People, and that
his was a religious order which refused no man. Knowing that it was not
the part of a discreet person to expose himself to danger by pressing this
matter any farther, John Anthony determined to go on board again with
those few who still remained faithful; and that they might not be so
served by those who remained, he and Arana sailed immediately with their
two ships for St Domingo, with the wind as contrary as they feared; for
they spent many days at sea and spoiled all their provisions, and
Caravajals ship was much damaged upon certain sands, where she lost her
rudder and sprung a leak, so that they had much difficulty to bring her
into port.
[1] This prolix, diffuse, uninteresting, and confused disquisition, on the
superstitious beliefs and ceremonies of the original natives of Haiti
or Hispaniola, is so inexplicably and inexpressibly unintelligible and
absurd, partly because the original translator was unable to render
the miserable sense or nonsense of the author into English, but
chiefly owing to the innate stupidity and gross ignorance of the poor
anchorite, that the present editor was much inclined to have expunged
the whole as unsatisfactory and uninteresting: But it seemed incumbent
to give the whole of this most important voyage to the public. The
Editor however, has used the freedom to compress the scrambling detail
of the original of this section into a smaller compass; to omit the
uselessly prolix titles of its subdivisions; and, where possible, to
make the intended meaning somewhat intelligible; always carefully
retaining every material circumstance. It was formerly divided into
chapters like a regular treatise, and these are here marked by
corresponding figures. The author repeatedly acknowledges that his
account is very imperfect, which he attributes to the confused and
contradictory reports of the natives, and allows that he may even have
set down the information he collected in wrong order, and may have
omitted many circumstances for want of paper at the time of collecting
materials. - E.
[2] Some of these are so unintelligibly related, owing to ignorance in the
translator, that it were unnecessary to insert them in this place. - E.
[3] The poor anchorite relates all these absurdities gravely, as actually
proceeding from sorcery. - E.
[4] In this paragraph, marked 20 - 24. the substance of five prolix
chapters by F. Roman is compressed. - E.
[5] Though not expressed in the text, these were probably the manico root,
of which the cassada bread is made. - E
[6] It is singular that the author should not have endeavoured to account
for the origin of these iron hatchets; probably procured in the
plundering excursions of these Carib natives of Guadaloupe from
Hispaniola. - E.
[7] This surely means no more than that their rude looms were upright or
perpendicular.
