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XIX. Account of Antiquities from St. Domingo. In a Letter from Thomas Ryder, Esq. to the Rev. John Brand, Secretary. Read Nov. 30, 1797.

SIR, PRESUMING your situation in a most respectable and learned Society will warrant the intrusion, I have taken the liberty of addressing you on a subject peculiarly within your province ; and it will give me the highest pleasure if it is not altogether unworthy of their notice and your attention. I am induced to intrude myself on the time of the Society by the following observation of Dr. Lort. " The monuments of ancient art, noticed in North America, have been so few, that the discovery of any such has a particular claim to the attention of the learned in any part of the globe." The accompanying objects [a] for investigation were presented me by Lieut. James Ryder of the royal navy, who had the honour of serving his majesty on the late expedition to the Weft Indies. " At the west end of the island of Hispaniola, called St.Domingo, he had them delivered to him by a sailor, (who had promiscuously strung them together) and which sailor observed he received them from a runaway negro, who took them out of a cave near Cape Nicholas, which few negroes had the courage to enter," it being traditionally reported a god's cave. [a] These are represented in Plate XVI.