198
LIFE
A N D
V O Y A G E S
O F
[BOOK
IV.
Hospitality, we are told, was with them a law of nature univer sally observed; there was no need of being known to receive its succors; every house was as open to the stranger as his own.* Columbus, too, in a letter to Luis de St. Angel, observes, “ True it is that after they felt confidence, and lost their fear of us, they were so liberal with what they possessed, that it would not be be lieved by those who had not seen it.
I f any thing was asked of
them, they never said no, but rather gave it cheerfully, and showed as much amity as if they gave their very hearts; and whether the thing were of value, or of little price, they were content with whatever was given in return.
*
*
*
In all these islands it
appears to me that the men are all content with one wife, but they give twenty to their chieftain or king.
The women seem to work
more than the men; and I have not been able to understand whe ther they possess individual property ; but rather think that what ever one has all the rest share, especially in all articles of provi sions.Ӡ One of the most pleasing descriptions of the inhabitants of this island is given by old Peter Martyr, who gathered it, as he says, from the conversations of the admiral himself.
“ It is cer
tain,” says he, “ that the land among these people is as common as the sun and water; and that ‘ mine and thine,’ the seeds of all mischief, have no place with them.
They are content with so
little, that in so large a country they have rather superfluity than scarceness; so that they seem to live in the golden world, without toil, living in open gardens; not intrenched with dykes, divided with hedges, or defended with walls.
* Charlevoix.
They deal truly one with
Hist. St. Doming., lib. i.
† Letter of Columbus to Luis de St. Angel.
Navarrete, tom. i. p. 167.