ratified; the zemi were consulted on the occasion; and the result was always the will of heaven.

From this close connection between the cacique and the bohitos, the cacique had little need of coercive power; his subjects were the slaves of superstition, and he could ensure obedience without inflicting any punishment. In the shades of the darkest ignorance, the deluded throng imagined that they were living under a theocracy; and visible proofs of the commands of their gods were constantly exhibited before their eyes. Arts and sciences were but little known, but deception had made a considerable progress. Error had become too formidable to submit to any controul, and it had received a polish which dazzled the sight of those who attempted to penetrate beneath its surface.

To the dignified employment of conversing with the zemi, the bohitos added the practice of physic, and thus undertook to provide for the bodies, as well as the souls, of the tribes committed to their care. Nothing was omitted to give them a complete ascendency; and while the cacique and bohito continued to act in concert, they had nothing to fear from a revolution in the state. To heighten this power, and to give the bohito the superlative degree of influence, he was entrusted with the education of all the children of the subordinate nobility. By these means he was placed in a situation of preparing those of the rising generation for the same shackles which had held their forefathers in chains.

In those temples which were erected in the different villages, the fancied images of their idols were placed; their forms were horrid, and frightful beyond all description. They appeared to be the refuse of deformity, improved by the joint efforts of ignorance and superstition, which had conspired together to transform a monster into a god. Sometimes these idols resembled hideous serpents, and other branches of the noxious tribe; at other times the scattered remnants of the human face were visible; but it was sufficiently distorted to become frightful. It was a face in which some distant lineaments of the human features were barely discoverable under a cloud of the most dismal deformity.

It was only on particular occasions, that into this temple, crowded with such detestable monsters, the multitude were permitted to enter. At such times they had an opportunity of beholding the bohitos invoke the zemi, and of hearing for themselves the answers which were given in reply. And while superstition stood trembling before the altar of incantation, surrounded with the most horrible idols, which were only faint resemblances of the more hideous images of his mind, the

affrighted Indian appalled into silence, through the evidences of his senses, submitted to imposition without a murmur and without regret.

The religion of these natives was idolatry, but it answered the end for which it was cherished. It was the tool of the cacique, the trade of the bohito, and the bugbear of the affrighted crowd.*

It has been already observed that the diversions and religious rites of these islanders bore such a striking resemblance to each other, that it was attended with much difficulty to determine to which department they belonged. Sometimes their diversions assumed an air of dignified gravity; and then dwindled again into frivolousness and ignorance of the most disgraceful kind. Spontaneous effusions were occasionally delivered on particular solemnities, accompanied with such music and rejoicing, or such doleful lamentations, as the subject was calculated to inspire. But we are not sufficiently acquainted with the minute circumstances of their domestic history, to know with exactness in what particular places their various ceremonies were solemnized. But taking the occasion for our guide, it is highly probable that many of them were celebrated in these temples which were appropriated to the worship of their gods.

It has been asserted with much confidence, and perhaps with

It was into one of these idol temples, that some of the seamen of Columbus entered, at a moment when the cacique himself was in waiting, to obtain from the zemi some auricular responses to questions which had been previously proposed. The seamen hearing a human voice issue from the zemi which was invoked, suspected there was something of fraud in the business, and they determined at all events to sift this matter to the bottom. There is a degree of thoughtlessness about sailors, which renders them blind to future consequences; it was however the case with those of Columbus, though it issued in nothing very serious. From the sound which they heard, they were fully assured that the idol was not solid; and that the voice originated in another cause. Full of this conviction, and destitute of fear, they, without ceremony, threw the idol upon the ground, and discovered the whole affair. They found that through the hinder parts of this idol, a tube had been inserted, which passing closely to the ground, had been concealed by some leaves which were too sacred to be removed by vulgar hands; and that this tube, passing onward into another apartment, was brought into contact with the mouth of a bohito, who had communicated speech to the zemi as above described. The cacique somewhat disconcerted at this sacrilegious rudeness of the European sailors, and at the unexpected discovery which they had made, was at a loss how to proceed. He however, after a while, recovered his wonted cheerfulness, and requested with the most earnest solicitude, that the discovery of the fraud might not transpire among the natives; observing at the same time, that such pious impositions were necessary to overawe his subjects, which answered his designs without having recourse to the rigours of force. And, furthermore, that as through the assistance of the zemi he was enabled to keep alive in all his subjects the most unreserved obedience, so he could collect his tributes from every part of his dominions without fraud or embezzlement.

truth, that among these occasional solemnities, there was one which predicted their national ruin. It was of a traditionary nature, and claimed its origin in some era of remote antiquity, of which they could form no conception. The purport of this tradition which was recited on particular occasions, intimated " that a period should arrive in the progress of time, in which their country should be invested with a band of strangers; who, completely clothed, and armed with weapons which bore a near resemblance to the lightnings of heaven, should spread ruin and desolation over their happy plains." The particular vehemence with which this dreadful prophecy was denounced, which was always observed on such awful occasions, must have added considerably to the solemnity of the scene. And we may naturally conceive, that the wailings and lamentations which accompanied this awful recital, must have been strongly expressive of the internal feelings and anguish of their souls.

