[1] The account of this voyage is often contradictory,
and almost always
unintelligible. In this
instance, De Leon is made, with a southern
course, to increase his latitude
almost nine degrees to the north.—E.
[2] This account of the island of Bimini is perfectly
ridiculous, as its
whole extent does not exceed
twenty miles in length, and not exceeding
one mile broad; it is one
of the smallest of the Bahama or Lucayo
islands, and the largest of
them cannot possibly contain any stream of
water beyond the size of a
brook.—E.
SECTION X.
The Martyrdom of two Dominican Friars on the coast of Venezuela, through the Avarice of the Spaniards.
There happened about this time a very singular and melancholy event, which I find recorded in many Spanish historians, which shews to what a height corruption had grown in so short a time among the Spanish settlements in the West Indies. Reports had reached Spain of the harsh and cruel manner in which the natives were treated by the Spaniards, being distributed among the proprietors of land as if they had been cattle. This moved some religious men of the Dominican order to go over to the new world, to try what progress they could make in converting the Indians by spiritual means only. Three of these fathers landed in the island of Porto Rico, where one of them fell sick and was unable to proceed. The other two procured a vessel to carry them over to the main, where they