92 HISTORY OF THE [BOOK. i. 



After reading these accounts, who can help forming 

 an indignant wish that the hand of Heaven, by some 

 miraculous interposition, had swept these European 

 tyrants from the face of the earth, who like so many 

 beasts of prey, roamed round the world only to deso- 

 late and destroy; and, more remorseless than the 

 fiercest savage, thirsted for human blood, without 

 having the impulse of natural appetite to plead in their 

 defence ! 



On the whole, if we consider of how little benefit 

 the acquisition of these islands has since proved to the 

 Spanish nation, and count over the cost of the con- 

 quest, w r e must find it extremely difficult to include 

 such an event as the massacre of ten millions of inno- 

 cent people (comprehending the butcheries in Mexico 

 and Peru) amongst the number of those partial evils 

 which ultimately terminate in general good: Nor can 

 we possibly reconcile its permission to our limited 

 ideas of infinite wisdom and goodness ! Divines there- 



" greater courage than most of his countrymen, took upon him a bold and 

 " difficult piece of work. Having been used to build cottages in his na- 

 " live country, he procured instruments of stone, and cut down a large 

 c< spongy tiee called jaruma, (the bombax, or wild cotton tree), the body 

 " of which he dexterously scooped into a canoe. He then provided him- 

 '* self with oars, some Indian corn, and a few gourds of water, and pre- 

 (f vailed on another man and woman to embark with him on a voyage to 

 " the Lucayos islands. Their navigation was prosperous for near 200 

 " miles, and they were almost within sight of their own long lost shores, 

 " when unfortunately they were met by a Spanish ship, which brought 

 " them back to slavery and sorrow. The canoe is still preserved in Hi- 

 " spaniola as a singular curiosity, considering the circumstances under 

 41 vrhich it was made." 