On the origin of such a prediction it is folly to animadvert. Not a ray of light can guide us through that labyrinth of conjecture, which will increase in proportion as we attempt to penetrate its shades. Admitting the fact, we can impute it to no other cause, than the immediate communication of Heaven; but for what end we are at a loss to conceive, unless we admit that it was to warn them of their approaching dissolution as a nation by the hands of European barbarians; and to instruct them through that medium, to prepare for the awful and important event. What effect such a prediction must have had on their minds, when the Spaniards first visited their shores, it is not easy to determine. Their conduct towards them seemed to indicate that they paid but little attention to the prediction which they had often heard, because the caresses which they bestowed upon the Spaniards, intimated that they considered them as friends. The apparently amiable disposition of their new visitors might have counterbalanced their apprehensions of terror; and their wishes and their hopes might have both conspired to silence suspicion, and to induce them to think that the prediction would not then be fulfilled. It is nevertheless a possible case that their conduct towards the Spaniards might have been dictated by fear. They might have treated them as a superior race of beings, to conciliate their friendship, and to avert that calamity to which the prediction led. Perhaps this sentiment may be too refined. No part of their conduct could justify the charge of their insincerity towards Columbus. They certainly seemed to act from the impulse of generosity, with hardly a single instance of deviation.

It is however not improbable, that, in this early season, the novelty of those appearances with which they were surrounded,

might have eclipsed their fears; and they might not have awa kened from that torpor, till they imagined that resistance was no longer in their power. And on this ground their humanity towards the Spaniards, might have been considered by them as the most eligible method of meeting those dangers which they could no longer avert by having recourse to arms. To this sentiment a memorable speech delivered to Columbus on his arrival at the island of Cuba, seems to give some kind of sanction. It is recorded on the credit of such authority, as we have no just right to question, that a cacique in that island, whose age had made him venerable, impressed with reverence at the sight of such strangers, presented Columbus with a basket of fruit, accompanying it at the same time with the following extraordinary speech: "Whether you are divinities, or mortal men, we know not. You are come into these countries with a force, against which, were we inclined to resist it, resistance. would be folly. We are all therefore at your mercy. But if you are men subject to mortality like ourselves, you cannot be unapprized, that after this life there is another, wherein a very different portion is allotted to good and bad men. If therefore you expect to die, and believe with us that every one is to be rewarded in a future state according to his conduct in the present, you will do no hurt to those who do none to you."

Óf their moral views and conceptions of an hereafter, the above speech will furnish us with no very inadequate idea. It is a gem which sparkles in the midst of surrounding rubbish, and diffuses lustre through the otherwise unenlightened gloom. We may learn from hence that they were fully satisfied of a future state in common with all other Indian tribes; and that in addition to this circumstance, they were satisfactorily convinced that the felicities and woes of an hereafter, stood in close connexion with the actions of the present life. Such conceptions could have arisen from no other cause than the immediate impression of God-of that "Light who lighteth every man that cometh into the world." (John i. 9.) Almighty power and infinite goodness can operate in ways and manners

* On this astonishing speech it is perhaps just to remark, that it is said to have been delivered on the 7th day of July, 1494. It was interpreted to Columbus by one of those Indians whom he had taken with him to Europe on a former voyage. This Indian having been with Columbus nearly two years, had acquired a knowledge of the Spanish tongue, and acted as a linguist on other Occasions also. The above speech is recorded by Peter Martyr, by Herrara, and by Mr. Bryan Edwards. With what scrupulous exactness the Spaniards attended to the reasonable request of this venerable cacique, let the following pages of this chapter determine.

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which we cannot comprehend; and produce convictions in the mind, independently of the refined uses of our reasoning powers. It must have influenced the mind of this cacique, from whom Columbus received the address, in some such manner. His reasoning powers were not sufficiently expanded to trace the connexion which he admitted as fact; and the certainty of his conviction compels us to ascribe it to another cause. But unfortunately those rays of light which we discover, are only momentary gleams; which dazzle us with their radiancy, and then disappear. They afford us a transient brilliancy which we behold bursting through the horrors of savage obscurity, sufficient to render "darkness visible, and to discover sights of woe:" on every side we are encircled with shadows; we are encompassed with such darkness as may be felt.

It is true they admitted the being of a God, whom they named Jocahuna; but the unworthy notions which they annexed to this name, were truly preposterous, as we have already seen. Their religious worship, if their invocations of the zemi will bear that appellation, can hardly fail to draw the sigh of commiseration from the feeling heart, at the deplorable condition of human nature. And their views of a future state which they admitted in the abstract, will appear tinctured with the same shades; impregnated with the same sensuality; and conspire to shew in conjunction with their other perverted views, the abyss of mental darkness into which they were plunged.

Sensuality was their predominant vice; it was in general their companion through life; and in their religious creed they had transplanted it into another soil, to flourish beyond the grave. What their abstract notions of good and evil were, is a point not easy to be determined: a discharge of some of the relative duties of life, according to the scanty notions which they had received, constituted one considerable branch of their morality; and their uniform obedience to the injunctions of the zemi, and the commands of the cacique and bohito, gave completion to the circle of their obligations. Upon the discharge or neglect of these duties, their happiness or infelicities in a future state were to depend; from these sources they drew both their hopes and fears; and with these views they departed this life in full expectation of punishment or reward.

To the spirits of the good, they assigned some sensual felicities which bore a close resemblance to the enjoyments of the present life. They seemed to imagine that death would only make an alteration in the manner of their existence; but that their pleasures would arise from the same causes as in this world, convey the same sensations, and partake of the same common nature. The place which they assigned for the habitation of