zy6 The Hijtory of B o o k II. 



CHAP. XIII. 



Of that which may he called Religion among the 

 Caribbians. 



Ot^Here is no Nation fo favage, no People fo barbarous, but 

 X they have fome opinion and perlwafion of a Divinity., 

 lufc giteft. faid Cicero , nay, Nature her felf feems to have been fo indul* 

 gent to Mankind, as to make fome impreffion of a Divinity in 

 the minds of Men $ for what Nation, what kind of Men are 

 there, but have, without any previous learning it from others, 

 a natural fentiment of the Divinity ? We may with juft reafon 

 admire thefe noble Illuminations proceeding out of the mouth 

 of a man groping in the darknefi of Paganifm : But things are 

 come to that pafs now, that it will be a hard matter to make 

 good the famous words of that incomparable Orator and Prince 

 of Roman Eloquence .* For the poor Savages of the ancient 

 People of the Antes in Peru , and of the two Provinces of the 

 Chirrhuanes or Cheriganes, thofe of moft of the Countries of 

 New-France, New-Mexico, New-Holland, Brafil, New-Nether- 

 lands 5 Terra del Fuego, the Arouagues, the Inhabitants about 

 the River Cayenna, the ijlands of Robbers, and fome others, if 

 we may credit Hiftorians, have not any kind of Religion, and 

 do not adore any Sovereign Power. ,; 



Thofe alfo who have conversed among the Originary Inha- 

 bitants of the Ctfr/^-Iflands,areforc'd to acknowledge. That 

 they have, by the violence of their brutifti paffions, fmother'd 

 all the apprehenfions Nature had beftow'd on them of a Divi- 

 nity $ that they have rejected all the Directions and Inftructi- 

 dns which might guide them to the knowledge thereof 3 and 

 confequently, that by the juft judgment of God they are for- 

 rounded by fo dreadful a night, that there is not to be ken 

 among them either Invocation, or Ceremonies, or Sacrifices, 

 or, in fine, any Exercife or Aflembly whatfoever in order to 

 Devotion : nay, they are fo far from having any of thefe things, 

 that they have not fo much as a name to exprefs the Divinity, fo 

 far are they frorti ferving it 5 fb that when any one would fpeak 

 to them concerning God, he muft ufe thefe circumlocutions} 

 He who hath created the World,who hath made all things \who gives 

 life and fujienance to all living Creatures, or fomthing of that 

 kind : They are accordingly fo blinded and brutilh, that they 

 do not make any acknowledgment of the Lord of Nature, in 

 that admirable work of the Univerfe; wherein he Ijath been 

 pleas'd to reprefent himfelf in a thoufand immortal colours, 

 and make his adorable Omnipotency as it were vifible to the 



eye : 



