for my own part, by the best information that I could get of this
matter, I am apt to think that this prodigious pile was fashioned
into the shape it now bears by several tools and instruments, of
which they have a wonderful variety in this country. It was
probably at first a huge misshapen rock that grew upon the top of
the hill, which the natives of the country, after having cut into a
kind of regular figure, bored and hollowed with incredible pains and
industry, till they had wrought in it all those beautiful vaults and
caverns into which it is divided at this day. As soon as this rock
was thus curiously scooped to their liking, a prodigious number of
hands must have been employed in chipping the outside of it, which
is now as smooth as the surface of a pebble; and is in several
places hewn out into pillars that stand like the trunks of so many
trees bound about the top with garlands of leaves. It is probable
that when this great work was begun, which must have been many
hundred years ago, there was some religion among this people; for
they give it the name of a temple, and have a tradition that it was
designed for men to pay their devotion in. And indeed, there are
several reasons which make us think that the natives of this country
had formerly among them some sort of worship, for they set apart
every seventh day as sacred; but upon my going into one of these
holy houses on that day, I could not observe any circumstance of
devotion in their behaviour. There was, indeed, a man in black, who
was mounted above the rest, and seemed to utter some thing with a
great deal of vehemence; but as for those underneath him, instead of
paying their worship to the deity of the place, they were most of
them bowing and curtsying to one another, and a considerable number
of them fast asleep.

"The queen of the country appointed two men to attend us, that had