CHAP, in.] WEST INDIES. 83 



religion was here made the instrument of civil des~ 

 potism, and the will of the cacique, if confirmed by 

 the priest, was impiously pronounced the decree of 

 heaven. Columbus relates, that some of his people 

 entering unexpectedly into one of their houses of 

 worship, found the cacique employed in obtaining 

 responses from the Zemi. By the sound of the voice 

 which came from the idol, they knew that it was 

 hollow, and dashing it to the ground to expose the 

 imposture, they discovered a tube, which was before 

 covered with leaves, that communicated from the 

 back part of the image to an inner apartment, whence 

 the priest issued his precepts as through a speaking 

 trumpet; but the cacique earnestly entreated them 

 to say nothing of what they had seen ; declaring, that 

 by means of such pious frauds he collected tributes, 

 and kept his kingdom in subjection. 



The reader, I believe, will readily acquit me for 

 declining to enter into any further detail of the vari- 

 ous wild notions, and fantastical rites, which were 

 founded on such arts and impostures. Happily for 

 our islanders, however, the general system of their 

 superstition, though not amiable, was not cruel. We 

 find among them but few of those barbarous ceremo- 

 nies which filled the Mexican temples with pollution, 

 and the spectators with horror. They were even more 

 fortunate in this respect than the otherwise happy 

 inhabitants of the lately discovered islands in the 

 southern Pacific ocean; amongst whom the practice 

 of offering human sacrifices to their deities, is still 



