WHOLE VOL. THE WEST INDIES VAZQUEZ DE ESPINOSA 7 



mostly slaves, but in the dark color, a result of the curse going into 

 effect — if it be not that the temperature and the climate have 

 contributed. Shem, the second son, whom Holy Scripture calls 

 Melchisedek, King of Salem, and Priest of the Most High God, went 

 off with his family to the eastern part of Syria, and settled the banks 

 of the River Euphrates and all that country ; and there was born to 

 him, 2 years after the Flood, which was 1659, Arphaxad his first- 

 born; and when Arphaxad was 35 years old, in 1694, Salah was born 

 to him ; and in 1724 when Salah was 30 years old, Eber was born to 

 him, who was righteous, and prophesied the dispersion of tongues. 

 18. And when the sons and descendants of Noah had gone out, at 

 the beginning of the Second Age, after the passing of the Flood, to 

 the Orient, looking for land, taking as their chieftain Nimrod, who 

 was vigorous and powerful beyond all others, the son of Cush, grand- 

 son of Ham and great-grandson of Noah, they found fertile and 

 pleasant fields in the land of Shinar, where they settled. Considering 

 the Flood over, and forgetting with scant loyalty the promise and the 

 word which God had given them, they went into council and said : 

 "Before we scatter over the countries of the world, let us celebrate 

 our name and make it famous. Let us make ourselves a city and a 

 tower, whose top may reach to Heaven (Gen. XI). Let us make a 

 city and tower whose columns and turrets may reach and vie with 

 Heaven, so that if there be another flood like the one past, those who 

 are living may escape and save themselves in it and not perish, as 

 happened in the past flood" ; being ungrateful and forgetful of the 

 promises God had made them ; and so they began building and con- 

 structing in the year 1758, and continued the construction, making 

 much progress, up to the year 1996. And when God considered the 

 grave sins of mankind, the ingratitude and lack of faith they had had 

 in His divine word and promise, and that they did not cease continu- 

 ing the construction of their proud and lofty tower, peeping into the 

 balconies and belvederes of Heaven, he said : "So come, let us go 

 down and let us confound their language, so that each will fail to 

 understand his neighbor's speech" ; and so God scattered them from 

 that spot over all lands, and they stopped building the city, and for 

 that reason its name is called Babel, because there the speech of the 

 whole world was confounded — i.e., "Since they have been ungrateful 

 and faithless to the word I gave them, come on then, let us go down 

 and let us confound their language there, so that they may not under- 

 stand each other." And thus the Lord scattered them from that place 

 over all the earth, and they stopped building the city ; for which reason 

 that spot was called Babel, because it was there that the natural and 



