Note 6 — Chapter I

Among early writers on Antillean religion the most important are Christopher Columbus, Ramon Pane, and Peter Martyr d'Anghiera. Columbus left Fray Ramon Pane in Haiti with instructions to report on the religious beliefs of the natives; and in Fernando Columbus's Historie, ch. lxii, Pane's narrative is incorporated, introduced by a brief quotation from Christopher Columbus, describing Zemiism. After Pane, the account of Haitian religion in Peter Martyr's "First Decade" is the most important source, although Benzoni, Gómara, Herrera, Las Casas, and Oviedo give additional or corroborative information. Of recent writings those of J. W. Fewkes, embodying the results of careful archaeological studies, form the most important contribution. Part ii of Joyce's Central American and West Indian Archaeology gives a general survey of the field, which is more briefly treated in livre ii, 3e partie, of Beuchat's Manuel, and in its comparative aspects by Wissler, The American Indian.