288 The Hiftory of Book Hi 



Moons (as they fay) being extreamly defirous to know the(uc- 

 cefs of the Revelation, he went to fee the pieces he had plant- 

 ed in the ground, and he found that each of them had produ- 

 ced many fair and great roots, which he difpofed of as he had 

 been commanded : Thofe of Dominic o who tell this ftory, (ay 

 further, that if the old man had vifited the pieces at the end of 

 three days, inftead of nine months, he would have found the 

 roots grown to the fame bignefs, and that they had been pro- 

 duct in that time : But in regard he went not to look what 

 became of them, till after the expiration of fo long a time, the 

 Manioc continues to this prefent all that time in the ground., 

 before it be fit to make Caffava. of. 



This is all we could get from the Caribbian Tradition, and 

 we conceiv'd it might well be fet here at length, fince it is the 

 only one that is related among this ignorant people, who trou- 

 ble themfelves not to know the Name and Quality of that kind 

 and heavenly Benefactor who hath obliged them fo much, nor 

 to render him any acknowledgment or honour: The Pagans 

 were much more grateful in honouring Ceres, from whom they 

 faid they received Corn, and the invention of making bread : 

 And the Peruvians, though they knew not the great Pachaca- 

 mac, that is, him whom they held to be the foul of the Uni verfe, 

 and the Sovereign Author of their lives and all they had, yet 

 did they adore him in their hearts with much refpecl: and vene* 

 ration, and rendring him externally by their geftures and 

 words great expreflions of their fubmiffion and humility, as 

 to the unknown God. 



The Caribbiansbdieve they have every one of them (b ma- 

 ny fouls as they feel beatings of Arteries in their bodies, be- 

 fides that of the heart : Now of all thefe fouls the principal, 

 as they fay, is in the heart, and after death it goes to Heaven 

 with its Icheiri, or its Chemiin, that is, with its God,who carries 

 it thirher to live there in the company of the other Gods : And 

 they imagine that it lives the fime kind of life as man lives 

 here below : -Thence it comes that to this day they kill (laves 

 on the Tomb of the dead, if they can.meet with any that had 

 been in the ferviceof thedeceafed, to go and wait upon him 

 in the other world : For it is to be obferved, that they do not 

 think the Soul to be fo far immaterial as to be invifible^ but 

 they affirm it to be fubtile, and of thin fubftance as a purified 

 body 5 and they have but the fame word to (ignifie heart and 

 Jjpul. 



As for the other fouls, which, are not in the heart, they 

 believe fome go after death and live on the Sea-fide, and that 

 they caufe Veffels to turn .* They call them Onmekou, the 

 others, as they conceive, go and live in the Woods and Forefts, 

 and they call them Maboyas. 



Though moft of this poor people believe the immortality 



of 



