we must honor with our Sports and Dances, to see if we can appease him and
render him propitious to us; that so he may command the Spaniards not to
offer us any injury. They all applauded this Speech, and fell a leaping and
dancing around the Box, till they had quite tired and spent themselves.
After which the Cacique Hatuey resuming his Discourse, continued to speak
to them in these terms: If we keep this God (says he) till he's taken away
from us, he'll certainly cause our lives to be taken away from us; and
therefore I am of opinion it will be the best way to cast him into the
river. They all approved of this Advice, and went all together with one
accord to throw this pretended God into the River."

But the Spaniards came and encountered the resistance of Hatuey and his
followers. The invaders were victorious, and Hatuey was captured and burned
alive. Las Casas relates that while the poor wretch was in the midst of the
flames, tied to a stake, "a certain Franciscan Friar of great Piety and
Virtue, took upon him to speak to him of God and our Religion, and to
explain to him some Articles of Catholic Faith, of which he had never
heard a word before, promising him Eternal Life if he would believe and
threatening him with Eternal Torment if he continued obstinate in his
Infidelity. Hatuey reflecting on the matter, as much as the Place and
Condition in which he was would permit, asked the Friar that instructed
him, whether the Gate of Heaven was open to Spaniards; and being answered
that such of them as were good men might hope for entrance there: the
Cacique, without any farther deliberation, told him that he had no mind to
go to heaven for fear of meeting with such cruel and wicked Company as
they were; but he would much rather choose to go to Hell where he might be
delivered from the troublesome sight of such kind of People." And so died
the Cacique Hatuey. Four hundred years later, the Cuban Government named a
gunboat _Hatuey_, in his honor.