cruel havock which has been made of the Americans by principies drawn from religion; and have fancied the behaviour of the Israelites towards the Canaanites gave a sufficient sanction to these barbareus proceedings Į

the cause of it to the wickedness of mankind in those ages. Maboia, they say, is the author of eclipses; and that notwithstanding their firm persuasion of the power and maliceof this evil spirit, they nevertheless pray to it; but then it is after a very irregular manner, without having any fixed time or place for that purpose; without once endeavouring to know him; without having the least distinct idea of him ;without having the least love for him; and, in a

If we may believe Rochefort, the Caribbees, so far from worshipping a deity, have not so much as any word to express it by; so that whenever we speak to them concerning the Supreme Being, we are obliged to make use of a great deal of circumlocution, to give them an idea thereof. They consider the earth as a kind parent that nourishes her creatures; but they do not understand what we mean by Divine essence, or the other misteries of religion. The same is related of the greatest part of the Americans; and it is probable they confuse these barbarians with too great a multitude of ideas and arguments. They are for having them comprehend the deity at once in the same manner as we do, and require them to believe at the first word, and on their bare word, a set of people who declare certain misteries to them, of the truth whereof they themselves were not convinced till after long expcrience, a continual course of study, and a multitude of reflections; to all which, a catechism taught them in their youth, had led the way, the better to prepare their minds for imbibing the principles of the Christian faith. If it be true, that these savages have not capacity enough to understand abstracted subjects, we ought before all things to polish their minds, form them to reflection, and make them men before we go about to make them Christians.

The Caribbees acknowledge a good and an evil principle, and call them Maboia. Rochefort tells us, that they believe there are a multitude of good spirits, and that each savage imagines he has one to himself, to whom they give the name of Chemen. Other travellers tell us, they say Louque or Looko was the first man, from whom all mankind are descended; that he created fishes, and rose again three days after his death, and afterwards ascended into heaven. That after Louquo's departure, the terrestrial animals were created. They believe that the earth and sea were created, but not the heavens. They have also some idea of the flood, and ascribe

Whereas they say, that since the good principle is kind and beneficent, it were needless to pray to it. And the savages mentioned in the preceding articles have the same sentiments. They are of opinion that the sun presides over the stars, and that the latter are Chemens, who are supposed to superin tend over meteors and storms. We are not to omit, that these savages have their heroes, or rather demigods, who are now stars and Chemens.

They offer Cassave, and the first of their fruits to their Chemens; and sometimes out of gratitude make a feast to their honour. Rochefort tells us, that these offerings are not accompanied with either adoration or prayers, they placing them only at one corner of the hut on a table made of rushes and of latanier, a tree which grows in this country. Here. the spirits assemble to eat and drink those oblations; a proof of which is, that the Caribbees assure us that they hear the vessels in which the presents had been laid, move up and down, as also the noise which the mouths of those gods make at the time of their cating.

The same author relates, that they make little images resembling the form under which Maboia reveals himself to them, in order to prevent his doing them any harm. They wear those images about their necks, and pretend that it gives them ease; and that they fast and slash themselves for his sake. We are obliged to observe in this place, that Rochefort, father Labat, la Borde, and some others, both Protestants, and Roman catholics, unanimously declare, that these people are tormented with the evil spirit, who beats, scratches, nay, even wounds them in a most cruel manner, in order to force them to execute all his injunctions with the utmost exactness, and all which may be true for what we know. We have already observed, that the North Americans are also afraid of being tormented by the devil; and shall find in the sequel of this work, that those of South America are exposed to the same persecution. Father Labat assures us, that the power of this angel of darkness has no manner of ascendency in those places where a cross is set up; and Rochefort informs us, that the devil has

net

not the power to torture the savages when they are in the company of Christians. The savages, whenever the grand adversary of mankind begins to afflict them, run as fast as possible into the next Christian house they meet with, where they find a sure asylum against all the assaults of that furious assailant; and he adds, that baptism infallibly preserves those savages from the devil's blows. From these two authorities received from persons whose principles are so very different, we may however draw this inference, that the devil is equally afraid both of Protestants and Roman catholics. -They have an infinite number of omens and superstitions, two of which only shall be mentioned. They pretend that bats are Chemens whose office it is to watch during the night. They often preserve the hair or the bones of some of their deceased relations in a gourd-bottle, which they consult upon occasion; and their Boias, whom we are going to mention, make them believe that the spirits of the deceased acquaint them with the designs of their enemies.

