284 HISTORY OF MEXICO. 



tyrs, nobody can better prove it than Chriftopher Co- 

 lumbus their difcoverer. Let us hear, therefore, how that 

 celebrated admiral fpeaks, in his account to the Catholic 

 king and queen, Ferdinand and Ifabella, of the firft iatyrs 

 he faw in the ifland of Haiti, or Hifpaniola. " I fwear," 

 he fays, " to your majefties, that there is not a better 

 cc people in the world than thefe, more affectionate, 

 " affable, or mild. They love their neighbours as them- 

 " felves ; their language is the fweetefi, the foftefl, and 

 " the mod cheerful ; for they always fpeak fmiling ; and 

 " although they go naked, let your majefties believe me, 

 " their cuftoms are very becoming ; and their king, who 

 " is ferved with great majefty, has fuch engaging man- 

 " ners, that it gives great pleafure to fee him, and alfo 

 " to confider the great retentive faculty of that people, 

 66 and their defire of knowledge, which incites them to 

 " aik the caufes and the effects of things (u)." As M. 

 de Paw employed ten continued years to fearch into the 

 affairs of America, he ought to have known, that in the 

 countries of the new world fubje&ed to the Spaniards, 

 no other bifhopricks are founded there than thofe which 

 the Catholic king has conftituted. To him belong, from 

 the patronage given him over American churches by 

 pope Julius II. in 1508, the foundation of bifhopricks, 

 and the prefentation of bifliops. To affirm, therefore, 

 that Paul III. w r ould acknowledge the Americans to be 

 true men, in order to found bifhopricks in the richeft 

 countries of the new world, is but the calumny of an 

 enemy of the Roman church ; for if he was not blinded 

 by enmity, he would rather have perceived the zeal and 

 humanity which the pope difplays in that bull. 



Dr. 



(») Cap. xxxii. of the Hiftory of Chr. Columbus, written by his fori. 



