These people also brought off the men from the wrecked ship, as well as all it contained, transporting everything in barques which they called canoes.  They did this with as much alacrity and joy as though they were saving their own relatives; and certainly amongst ourselves greater charity could not have been displayed.

Their canoes are constructed out of single tree-trunks, which they dig out with tools of sharpened stone.  They are very long and narrow, and are made of a single piece of wood.  It is alleged that some have been seen capable of carrying eighty rowers.  It has been nowhere discovered that iron is used by the natives of Hispaniola.  Their houses are most ingeniously constructed, and all the objects they manufacture for their own use excited the admiration of the Spaniards.  It is positive that they make their tools out of very hard stones found in the streams, and which they polish.

The Spaniards learned that there were other islands not far distant, inhabited by fierce peoples who live on human flesh; this explained why the natives of Hispaniola fled so promptly on their arrival.  They told the Spaniards later that they had taken them for the cannibals, which is the name they give to these barbarians.  They also call them Caraibes.  The islands inhabited by these monsters lie towards the south, and about half-way to the other islands.  The inhabitants of Hispaniola, who are a mild people, complained that they were exposed to frequent attacks from the cannibals who landed amongst them and pursued them through the forests like hunters chasing wild beasts.  The cannibals captured children, whom they castrated, just as we do chickens and pigs we wish to fatten for the table, and when they were grown and become fat they ate them.[9] Older persons, who fell into their power, were killed and cut into pieces for food; they also ate the intestines and the extremities, which they salted, just as we do hams.  They did not eat women, as this would be considered a crime and an infamy.  If they captured any women, they kept them and cared for them, in order that they might produce children; just as we do with hens, sheep, mares, and other animals.  Old women, when captured, were made slaves.  The inhabitants of these islands (which, from now on we may consider ours), women and men, have no other means of escaping capture by the cannibals, than by flight.  Although they use wooden arrows with sharpened points, they are aware that these arms are of little use against the fury and violence of their enemies, and they all admit that ten cannibals could easily overcome a hundred of their own men in a pitched battle.

[Note 9:  See Henry Harrisse, Christophe Colombe, ii., p. 72.  Letter of Simone Verde to Nicoli.]