These Boias, who are the medico-priests of the Caribbees, have each their particular genius, whom they pretend to conjure up by humming over certain words, and the smoak of tobacco. They never call upon this genius or demon but in the nighttime, and that too in a place where there is neither fire nor light. We are told that these Boias are wizards, and have the secret of killing their enemies with charms which they employ against them.

The old Boias make all their candidates to the priesthood go thro' a pretty severe discipline; for the novice is obliged from his infancy to abstain from several kinds of meats, and even to live upon bread and water in a little hut, where he is visited by no body but his masters, who make incisions in his skin. But they do not stop here; for they give him tobacco-juice, which, as it purges him in a violent manner, frees him, say they, from all terrestrial uncleanness, and prepares his mind for the reception of the Chemen. They then rub his body over with gum, which they afterwards cover over with feathers, in order to make him exact and diligent in his consultations of the Genii, and ready to obey their orders. Nay, they teach him to cure the deceased, and to conjure up the spirit.

The Caribbees ascribe their diseases to Maboia ; and as those people are observed to be of a very nielancholy cast of mind, we may probably suppose that the nocturnal apparitions of the devil, and the torments which he inflicts upon them, are in reality no more than the chimæras of a brain very susceptible of the impressions of fear. We may ascribe part No. 22.

of the magical operations of the American priests to the same cause; for to impute them all would be going too far. Whenever they are desirous of knowing the issue of any illness with which they are troubled, they first lay the offering intended for Maboia upon a Matoutous, and then send for a Boia in the night-time, who immediately orders the fire to be put out, and turns out all those persons of whom he has the least suspicion. After this he goes into a corner, where he orders the patient to be brought to him, then smoaks a leaf of tobacco, part of which he bruises in his hands, and snapping his fingers at the same time, blows what he had rubbed into the air. The odour of this perfume brings the Chemen, who answers the demand of the Boia, when the latter draws near to his patient, feels, presses, and handles several times successively that part where the pain lies, if it be an outward one; pretending at the same time, to draw out that which occasions it, and often sucks it. These savages also make use of the bath and lancing. If this consultation with the spirit does not give the patient any case, the Boia physician resumes his priestly function, and after having given the patient some consolation, to prepare him for his journey to the next world, he declares to him that his god, or, if the reader pleases, his devil, is desirous of his company, and to deliver him from the miseries of this life.

If the sick person recovers, they make a feast in honour of Maboias, and set victuals and drink for him upon a Matoutou. The Cassave and the Ovicou, which they present to him, continue all night upon the table, and as, to speak with these savages, the spirit eats and drinks only in a spiritual manner, every thing they had set for him over night is found untouched in the morning. The Boia takes possession of these oblations, and the Caribbees look upon them with so much awe and veneration, that none but their old men and the chief persons of the nation are allowed to touch them. When the feast is ended, they black the patient with juniper apples, which make him as ugly as the devil himself. They have frequently feasts, or rather drunken entertainments, and it is in this manner they solemnize the return from an expedition, the birth of their children, the time appointed for the cutting off their hair, and that of their beginning to go to war. The holding a council of war, the selling of any wood or grove, the grubbing up of a piece of ground, the building of a canoe, are all considered as solemnities. They call these feasts assemblies, or drunken entertainments.

