The Natives Of Cuba Acknowledged
That The Heavens And Earth, And All Things Contained In These, Had Been
Created.
They are even said to have had traditions concerning the flood,
and the destruction of the world by water, occasioned by three persons who
came three several ways.
The old men reported, that a sage who knew the
approaching deluge, built a great ship, into which he went with his family,
and many animals. That he sent out a crow, which remained a long while out,
feeding on the dead bodies, and afterwards returned with a green branch.
They added many other particulars respecting the deluge, even to two of
Noah's sons covering him when drunk, while the third scoffed him; adding
that the Indians were descended from the latter, and therefore had no
clothes, whereas the Spaniards descended from the other sons, and had
therefore clothes and horses. As they lived in towns under the authority
of caciques, it is probable that the will of these chiefs served as law.
Some time before the expedition of Velasquez to Cuba, a cacique of the
province of Guatiba, in Hispaniola, named Hatuey, to escape from the
tyranny of the Spaniards, went over to the eastern end of Cuba with as
many of his people as he could induce to accompany him; the distance
between the two islands being only eighteen leagues. He settled with his
followers in the nearest district of Cuba, called Mayci, reducing the
inhabitants of that place to subjection, but not to slavery.
Enter page number
PreviousNext
Page 641 of 789
Words from 178530 to 178783
of 219607
