failing these, they fall back upon their own. If they themselves have
no children, they will their estates to whomsoever in the island is
considered most powerful, that their subjects may be protected by him
against their hereditary enemies. They have as many wives as they
choose, and after the cacique dies the most beloved of his wives is
buried with him. Anacaona, sister of Beuchios Anacauchoa, King of
Xaragua, who was reputed to be talented in the composition of areytos,
that is to say poems, caused to be buried alive with her brother the
most beautiful of his wives or concubines, Guanahattabenecheua; and
she would have buried others but for the intercession of a certain
sandal-shod Franciscan friar, who happened to be present. Throughout
the whole island there was not to be found another woman so beautiful
as Guanahattabenecheua. They buried with her her favourite necklaces
and ornaments, and in each tomb a bottle of water and a morsel of
cazabi bread were deposited.

There is very little rain either in Xaragua, the kingdom of Beuchios
Anacauchoa, or in the Hazua district of the country called Caihibi;
also in the valley of the salt- and fresh-water lakes and in Yacciu, a
district or canton of the province of Bainoa. In all these countries
are ancient ditches, by means of which the islanders irrigate their
fields as intelligently as did the inhabitants of New Carthage, called
Spartana, or those of the kingdom of Murcia, where it rarely rains.
The Maguana divides the provinces of Bainoa from that of Caihibi,
while the Savana divides it from Guaccaiarima. In the deeper valleys
there is a heavier rainfall than the natives require, and the
neighbourhood of Santo Domingo is likewise better watered than is
necessary, but everywhere else the rainfall is moderate. The same
variations of temperature prevail in Hispaniola as in other countries.

I have enumerated in my First Decade the colonies established in
Hispaniola by the Spaniards, and since that time they have founded the
small towns of Porto de la Plata, Porto Real, Lares, Villanova,
Assua, and Salvatiera. Let us now describe these of the innumerable
neighbouring islands which are known and which we have already
compared to the Nereids, daughters of Tethys, and their mother's
ornament. I shall begin with the nearest one, which is remarkable
because of another fountain of Arethusa, but which serves no purpose.
Six miles distant from the coast of the mother island lies