They observe a fast upon their arriving at the state

of

of puberty, and their being made captains, upon the death of a father or mother, wife or husband; this last article is very surprising after what has been before observed of the little affection which we are assured a husband has for his wife, and, as we may naturally suppose, a wife for her husband. If that saying be true, that friendship always meets with a reciprocal return, and that according to the maxim of count de Bussi Rabutin, all those who love are sure of being beloved, it may on the other side be as true, that hatred will be repaid with hatred. The Caribbees also fast after having killed an Arouague, that is, an enemy. They have no stated time for holding their assemblies of war, and as to all those of another kind, we have already observed that they eat, drink, and get drunk in them; to which we shall add, that in these they cut one another to pieces in cold blood.

Whenever they are about making war, some old woman draws up the whole design, and makes a speech to the company in order to stir them up to revenge; and when she sees that by the strength of her harangue and of the Ovicou, which is their drink, the assembly begin to give manifest tokens of their being inspired with rage and fury, she then throws into the midst of them some broiled limbs of those they had killed in war; after which, a captain seconds the old lady, and makes a speech upon the same subject.

Their manner of making war is to come upon their enemies by surprise, and to fall upon them in ambuscade. They cover themselves all over with boughs and leaves, and mask themselves with an Indian cane leaf called Balisier, by making a hole for their eyes to look through. Thus equipped, they stand up close to a tree, and wait till their enemies come by, in order to beat their heads to pieces at one blow with their bouton, or club, or to shoot them with their arrows after their having passed by. Whenever they fall upon a house that is covered with leaves of cane-stricks or palm-trees, they set fire to the roof, by showering down arrows upon it, to which they tie an handful of cotton, which they light just when they let fly.

Their arrows are always poisoned, and they are full of little notches, which make so many tongues, very neatly wrought, and cut in such a manner as not to hinder the arrow from penetrating, but from coming out again without widening the wound considerably; or by driving it back to the opposite part to draw it out by making a fresh one. They always make two cuts in that part where the reed is grafted at the sharp end, in order that when it is entered into the body, the rest of the arrow may

fall, and at the same time leave the poisoned end in the body. They treat the prisoners of war much after the same manner as the Canadians do theirs.

The Caribbees are jealous of their wives, and a bare suspicion of their having violated the fidelity they owe their husbands, gives them a power to kill their wives without any further ceremony. The husband is not liable to be called to an account for an affair of this nature, because the women of these islands are their husband's slaves; and notwithstanding the rigour of their slavery, we are nevertheless assured that they obey with so much exactness, silence, sweetness, and respect, that their husbands are very rarely obliged to remind them of it. An example worthy the imitation of some Chris tian wives, who are daily instructed from the pulpit, but to no purpose, in the duties of obedience and conjugal fidelity. This doctrine will probably be inculcated to them as long as the world stands, but will have as little effect upon them as the preaching of the gospel has with regard to the Caribbees. In fine, the female world are here such complete slaves, that a woman is never known to eat with her husband, or even in his presence. Their young girls about twelve years of age, wear the apron, which is the characteristic or modesty and chastity; and in the Lucayan islands, when a mother knows by certain natural symptoms that her daughter may assume the name of woman, the relations meet together and make a feast; after which they give her a cotton net filled with herbs, which she wears afterwards about her thighs, for before she went stark-naked. It is true, indeed, that nakedness does not make any impression upon their senses; and we are assured they have so much virtue as to say, that when they are naked they are to be looked upon only in the face. We are also told, that when a young maiden is of an age fit for marriage, she is obliged to live for ten days together upon dry Cassave; if in this time she does not die with hunger, it is a proof that she will be a good house-wife.

