The calculation in the
text therefore is one hour and eighteen minutes erroneous in point of
time, and 12 deg.15' in longitude; and would remove the east end of
Hispaniola, to long 80 deg.45' west from Greenwich, considerably beyond
the west end of Jamaica. - E.
[21] Our author forgets what he had said a few pages before, that the
admiral had previously resolved to return to Isabella, on account of
wanting provisions to continue the voyage. - E.
[22] This is probably the first instance of a civilized nation employing
the horrid alliance of ferocious animals to hunt down their brethren
like beasts of chase. Once only were the British arms disgraced by a
demonstration of using this savage mode of warfare, which it is to be
hoped will never be again heard of in our annals. - E.
[23] The measure of gold dust in the text seems enormous, and I am
disposed to believe that instead of the large horse bell, mentioned
in the text, a large hawks bell ought to be substituted. It is
difficult, perhaps impossible to estimate the population of St Domingo
at this period, and thence to form a conjecture as to the amount of
the tribute. From the preceding account of the number of subordinate
caciques, and the large force opposed to Columbus, perhaps Hispaniola
might then contain 500,000 inhabitants of all ages, half of whom, or
250,000, might be liable to the tax. Supposing 50,000 of these
employed as gold finders, and to pay one ounce each annually, worth
L. 4 the ounce, this would produce L. 200,000. The remaining 200,000
paying 100 libs. of cotton each, would give twenty million of pounds;
and this rated at sixpence a pound would produce L. 500,000, making
the whole revenue L. 700,000 a-year, a prodigious sum in those days;
but out of which the expences of government and the admirals share
were to be defrayed. All this can only be considered as an
approximation or mere conjecture. - E.
[24] It is a singularly perverted devotion that praises the Almighty for
success in murder, rapine, and injustice; and doubtless a devout
Spaniard of those days would sing Te Deum for the comfortable
exhibition of an auto de fe, in which those who differed from the
dogmas of the holy Catholic church were burnt for the glory of GOD.
The ways of Providence are inscrutable, and are best viewed by human
ignorance in silent humility and reverential awe. - E.
[25] It is surely possible that a good Catholic, accustomed to the worship
of images, might not see idolatry in the ceremonies of the
Hispaniolans; but the sentiment seems darkly expressed. - E.
SECTION VII.
Account of the Antiquities, Ceremonies, and Religion of the Natives of
Hispaniola, collected by F. Roman, by order of the Admiral[1].
I, Father Roman, a poor anchorite of the order of St Jerome, by command of
the most illustrious lord admiral, viceroy and governor-general of the
islands and continent of the Indies, do here relate all that I could hear
and learn concerning the religious opinions and idolatry of the Indians,
and of the ceremonies they employ in the worship of their gods.
