BOOK irreligion among them, they would have been sure not to have concealed that. J. Descript. Ind. Occid. c. 25. Dec. i. c. 9. Joh. de Laet, in his description of the isle of Cuba, 1. i. c. 10. saith, That the inhabitants there had no temple, no sacrifices, no religion; which I could not but wonder at, the account being so different from that of the first discoverers, who must certainly know best what religion they had among them: but in probability he followed the later Spaniards, who give the worst accounts of them, to justify the most inhuman cruelties which Benzo, l. i. were used against them. For Benzo saith, That of two millions of natives in Hispaniola, there were left not above 150 in his time; and the like desolation was made in Cuba, Jamaica, Porto Rico, and other places; and de Laet confesses, that they were all long since destroyed. But if we take the account given of these people upon the first discovery, we shall find it was Pet. Mart. very different; for Peter Martyr, who was employed by the king of Spain, as himself tells us, to take the best intelligence he could meet with from the Indies, saith, That at first they could find no other worship among them but that of the sun, and moon, and the heavens; but, upon further acquaintance with them, they found out a great deal more, which related to their religion; which, he said, he received from one who was employed by Columbus himself in instructing them. They had little images, which they called Zemes; which they supposed to be inhabited by spirits, which gave answers to them: but which is considerable, he saith, That they looked on them only as a kind of messengers between them and the only eternal, omnipotent, invisible God. This was extant long before de Laet wrote his pompous Description of the West Indies. Was Peter Martyr unknown to him? So far from it, that he mentions and commends him for his c. 9. 1. diligence. How then comes he to differ so much from CHAP. him in his account of their religion? And he there mentions the same oracle which Benzo had done; and adds, That the natives understood it at first of the Caribbians or Cannibals; but at last found it too true of the Spaniards. In another place he gives an account of Hispaniola, from Andreas Morales's own mouth, who was employed by the governor to search out what he could find concerning the island and the natives. And he found that they came from another Decad. iii. island, and built a house at the place of their landing, which they after consecrated and enriched, and reverenced to the time of the Spaniards' coming: and he makes it to have been in as much esteem among them as Jerusalem to the Christians, Mecca to the Mahumetans, and Tyrena in the Grand Canaries; which, he saith, was in such esteem among the natives, that persons would with singing leap off from that holy rock, in hopes their souls should be made happy by it. But although this were a great argument of superstitious folly in them, yet it shews the falseness of that saying, in the first relation of Columbus's voyage, That there was no such thing as religion in Columbi the Canaries. But those who pretend to give a more c. 2. exact account say, That the natives did believe one Conquest God, who punished the evil, and rewarded the good. The next we are to consider, are the savages which disturbed the natives before the Spaniards; who were called the Caribbians, or the inhabitants of the Caribbee islands. These were a wild sort of people, and a great terror to their neighbours, whom they were wont to eat in triumph after they had taken them; which was not the general practice of the Indians, but only of the most brutish and savage people among them, as the Caribbians, and those of Brazil; but the other natives, Navigat. de Cana ries, par. ii. p. 208. Relation de la Riviere Ama zons, c. 52. Voyage, p. 485. BOOK both of the islands and continent, abhorred it, as is I. found by the latest discoveries. This appears by Christ. d'Acunna, who was employed A. D. 1659. to discover the people about the river of Amazons; and there he found a considerable people called Aguæ, (the Spaniards call them Omaguæ;) and they were represented to be eaters of the flesh of their enemies: but he saith that it was very false, and only a malicious calumny of the Portuguese; and there he saith, It was a particular custom of the Caribbees, and not used by other Indians. Dampier's And Dampier saith, That in all his adventures among the Indians, both East and West, he never met with any such people as eat man's flesh, and that he knew some of the cannibal stories to be false. But, on the other side, it cannot be denied that there had been such a barbarous practice not only among the Caribbians, but the savages of Brazil and elsewhere, as appears by the particular accounts of such as lived among them, and saw their manner of doing it; as in Joh. Lerius, Pet. Carder, Ant. Knivet; but