d by two male zemes who serve as
attendants; one acting as herald to summon other zemes to the woman's
assistance when she wishes to raise storms or draw down clouds and
rains; the other is supposed to collect the water which flows down
from the high mountains into the valleys, and upon the command of the
female zemes to let it loose in the form of torrents which devastate
the country whenever the islanders have failed to pay her idol the
honours due to it. One more thing worthy of remembrance and I shall
have finished my book. The natives of Hispaniola were much impressed
by the arrival of the Spaniards. Formerly two caciques, of whom one
was the father of Guarionex, fasted for fifteen days in order to
consult the zemes about the future. This fast having disposed the
zemes in their favour, they answered that within a few years a race of
men wearing clothes would land in the island and would overthrow their
religious rites and ceremonies, massacre their children, and make them
slaves. This prophecy had been taken by the younger generation to
apply to the cannibals; and thus whenever it became known that the
cannibals had landed anywhere, the people took flight without even
attempting any resistance. But when the Spaniards landed, the
islanders then referred the prophecy to them, as being the people
whose coming was announced. And in this they were not wrong, for they
are all under the dominion of the Christians, and those who resisted
have been killed; all the zemes having been removed to Spain, to teach
us the foolishness of those images and the deceits of devils, nothing
remaining of them but a memory. I have brought some things to your
knowledge, Most Illustrious Prince, and you will learn many others
later, since you will probably leave to-morrow to accompany your
great-aunt to Naples, in obedience to the orders of your uncle, King
Frederick. You are ready to leave and I am weary. Therefore, fare
you well, and keep the remembrance of your Martyr, whom you have
constrained in the name of your uncle, Frederick, to choose these few
from amongst many great things.

BOOK X

AND EPILOGUE TO THE DECADE

TO INIGO LOPEZ MENDOZA, COUNT OF TENDILLA, VICEROY OF GRANADA

I have been prompted by the letters of my friends and of high
personages to compose a complete chronicle of all that has happened
since the first discoveries and the conquest of the ocean by Columbus,
and of all that shall occur. My correspondents wer