Note 1 — Slavery Among the Natives

Some are made captives in wars waged by villages that have neither treaty or commerce with them, but go only to rob, without any cause. This is because a chief of any village, when he dies, imposes upon it a sort of mourning or grief; all his near relatives promise to eat no bread (which is rice), millet, or borona, and to wear no gold or any holiday dress, until they take some booty, or kill or capture men. They would go to do this, wherever they could, and Page 261where there were no friends or powerful towns who could easily avenge themselves. Some, especially those who pride themselves on valor, have a custom, after gathering their harvests, of going to rob, without any cause, towns with which they have no commerce or relationship; or whomsoever they meet on the sea, where—a thing that causes wonder—they exempt not even their relatives, if the latter are less powerful than they. Some are enslaved by those who rob them for a very small matter—as, for instance, a knife, a few sugar-canes, or a little rice. Some are slaves because they bore testimony, or made statements about some one, which they could not prove. Some are thus punished for committing some crime; or transgressing rules regarding some of their rites or ceremonies, or things forbidden among them,1 or not coming quickly enough at the summons of some chief, or any other like thing; and if they do not have the wherewithal to pay, they are made slaves for it.