Such young Caribbee women as are marriageable, are not allowed to have any commerce with their young men, for their mothers never suffer them to go out of their sight. Nevertheless, says father Labat, a young woman very seldom lives to that age, without being singled out before by some young savage, who considers her the moment he has made his declaration as his future wife, till she may be of an age of being so in effect. Among these savages, relations are permitted to marry with one another, a woman not being allowed to refuse her kinsman; they

often

often pitch upon them when they are but four or five years of age. A brother does not marry his sister, nor a son his mother. Rochefort assures us, that they look upon this crime with horror; but that they allow so general, so extensive a liberty, with regard to all the other degrees of consanguinity, and the plurality of wives, that a man often marries three or four own sisters, who at the same time, are either his nieces or cousin-germans.-They reason thus, that as they have been brought up together, they will therefore love each other the more, and preserve a greater harmony. But here their notions, differ greatly from ours; and we must not omit a very whimsical custom. It sometimes happens that a Caribbee shall before-hand demand the offspring of a woman with child, provided it be a girl; which if they grant him, he marks the woman's belly with Rocou: And as soon as the girl is seven or eight years of or eight years of age, he goes to bed to her, in order to inure her to the sports of Venus.

A father upon the birth of his first-born son withdraws from society, and keeps a very strict fast for forty days together; and another traveller adds, that the husband goes to bed, and acts the part of the lying-in woman; but he neither gives us the origin or reason of this custom. Here follows another that is altogether as whimsical; The time prescribed for fasting being expired, they pitch upon two young Caribbees to slash his skin, and to cut and hack his body all over. They then rub the wounds with tobacco juice, after which they seat him in a chair painted red. The women bring in victuals, which the old men present to the wounded person, and feed him as we do a child: and in like manner they pour drink down his throat, holding his neck at the same time; and when he has done eating, the old men present him with two pieces of Cassave, which the poor tortured father holds in his hands. The ceremony is performed in a large open place, during which he gets astride upon two Cassaves, which he is afterwards obliged to eat. We may very well suppose them to be bloody; for they then smear the child's face over with blood, which they say contributes to the making him courageous; and the more patient the father is, the more his son will be valiant. But this is not all; he is obliged to abstain for six months together from various things, every time any of his wives are brought to bed. The moment the child is born, he is bathed in water, and if it happens in the night-time, the father bathes himself also; then the mother begins to flatten the infant's forehead, and to squash its face, which they think an addition to its beauty; and we

may naturally suppose, that the education they bestow upon them is of a piece with the rest.

They name the child about a fortnight after its birth, which they take from some of the ancestors of their family, from some tree, or other object that is agreeable to them; in a word, from any thing. that pleases or strikes their senses. The child is nained with form and ceremony; and has its sponsors, who engage to see it properly educated according to the custom of the country. They bore a hole in the child's ear, in his lower lips, and be-tween his nostrils. They put threads into these holes, to which pendants hang dangling; but they delay the ceremony, in case the child be too weak to go through it.

All these savages have a great number of superstitious notions, and ridiculous ceremonies, founded upon lying wonders and marvellous stories. Their priests like all the others among the savages of America, are also physicians, and before they undertake to cure a patient, they consult the oracle of their idol, and when the artful impostors imagine the distemper to be incurable, they do not use any medi、 cines. However, when they think there is no sort of danger, then they use their medicines and charms, and when the patient recovers, the whole honour and merit are ascribed to them.

Some of the tribes of these people chuse their chief who is to govern them while they are at table, and they elect him who is the greatest drunkard. This general or chief, the moment he is chosen, puts his two hands over his head, and while he continues in this posture, a long harangue is made to him with regard to his duty, which being done, they make a trial of his courage, by whipping him till the blood follows the strokes. Before their priests are ordained. to their sacerdotal office, they are obliged to go through a very severe probation, which, like many more of their customs, is both absurd and ridiculous.

