the cemi according as he was ordered by the cacique.  The Spaniards, therefore, suspecting how the trick was performed, kicked down the cemi and discovered the concealed invention; and the cacique earnestly entreated them not to betray the secret to his subjects and the other Indians, as he kept them in obedience by that policy.  This may be said to have some resemblance to idolatry, especially among those who are ignorant of the fraud practised by the caciques, since they believe that it is the cemi that speaks, and all are imposed upon by the deceit, except the cacique and the person who combines with him to abuse their credulity, by which means he draws what tribute he pleases from his people.”

“Most of the caciques have three stones also, to which they and their people shew great devotion.  One of these they say helps the growth of all sorts of grain, the second causes women to be delivered without pain, and the third procures rain or fair weather, according as they stand in need of either.  I sent three of these stones to your highnesses by Antonio de Torres, and I have three more to carry along with myself.  When these Indians die, their obsequies are performed in several manners, but their way of burying their caciques is this.  They open and dry him at a great fire, that he may be preserved whole.  Of others they preserve only the head.  Others they bury in a grot or den, and lay a calabash of water and some bread on his head.  Others they burn in their houses, having first strangled them when at the last gasp, and this is done to caciques.  Others are carried out of the house in a hammock, laying bread and water at their head, and they never return any more to see after them.  Some when dangerously ill are carried to the cacique, who gives orders whether they are to be strangled or not, and their orders are instantly obeyed.  I have taken pains to inquire whether they know or believe what becomes of them after death, and I particularly questioned Caunabo, who was the chief cacique in all Hispaniola, a man well up in years, experienced, and of a most piercing wit and much knowledge.  He and the rest answered, that they go after death to a certain vale, which every great cacique supposes to be in his own country, and where they affirm they rejoin their relations and ancestors, that they eat, have women, and give themselves up to all manner of pleasures and pastimes.  These things will appear more at large in the following extended account which I ordered to be drawn up by one father Roman, who understood their language, and set down all their ceremonies and antiquities:  But these are so filled with absurdities and fable, that it is hardly possible to make any thing out of them, except that the natives have some ideas of the immortality of the soul and of a future state.”

[1] This apparently ambiguous expression, probably means all contraveners
    in the premises, or all who might in any way obstruct the full
    execution of the offices and their privileges here granted to Columbus
    and his heirs.—­E.