especially in Claud. d'Abbeville's relation of Maragnan, who is most particular in it: and he saith that it arose from the hatred and revenge they express thereby to their greatest enemies; and he adds, that their stomachs cannot Mission en bear or digest it, but notwithstanding it had been continued among them, because their enemies did so by them: but they confessed it to be cruel and barbarous; but having been long used, they could not lay it aside Barla Hist. Without a general consent. Some say, that the Tapuiæ Piso Hist. eat the bodies of their friends: but those who have lived most among them say nothing about it; which they would not have omitted, and they are most to be relied upon. The Caribbee islands were discovered by Columbus in his second voyage: but the Caribbians would have no communication with them, flying into Ler. Hist. Navig. in Brasil. c.14. Pilgr. part iv. p. 1188. 1217. Hist. de la l'Isle de Maragnan, ch. 49. Brasil. Brasil. I. L. i. c. 17. Histoiredes their woods. De Laet saith only, that they are a very CHAP. brutish sort of people, of no shame or fidelity. Not a word of their religion; and it was not to be expected among them, who had very little regard to any thing but the satisfying their brutish passions of cruelty and revenge; which were the only things they were then remarkable for. Since that time they have lived more quietly, being so much overpowered by the plantations upon the Caribbee islands; by which means they have been brought to some kind of humanity and conversation. And there have been two understanding persons conversant among them, who have given the best account we have of them; and those are Mons. Rochefort Rochefort and F. Du Tertre; who both agree that they have Caribb. 1. some knowledge of one supreme God in heaven, who is of infinite goodness, and hurts nobody; but as Du Tertre, who lived longer among them, saith, they ac- Du Tertre count the service of him a needless thing, being so far des Antil. above them; but they are mightily afraid of the Mabo-par. vii. gas, or evil spirits, which they think design to do them mischief: and, to appease them, they have their Boyez, who are a kind of sorcerers among them. They both agree, that they believe the immortality of the soul; and that the principal soul, which is that in the heart, goes to heaven. And Rochefort from hence concludes the truth of Cicero's saying, That the knowledge of a Divinity is planted in the hearts of men. iv. c. 13. Hist. Nat. sect. 3. 1. ii. c. 2, But de Laet represents the northern Indians to have Laet Desc. been as much without religion as the natives of Cuba 12, 16. and Hispaniola, and from no good grounds; although herein he did not rely upon the Spanish reports. So he saith of the natives of Newfoundland, of New France, of the Souriquosii, and other people of Canada, and the parts thereabouts, and of Virginia, &c. But L. iii. c. 18. I shall make it appear that he took up with very slight BOOK informations in this matter; which are contradicted 1. by those who lived longer among them, and understood their sense and language better. It is true, which I suppose gave occasion to the mistake, that the savages had no set and constant ways of devotion; but at certain seasons of the year, or in time of war and calamities, they had: or however, to persons that discoursed with them, they did by no means deny a God, but thought it was no great matter whether they served him or not in such a manner; so that their chief fault lay in a gross neglect of religion, and not in any settled LesVoyages principles of irreligion. So the Sieur de Champlain de Cham- saith, he discoursed with the savages of Canada, and plain, 1. iii. found they wanted no capacity; and he asked one of du Sieur ch. 5. tom. iv. 1. x. ch. 5. them, why they did not pray to God? He answered, that every one was left to pray as he thought fit in his own mind. So, saith he, for want of a law for Divine worship, they lived like brutes: and he imputes a great deal to their savage way of living upon hunting; whereas if the land were cultivated, it might be much easier to reduce them to civility and religion. Mr. Purchas, Winslow, one of the first planters in New-England, had some discourse with the Indian savages about religion, and God's being the author of all our blessings; which they agreed to, and said, that they owned God, and called him Kirtitan: upon which I observe, that he ingenuously retracts the accounts he had given before of the natives, viz. That they had no religion or knowledge of God; for, saith he, we find that they do own one supreme Being, who was Creator of heaven and earth; but they likewise owned many Divine powers under him. Therefore Acosta, speaking of Hist. of the the Indian savages, saith, It is no hard matter to persuade them of a supreme God, be they never so barbarous and brutish. Acosta Indies, 1. v. C. 2. |