They bruise green tobacco leaves, and pressing out the moisture, fill up a quantity of it in a vessel, equal to one of our common drinking glasses, and give it him who is to be received priest or boya, and he is obliged to swallow it all down. In their marriages they have no other ceremony besides that of making a formal demand of the yonng woman from her parents. He receives her in triumph, and con-ducts her home to her own hut, where an entertainment is provided for the relations. When their children are born, they put them into a sink of mud, where the innocent creatures are obliged to remain upwards of four hours, till they have invoked their idols to be propitious to him. Barbarous as their practices may seem, yet it does not come up to that

of

of the Greeks and Romans, with whom it was common to expose their children and desert them totally, leaving them to perish. Whereas, these savages we have been treating of, only expose their children for a short time, and the healthiness of their constitutions generally saves them.

When their relations die, they hang up their carcases in their huts, and adorn them with feathers and necklaces after all the flesh is rotted off. In some places they burn their dead, and the women drink in liquor the bones of their husbands reduced to powder; and thus, says a very learned author, (Mr. Picart) they bury with their own bodies all that was dear to them in this world. One would naturally imagine that such practices must flow from a very strong natural affection; but these savages have their own notions of fashion as well as we. Both husbands and wives know the nature of formal mourning, and just as it is among us Europeans, she who appears the most affected for the loss of her husband, procures another the sooner. Some of these savages make great rejoicings on the death of their relations, and the men get drunk while the wife of the deceased howls as if she was going distracted. They always kill some of their slaves, whom they imagine will accompany the deceased into the other world, and they believe in a future state of rewards and punishments; a sentiment that was never, perhaps, denied till the present age in which we live. And by whom has this fundamental and leading doctrine, in natural and revealed religion, been denied? Was it by Heathens? No; for the most barbarous, the most unenlightened Heathens believe in it. Was it by professed deists? No; the deists pride themselves in opposing Christianity, because (say they) all the ancient Heathens as well as the modern believed, and do believe the doctrine of future rewards and punishments; and they believed this without the assistance of a supernatural revetation.

The truth is, attempts have been made to overthrow both natural and revealed religion, by men well acquainted with human learning, and whose very characters, as professed preachers of the gospel, naturally led them to stand up in its defence against the attacks of its enemies. Our Saviour foretold, that a man's greatest emenies should be those of his own household, and we have lived to see this literally fulfilled. These men pretended to belong to the household of faith, and yet have denied the leading principles. But never let such notions distract the minds of pious, humble Christians. As the whole frame of the Christian religion is built up

on a plan consistent with the divine attributes, and suitable to the state of fallen nature, so it caries along with it the marks of infinite wisdom, unbounded mercy, unchangeable love, affective grace, and everlasting glory.

And will God suffer his own image to be trampled upon? No; he will support his church for the sake of his son, who shed his, blood to restore unhappy creatures to his favour, and although the wicked and the impious may blaspheme, yet the glory of Christ's kingdom will bear down all manner of opposition, men shall be blessed in him, and all nations shall call him blessed. It was declared by our Saviour, that the gates of hell should never prevail against his church; and by gates is meant rulers, for judges of old sat in the gates of the city to administer justice, as they still do in some of the eastern nations of Asia. Now there is not a name that can be found so proper for those men, who under the name of Christians have actually attempted to make us believe there is no immortality, there is no name, we say, so proper for them as that of infernal judges.

But as the church was purchased by the death of Christ, so the almighty power of God will support the kingdom of his glorious son.

God shall exalt his glorious head,

And his high throne maintain;
Shall strike the pow'rs and princes dead,
Who dare oppose his reign.

The Religion of the Savages who inhabit the River of Amazons.

These people are all idolators, and in many respects there is but little difference between them and those whom we have just now mentioned. They have a vast variety of idols, and they ascribe to them as many qualities as they please. They believe that some of them preside over the waters, and these are represented with fishes in their hands. There are others for seed time, and others again who inspire them with courage in war. They say that their deities came down from heaven, purposely to dwell among and assist them, but they do not pay them the least worship; they carry them along with them in a case, or leave them in any place till they want their as sistance. Hence, upon their going out to war, they hoist at the prow of their canoes, that idol in whom they repose the greatest confidence, and under whose auspices they look for victory. They have the same

custom