8 HISTORY OF THE [BOOK. j. 



On the other hand, our islanders far surpassed the 

 people of Otaheite, in the elegance and variety of their 

 domestic utensils and furniture ; their earthenware, 

 curiously woven beds, and implements of husbandry. 

 Martyr speaks with admiration of the workmanship 

 of some of the former of these. In the account he 

 gives of a magnificent donation from Anacoana to Bar- 

 tholomew Columbus, on his first visit to that Princess, 

 he observes that, among other valuables, she present- 

 ed him with fourteen chairs of ebony beautifully 

 wrought, and no less than sixty vessels of different 

 sorts, for the use of his kitchen and table, all of which 

 were ornamented with figures of various kinds, fan- 

 tastic forms, and accurate representations of living 

 animals. The industry and ingenuity of our Indians 

 therefore must have greatly exceeded the measure of 

 their wants. Having provided for the necessities of 

 their condition, they proceeded to improve and adorn 

 it. 



But I must now leave them to the miserable fate 

 in which it pleased infinite, but inscrutable, wisdom, 

 to permit their merciless invaders to involve them for 

 ever! It may, I think, be safely affirmed, that the 

 whole story of mankind affords no scene of barbarity 

 equal to that of the cruelties exercised on these inno- 

 cent and inoffensive people. All the murders and de- 

 solations of the most pitiless tyrants that ever diverted 

 themselves with the pangs and convulsions of their 

 fellow-creatures, fall infinitely short of the bloody 



P. Martyr, decad. J. 



