WHOLE VOL. THE WEST INDIES VAZQUEZ DE ESPINOSA 29 



distant and remote regions, they became remiss in all that is good (not 

 without God's permission) and went from bad to worse, forgetful 

 of their Creator ; the long passage of time aided in this, and it was 

 no new thing for them to be ungrateful and idolatrous ; even when 

 God was showing them mercy and working miracles to their benefit, 

 taking them out of Egypt from the tyranny of Pharaoh and his 

 Egyptians, on whom he inflicted chastisements and plagues for the 

 benefit of the Hebrews, and when He made a way for them to pass 

 through the Red Sea, and other countless mercies which He showed 

 them, as is told in the books of Exodus, Leviticus, Deuteronomy, 

 and elsewhere — even then they showed boundless ingratitude, they 

 committed sins, abominations, and idolatries ; and yet, besides the 

 favors they received, they had prophets who lectured and upbraided 

 them, threatening them with the punishments which came upon them 

 when they were conquered, crushed, and taken captive by foreign 

 kings. That being the case with those who possessed preachers and 

 prophets, the ones who crossed to the Indies without them forgot and 

 lost what good they knew and were left with what was bad in their 

 harvest, abandoning themselves to idolatry and other abominations. 

 Furthermore, they are by nature impassive, sly, apprehensive, shrewd, 

 untruthful, formalistic, and superstitious, so that in everything, traits 

 of character as well, they resemble the Hebrews, and most copy them 

 in their dress — a cloak and shirt — which is that of Judges, chap- 

 ter XIV, the tunic and shirt which Samson offered on a wager ; and 

 to prove complete similarity, they wear for shoes a kind of sandals 

 which they call ojotas ; which confirms all the more my thesis, that 

 the Indians are derived from the Hebrews. And since there is a 

 countless diversity of Indian languages in both kingdoms, exceeding 

 50,000, since they have become confused one with another, and new 

 languages of special import have been invented and adopted, I shall 

 say something about them in the following chapters. 



Chapter XIII 



Of the Confusion and Diversity of Languages Existing in the 

 Indies. 



72. The members of the Ten Tribes, passing through various 

 nations (on their expedition to the Indies), had of necessity to learn 

 their languages in order to converse with them and so mixed their 

 vocabulary, as is seen and recognized in many languages all over the 

 world. The very learned Bishop of Avila, otherwise known as El 

 Tostado, in commenting on Genesis, chapter XI, paragraph 2, states 



