ning down the sea-coasts, being melted by the sun, it congeals in the
water in great heaps, like small islands. This pitch is not like that
of Europe, but resembles, both in colour and shape, that froth of the
sea called bitumen; but, in my judgment, this matter is nothing but wax
mixed with sand, which stormy weather, and the rolling waves of great
rivers hath cast into the sea; for in those parts are great quantities
of bees who make their honey in trees, to the bodies of which the
honeycomb being fixed, when tempests arise, they are torn away, and by
the fury of the winds carried into the sea, as is said. Some naturalists
say, that the honey and the wax are separated by the salt water; whence
proceeds the good amber. This opinion seems the more probable, because
the said amber tastes as wax doth.

But to return to my discourse. The pirates made in those islands all the
haste they possibly could to equip their vessels, hearing that the
Spanish ship was come which they expected. They spent some time cruising
on the coasts of Jucatan, where inhabit many Indians, who seek for the
said amber in those seas. And I shall here, by the by, make some short
remarks on the manner of living of the Indians, and their religion.

They have now been above a hundred years under the Spaniards, to whom
they performed all manner of services; for whensoever any of them needed
a slave or servant, they sent for these to serve them as long as they
pleased. By the Spaniards they were initiated in the principles of the
Christian faith and religion, and they sent them every Sunday and
holiday a priest to perform divine service among them; afterwards, for
reasons not known, but certainly through temptations of the father of
idolatry, the devil, they suddenly cast off the Christian religion,
abusing the priest that was sent them: this provoked the Spaniards to
punish them, by casting many of the chiefs into prison. Every one of
those barbarians had, and hath still, a god to himself, whom he serves
and worships. It is a matter of admiration, how they use a child newly
born: as soon as it comes into the world, they carry it to the temple;
here they make a hole, which they fill with ashes only, on which they
place the child naked, leaving it there a whole night alone, not without
great danger, nobody daring to come near it; meanwhile the temple is
open on all sides, that all sorts of beasts may freely come in and out.
Next day, the father, and relati