The condition in which the religious found the Indians in the province
This land was not only ruined by the continual wars which the villages all waged with one another, but still more by the settled peace which they all had made with the devil. They obeyed to the full his diabolical will, though it was such that there never was a tyrant who treated those whom he had conquered, and who were subject to him, as the devil treated these wretched Indians. He had led their minds into such a state of confusion that they could not refuse anything which he commanded them--though his demands were so great and so grievous that they could not put their hands on anything from which he did not take tribute, and with which he had not commanded that they should do him honor by means of some superstition, threatening them with death if they failed therein. They were accustomed to call whomsoever they adored anito; and they said that they had a good anito, to whom they attributed all the good fortune that happened to them, and a had anito, who caused all their hardships, poverty, temporal evils, maladies, and deaths. They served the latter that he might not do them harm, and the former that he might do them good. They employed more priestesses, or aniteras, than priests, though they had some of the latter--a wretched class of people, and with reason despised on account of their foul manner of life. The devil entered these aniteras or sorceresses, and through them, and by their agency, he gave his answers. By these priestesses the Indians performed their superstitious rites and sacrifices, when they wished to placate their anitos or obtain anything from them. If anyone fell sick, the aniteras immediately came, and with oils and a thousand performances they persuaded him that, if he would believe in what they did, they would cure him. Then in his sight they performed and displayed a thousand fantastic things; and the devil so earnestly strove to give them credit that at times he made the people believe that the soul had left the body, and that the anitera had restored it by the power of her prayers and her medicines. Whenever the sick man recovered, they attributed the recovery to their own efforts; while, if he died, they were plentifully supplied with excuses and reasons to avoid the blame and to throw the responsibility upon someone else. This is an old trick of the devil, with which he betrayed the heathens of antiquity, and likewise betrays this deluded and foolish people. Before sowing their fields they used to celebrate three solemn feast-days, during which all the men gave themselves up to dancing, eating, and drinking until they were unable to stand; and after this came that which commonly follows--namely, giving loose rein to the flesh. The women did not drink, for this was very contrary to their customs as they are very laborious; but they made up for it as well as they could, and in the dances and all the rest they did as well as the men. If the Indians left their houses, and happened to meet anyone who sneezed, they went back home again even though they had gone a day's journey, as if the sneeze had been something in the road. Sometimes they went on, and returned without delay from their destination. If the same thing happened when they began to work, they immediately desisted from their labor. If on any similar occasion they heard the singing of a certain bird which they regarded as a bad omen, they did not go on at all with what they had undertaken, even though they had traveled for many days, and even in the case of an entire army in war. They acted in the same manner if the bird came or flew toward their left hand, or if it turned its bill in such or such a direction. It was the same way with other signs which they regarded as evil omens. On the contrary, they were very much encouraged and very joyful when the augury was a good one; and although a thousand times the event was opposite to what the augury, as it seemed, had threatened or promised, they never lacked an excuse for remaining in their error, and for continuing forever in this harmful ignorance. When they began a voyage by sea or by the rivers, they threw into the water a certain quantity of their food out of reverence for the devil, in order to placate him so that he might give them success. If they built a house, they had to perform their rites before entering it; and if the bird of augury entered it they either tore it down, or performed a thousand sacrifices and superstitious rites in order to fit it for habitation.
