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CHAPTER V.

SOME ACCOUNT OF THE RELIGIONS OF THE NEW WORLD. AN IMAGINARY VOYAGE.

THE

HE expedition of Alonso Niño and Cristóbal Guerra, which was narrated in the preceding chapter, is important, not only as giving us an insight into the primitive ways and manners of the Indians of the Pearl Coast, but also because it clearly shows how well they might have been managed by means of purely commercial expeditions. This enterprise was so completely mercantile, that we learn from it nothing but what an observant merchant would have told us who did not go beyond his trade. Not a word is said of the laws, the social customs, or the religion of the Indians on the Pearl Coast. But, fortunately, from other sources we are able to ascertain what was their religion, which, indeed, may chiefly be described by negColumbus testifies that they had none. Amerigo Vespucci says (and I am convinced that his words relate to what took place in Ojeda's first expedition to the Pearl Coast) that they did not perceive any sacrifices nor any places of worship; and he likens the life and tenets of the Indians he saw to those of the ancient Epicureans.

atives.

*

Another authority of later

* "El Almirante dice que no se les conocia secta alguna."-NAv., Col., tom. iii., p. 211, note.

† See the minute comparison in the Examen Critique, vol. iv., between the facts of Vespucci's first voyage and what we know from authentic sources of Ojeda's.

"Etenim non persensimus quod sacrificia ulla faciant aut quod

date, but of much larger experience and cognizance of this particular subject, describes the religion of the inhabitants of the whole of the Pearl Coast as being of the least formal and established character.*

I do not know that an attempt which I have made to bring into one view the religions of the various nations and tribes discovered by the Spaniards and Portuguese can be more fitly introduced at any juncture in this history than the present. The leading idea of Las Casas was eminently religious: it will be well, therefore, to form some general notion of what he and others had to contend against, or to act with, in the religious creeds and observances of the natives of America. The great difficulty in historical writing is to present any thing which shall contain a great many facts, and yet be possible to be remembered; and it is not beneath the writers or the readers to avail themselves of any mode of classifying and arranging facts which does not falsify them or place them in unreal positions.

Vessels have often been sent out, at least in our own times, for some particular object other than the usual ones of conquest or of commerce; and if we may imagine a vessel to have been sent out by the pious monarch of Spain for the purpose of investigating the religious rites and opinions of the various nations in the New World, it would have been very curious and in

loca orationisve domos aliquas habeant. Horum vitam, quæ omnino voluptuosa est, Epicuream existimo."-Viages de Vespucio. NAV., Col., tom. iii., p. 211.

* "Ningun 'Idolo, ni Templo se ha visto, ni se cree tener, ni aver tenido todas aquellas Gentes, solamente tienen Sacerdotes que los doctrinan, en la doctrina de Satanás, enseñados por este malo, y capital enemigo."-TORQUEMADA, Monarquía Indiana, lib. vi., cap. 33.

structive to read the account of the voyage given in the log-book, and to study the report brought home by the captain of the religious aspect of the various coasts. It is supposed that there were voyages of which no record was kept in the books at Cadiz or at Seville (viages incógnitos they are called); and some such voyage we will imagine, whether made by official command or by the secret enterprise of private individuals. It shall be in the "Santa Flor," a vessel carrying two hundred men, and having on board some of the companions of Columbus, Ojeda, Pinzon, and Vespucci. I do not like to be too precise about the date (dates are very dangerous things for a fictitious narrative), but it shall have started some time after the occupation of Cuba and before the conquest of Mexico.

Years have passed by since the time of those voyages of Columbus, Ojeda, Cristóbal Guerra, and Alonso Niño, commemorated in the preceding chapter. The early discoverers are reaping their rewards of poverty and neglect. Cortez is a young man deep in debt and in intrigue. Pizarro-nobody thinking much of him -is doing the work of a second-rate soldier in a stern, creditable manner. Las Casas is on some of his journeys or fighting his way at court; and, if at court, he is writing memorials all the morning, besieging audience-rooms in the afternoon, and dignifying the life of an applicant by the entire unselfishness of his objects. Pedro de Córdova, Antonio Montesino, and other monks are praying, and preaching, and doing all that in them lies to keep the name of Christ before the Spaniards, and to introduce it, with some hope of its being received, to the notice of the Indians in Hispaniola and on the Pearl Coast.

In the Old World things are proceeding much as VOL. II.-F

usual. Princes are warring or intriguing for possessions, which they will not know how to administer when they have gained them, and which will be an addition to their titles and a diminution of their strength. Nowhere is the discovery of the New World thought much of, except, perhaps, by a few learned men, who, it may be observed in all ages, appreciate the great changes of the world more readily than most of those persons who are considered eminently practical, and are versed in affairs. But the learned have practiced their imagination, and are accustomed to look a long way off. Besides, on the other hand, we must not suppose that the discovery of the New World presented the same appearance to the statesmen of that day that it does to us. The original and guiding error of Columbus continued for a long time to beset them. In the books, or, rather, little pamphlets* which were published at that time, the new lands did not always gain the great name of New World (which, I suppose, they owe to Peter Martyr); and certainly with princes and statesmen, these great discoveries were often but a way to the Spice Islands, and the land discovered but the westernmost part of Asia, a country they already knew sufficiently about.

Then, again, there was that invariable cause for men's indifference to great things, which has been alluded to before, namely, the presence close to their eyes of the petty and personal affairs of their own place and time, which leaves but a small residue of attention applicable to any thing that does not press to be thought about or done immediately.

* See such titles as Von den Newen Insulen und landen so yetz kürtzlichen erfunden seynd durch den kunigh von Portigal. Leipsik,

It is not surprising, therefore, especially when the peculiarly troubled state of Europe at that period is taken into consideration, that the discovery of the New World did not at once absorb all that attention which its importance demanded. How much it did obtainhow much more, I imagine, than has hitherto been supposed-has been seen, and will continue to be shown, in these pages.

Accordingly, the "Santa Flor" not being fitted to receive slaves, nor intended to bring back gold and pearls, may have glided out very quietly from San Lucar, the rest of the population being intent upon their own business, and talking, when they had spare time, of the designs of France, or the schemes of Venice, or of that sure ally and sound theologian, the King of England.

The mariners of the "Santa Flor" would not have departed without confessing and receiving the sacrament. This done, they take their departure; and without any difficulty (for they have good charts on board, and, among other maps, that of Juan de la Cosa), they steer straight for Trinidad, and then round the south coast of that island, through the "Strait of the Serpent," at which point their investigations commence. Approaching Paria-the earthly Paradise of Columbus-however careful a look-out was kept, no idol and no temple would be seen. Here they find anchorage.

By night, sweet odors,* varying with every hourf

* "Pariæ littus tantâ gratissimorum odorum suavitate fragrat, ut renascentis veris patria jure censeri possit."-CORNELIUS WYTFLIET, Descriptionis Ptolemaica Augmentum, p. 141.

+ "Every quarter of an hour different balsamic odors fill the air, and

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