Editorial note — BOOK VI

[Note 2: Las Casas tells an identical story concerning Alonso de Hojeda, who gave an image of the Blessed Virgin to a cacique of Cueyba. During the campaign which ended in the conquest of Cuba, Las Casas offered to trade a Flemish statue for the one Hojeda had left there, but the cacique refused, and taking his image, he fled into the woods, lest he should be forced to exchange. The two stories, doubtless, refer to the same incident, though it seems strange that Peter Martyr should not have identified Hojeda as the "unknown sailor." See Las Casas, Hist. de las Indias, tom, iv., cap. xix.: B. Las Casas, his Life, his Apostolate, and his Writings, cap iv.]