Bishop Las
Casas directly charges those of his day with magnifying the vices of the
Indians and the cruelties of their worship; and even such a liberal
thinker as Roger Williams tells us that he would not be present at their
ceremonies, "Lest I should have been partaker of Satan's Inventions and
Worships."[1] This same prejudice completely blinded the first visitors to
the New World, and it was only the extravagant notion that Christianity
had at some former time been preached here that saved us most of the
little that we have on record.
[Footnote 1: Roger Williams, _A Key Into the Language of America_, p.
152.]
Yet now and then the truth breaks through even this dense veil of
prejudice. For instance, I have quoted in this chapter the evidence of the
Spanish chroniclers to the purity of the teaching attributed to Bochica.
The effect of such doctrines could not be lost on a people who looked upon
him at once as an exemplar and a deity. Nor was it. The Spaniards have
left strong testimony to the pacific and virtuous character of that
nation, and its freedom from the vices so prevalent in lower races.[1]
[Footnote 1: See especially the _Noticias sobre el Nuevo Reino de
Granada_, in the _Colleccion de Documentos ineditos del Archivo de
Indias_, vol. v, p. 529.]
Now, as I dismiss from the domain of actual fact all these legendary
instructors, the question remains, whence did these secluded tribes obtain
the sentiments of justice and morality which they loved to attribute to
their divine founders, and, in a measure, to practice themselves?
The question is pertinent, and with its answer I may fitly close this
study in American native religions.
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