CHAPTER XXIII.

Of another cemi called Guabancex.

This cemi Guabancex was in the country of a great cacique, one of the chief ones, named Aumatex. This cemi is a woman and they say there are two others in her company. One is a crier, the other the gatherer or governor of the waters. And when Guabancex is angry, they say, that she raises the wind and brings rain, and throws down houses and shakes the trees. This cemi they say is a woman and was made of stone of that country. The other two cemis that are with her are named, the one Guatauua, and is a crier or proclaimer and by order of Guabancex makes proclamation that all the other cemis of that province shall help raise a high wind and bring a heavy rain. The other is named Coatrischie who, they relate, gathers the water into the valleys between the mountains and then lets them loose to destroy the country This they are positive about.

CHAPTER XXIV.

Of what they believe about another cemi named Faraguuaol.* This cemi belongs to a principal cacique in the island of Española, and is an idol, and they ascribe to him several names and he was found as you will now hear.

They say that one day in the past before the island was discovered they know not how long ago, when going hunting they found a certain animal and they ran after it and it broke away into a ditch. And looking for it they saw a beam which seems alive. Thereupon the hunter, seeing it, ran to his lord who was a cicique and the father of Guaraionel and told him what he had seen. They went there and found the thing as the hunter had said. And they took the log and built a house for it. And they say that it went out of the house several times and went to the place whence they had brought it, not exactly to the same place but near there; because the lord just mentioned or his son Guaraionel sent out to seek it they found it hidden; and that another time they bound it and put it in a sack, and notwithstanding it was bound in this way it went off as before. And this (story) this ignorant people accept as a positive certainty.

CHAPTER XXV.

Of the things which they say were uttered by two of the leading caciques of the island of Española; the one named Cazziuaquel, father of the above-mentioned Guarionel; the other Gamanacoel.

*Bachiller y Morales thinks this name should be written Taragabaol.

And (to) that great lord who they say is in heaven, as in the beginning of the book is written, (they say of) this Caizzihu,* that he there made a fast which all of them keep together, for they are shut up six or seven days without eating anything except the juice of herbs with which they also wash themselves. After this time is finished, they begin to eat something which gives them nourishment. And in the time that they have been without food through the weakness which they feel in the body and in the head they say they have seen something perhaps desired by them, for they all keep this fast in honor of the cemi that they have in order to know if they will obtain a victory over their enemies or to acquire wealth or for anything else they desire. And they say that this cacique affirmed that he had spoken with Giocauuaghama† who had told him that whoever remained alive after his death should enjoy the rule over them only a short time, because they would see in their country a people clothed which was to rule them and to slay them and that they would die of hunger. At first they thought these would be the Canibales; but reflecting that they only plundered and fled they believed that it must be another people that the cemi spoke of. Wherefore they now believe that it was the Admiral and the people he brought with him. § Now I want to tell what I have seen and what took place, when I and the other friars went to Castile and I, Friar Ramon a poor hermit stayed behind || and went off to the Magdalena to a fort which Don Christopher Columbus, Admiral, viceroy and governor of the islands and of the main land of the Indies by command of King Don Ferdinand and of the Queen Donna Isabella. I being in that fort with Artiaga (Arriaga) appointed captain of it by order of the aforesaid viceroy Don Christopher Columbus it pleased God to enlighten with the light of the Holy Catholic Faith a whole household of the principal people of that province of Magdalena. This province was called Maroris and the lord of it was called Guauauoconel, which means son of Guauaenechin. In the aforesaid house were his servants and favorites who had for a surname Giahuuauariù. They were in all sixteen persons all relatives, and among them five brothers. Of these one died, and the other four received the water of holy baptism. And I believe that they died martyrs, for so it appeared in their death and in their constancy. The first who received the death or the water of holy baptism was an Indian called Guaticaua** who then received the name of John. This

*This sentence is apparently corrupt. The conjectural insertions are based on Las Casas's epitome of the same story. Docs. Inéd. LXVI, 473. I take Caizziuaquel and Caizzihu to be the same.

+Yocahuguama in Las Casas, op. cit. 475.

"That people whom we now call Caribes but whom they then and we called Canibales" Las Casas op. cit. 475. The words are etymologically the same.

§A very interesting legend of a prophecy of a clothed conquering race. Possibly the attribute of clothing may have been based on rumors of the Mayas or the Aztecs. The text is confused. Probably it means simply at the time when the other friars went to Castile.

Maçorix. Las Casas, Docs. Inéd. LXVI, 436. **Guaicauanu is the form given a page below.

was the first Christian who suffered a cruel death; and surely it seems to me that he died the death of a martyr. For I have heard from some who were present at his death that he said Dio Aboriadacha, Dio Aboriadacha,* which is to say: "I am a servant of God." And in like manner died his brother Antony and with him another saying the same thing. All those of this household and people attended me to do whatever I pleased. Those that were left alive and are living to-day are Christians through the means of Don Christopher Columbus, viceroy and governor of the Indies; and now the Christians are many more in number through the grace of God.

Let us now relate what befel us in the island (province) of Magdalena. When I was there in Magdalena the said Lord Admiral came to the assistance of Arriaga and some Christians who were besieged by enemies, the subjects of a principal cacique named Caouabo (Caonabo). The Lord Admiral told me that the language of the province Magdalena Maroris (Maçorix) was different from the other, and that the speech there was not understood throughout the land, and that therefore I should go and reside with another principal Cacique named Guarionex, lord of a numerous people whose language was understood everywhere in the land. So by his command I went to reside with the said Guarionex. It is true, that I said to the lord governor Don Christopher Columbus: "My lord, why does your lordship wish me to go and live with Guarionex when I know no language besides that of Maroris? (Maçorix) Let your lordship permit that some one of these people of Nuhuirci, who then were Christians and knew both languages, go with me." This he granted me and told me to take whomever I pleased. And God in his goodness gave me for a companion the best of the Indians and the one most experienced in the Christian faith. Later he took him from God be praised who gave him and took him away, whom I truly regarded as a good son and a brother. And he was that Guaicauanù who afterwards was a Christian and was called John.

me.

