it is the people who have given names to the places
where they have settled.* (* These names of places can be perpetuated
only where the nations succeed immediately to each other, and where
the tradition is interrupted. Thus in the province of Quito many of
the summits of the Andes bear names which belong neither to the
Quichua (the language of Inca) nor to the ancient language of the
Paruays, governed by the Conchocando of Lican.) The words Caribs and
Cannibals appear significant; they are epithets referring to valour,
strength and even superior intelligence.* (* Vespucci says: Charaibi
magnae sapientiae viri.) It is worthy of remark that, at the arrival
of the Portuguese, the Brazilians gave to their magicians the name of
caraibes. We know that the Caribs of Parima were the most wandering
people of America; possibly some wily individuals of that nation
played the same part as the Chaldeans of the ancient continent. The
names of nations readily become affixed to particular professions; and
when, in the time of the Caesars, the superstitions of the East were
introduced into Italy, the Chaldeans no more came from the banks of
the Euphrates than our Gypsies (Egyptians or Bohemians) came from the
banks of the Nile or the Elbe.
When a continent and its adjacent islands are peopled by one and the
same race, we may choose between two hypotheses; supposing the
emigration to have taken place either from the islands to the
continent, or from the continent to the islands. The Iberians
(Basques) who were settled at the same time in Spain and in the
islands of the Mediterranean, afford an instance of this problem; as
do also the Malays who appear to be indigenous in the peninsula of
Malacca, and in the district of Menangkabao in the island of Sumatra.*
(* Crawfurd, Indian Archipelago volume 2 page 371.
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