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1671] of the Island Dauphine, &c. 
those who are baptis’d are out of this danger, do not wish 
at all to be instructed or to be baptis’d, or to pray to God : 
if they are ask’d the reason of this, they reply that the 
God, whom they call Zanharre, causes them to die, & that 
the Devil, whom they call Beliche , only beats them. Such 
is one of their reasons wherefore they do not desire to be 
baptis’d; and another reason is because of their manner 
of living in the pleasures of the flesh permitted among 
them, from which they would be prevented were they 
baptis’d. 
They often pray to the Demon, and if they are ask’d 
wherefore they do so, in place of praying to God, they 
reply that God is good & only does them good in their 
life, & therefore they need not pray to him ; but that the 
devil is wicked & does them much harm, & beats them ; 
which is wherefore they pray to him & offer him presents 
in order to appease him. All this sufficiently justifies what 
I’ve said that the devil greatly abuses these poor people. 
When it thunders they all go outside & make great 
cries, noise, & great hubbubs. They have small boxes 
which they open when the thunder-clap roars, then they 
shut them & fasten them well, believing they have caught 
the thunder therein. 
When they wish to undertake anything of consequence, 
& when they desire to ally themselves together to make 
an expedition, they swear fidelity, &, as an indispensable 
mark of their union & of the good faith which they will 
keep towards one another, they eat some liver of beef. If 
these Blacks are accus’d of having committed any wicked 
action, of which there is no disproof, they make oath thus. 
They generally bring a fuzil or a sword, or a sagaye: oath. 
they put their feet upon it, & swear that they have not 
done that of which they are accus’d ; & in case ’twas so, 
they wish to be kill’d with the arms which are under their 
feet. They make them do the same thing when they wish 