Of what befell us there I, the poor hermit, shall not relate anything, nor how we set forth Guaicauanú and I and went to Isabella and waited for the Admiral till he returned from the relief of Magdalena. As soon as he arrived we went where the lord governor had ordered us in company with one Juan de Agiada (Aguada) who had charge of a fort which the said governor Don Christopher Columbus had built, half a league from the place where we were to live. And the aforesaid lord Admiral commanded the said Juan di Agiada (Aguada) that he should give us to eat from the store that was in the fort. This fort was called Conception. We then were with that cacique Guarionex almost two years giving him instruction all the time in our holy faith and the customs of Christians. In the beginning he showed a good will and gave us hopes that he would do everything we wished and of desiring to be a Christian, asking us to teach him the Lord's Prayer, the Ave Maria and the Creed,

*This phrase one the very few extant belonging to the Taino or Haytian language is given by Las Casas as "Dios naboria daca." op. cit. 475.

and all the other prayers which pertain to the Christian. And thus he learned the Lord's Prayer and the Ave Maria, and the Creed. And many of his household learned the same. And every morning he said his prayers and he made his household say them twice a day. But later he became offended and gave up that good plan through the fault of some other principal men of that country, who blamed him because he was willing to give heed to the Christian law, since the Christians were bad men and got possession of their lands by force. Therefore they advised him to care no more for anything belonging to the Christians, but that they should agree and conspire together to slay them, because they could not satisfy them and were resolved not to try in any fashion to follow their ways. For this reason he broke off from his good intention, and we, seeing that he had broken away and left what we had taught him, resolved to depart thence and go where we might be more successful in teaching the Indians and instructing them in the matters of our faith. And so we went to another principal cacique who showed us good will saying that he wished to be a Christian. This cacique was called Mauiatuè. Accordingly, we set out to go to the said Mauiatuè's country: I Friar Ramon Pane, a poor hermit, and Friar Juan Borgognone of the order of St. Francis and John Matthew the first that received the water of Holy Baptism in the island of Española.

On the second day after we departed from the village and habitation of Guarionex to go to the other cacique named Mauiatuè the people of Guarionex built a house near the house of prayer in which we left some images before which the catechumens were to kneel and pray and to console themselves. And they were the mother, and brothers and the relatives of the aforesaid John Matthew, the first Christian. Later seven others joined them and then all of that family became Christians and persevered in their good intentions, according to our faith; so that all that family remained as the guardians of that house of prayer and some lands that I had had tilled.

Now these being left to guard this house the second day after we had gone to the aforesaid Mauiatuè, six men went into the house of prayer which the aforesaid catechumens who were seven in number had charge of, and by order of Guarionex told them that they should take those images which Friar Ramon had left in the custody of the catechumens, and rend them and break them in pieces, since Friar Ramon and his companions had gone and they would not know who did it. Therefore these six servants of Guarionex went there and found six boys watching over this house of prayer fearing what happened later; and the boys thus instructed said they were unwilling they should come in, but they forced their way in and took the images and carried them off.

CHAPTER XXVI.

What became of the images and the miracle God wrought to show his power.

When they came out of the house of prayer, they threw the images down on the ground and covered them with dirt and then made water upon them saying: "Now your fruits will be good and great.” And this because they buried them in a tilled field saying that the fruit would be good which was planted there, and this all in mockery. And when the boys saw this that had charge of the house of prayer by command of the catechumens they ran to their elders who were on their lands and told them, that the men of Guarionex had torn the images to tatters and mocked them. And when they understood the matter from them they left their work and ran crying out to give an account of it to Don Bartholomew Columbus who was then governor in place of the Admiral his brother, who had gone to Castile. He as lieutenant of the viceroy and governor of the islands had the offenders tried and the truth being made known he had them publicly burnt. All this did not deter Guarionex and his subjects from the evil design they had of slaying the Christians on the day appointed for bringing in the tribute which they payed.* But their conspiracy was discovered, and thus they were taken on the same day on which they were going to carry it into effect. Still they persisted in their plan and putting it into operation, they killed four men and John Matthew chief clerk and Anthony his brother who had received Holy Baptism. And they ran to where they had hidden the images and tore them in pieces. Some days later the owner of that field went to dig agis which are roots like turnips and some like radishes. And in the place where the images had been buried two or three agis had grown one through the middle of the other in the form of a cross. Nor was it possible for any man to find this cross, but the mother of Guarionex found it who was the worst woman I knew in those parts. She thought this a great miracle and said to the commander of the fort Conception, "This miracle has been shown by God where the images were found. God knows why."

Let us now relate how the first Christians were converted who received Holy Baptism and how much it is necessary to do to make all Christians. And truly the island has great need of people to punish the chiefs when they will not suffer their people to hear the things of the Holy Catholic Faith, and to be taught in it, because they are not able and do not know how to speak against it. I can affirm this with truth because it has cost me much labor to know it and I am certain that it will be clear from what we have said of this to point. A word to the wise is enough. The first Christians then in the island of Española were those of whom we have spoken above, i. e. Gianauuariu in whose family there were

*Cf. Las Casas, Historia de las Indias II, 144-5.