A.D. 



1540. 



Newes of 

 bearded and 

 white men. 



[III. 430.] 



The Sunne 

 worshipped as 

 God. 



THE ENGLISH VOYAGES 



had sometime hearde of olde men, that very farre from 

 that Countrey there were other white men, and with 

 beardes like us, and that hee knewe nothing else. I 

 asked him also whether hee knewe a place called Cevola, 

 and a River called Totonteac, and hee answered mee 

 no. Whereupon perceiving that hee coulde not give 

 mee any knowledge of Francis Vazquez nor of his 

 company, I determined to aske him other things of that 

 countrey, and of their maner of life : and beganne to 

 enquire of him, whether they helde that there was one 

 God, creator of heaven and earth, or that they worshipped 

 any other Idol. And hee answered mee no : but that 

 they esteemed and reverenced the Sunne above all other 

 things, because it warmed them and made their croppes 

 to growe : and that of all things which they did eate, 

 they cast a little up into the ayre unto him. I asked 

 him next whether they had any Lorde, and hee sayde 

 no : but that they knewe well that there was a great 

 Lorde, but they knewe not well which way hee dwelt. 

 And I tolde him that hee was in heaven, and that hee 

 was called Jesus Christ, and I went no farther in divinitie 

 with him. I asked him whether they had any warre, 

 and for what occasion. Hee answered that they had 

 warre and that very great, and upon exceeding small 

 occasions : for when they had no cause to make warre, 

 they assembled together, and some of them sayd, let 

 us goe to make warre in such a place, and then all of 

 them set forward with their weapons. I asked them 

 who commanded the armie : he answered the eldest and 

 most valiant, and that when they sayd they should 

 proceede no farther, that suddenly they retired from 

 the warre. I prayed him to tell me what they did with 

 those men which they killed in battell : he answered me 

 that they tooke out the hearts of some of them, and 

 eat them, and others they burned ; and he added, that 

 if it had not bene for my comming, they should have 

 bin now at warre : and because I commanded them 

 that they should not war, and that they should cease 



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