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A custom exists amongst these people which was to us matter of great surprise. They are in the habit of killing all the females who survive the age of thirty years. They had brought one with them who was only twenty-four; and one of these Indians told me that she was very old, and had not a long time to live, as in the course of a few years they should slay her. Our fathers have converted several of this caste to the faith, and it were to be desired for the sake of the females that they could all be converted."

We find in some of these letters, accounts of nations where, when the mother had twins, one was slain, as it would occupy the attention of the nurse too much to have the care of both. We have read in others, accounts of the slaying of aged men in certain tribes, as an act of piety to release them from want and suffering, when they could no longer hunt or fish; but this is the only instance that we recollect of a custom of shortening, and to so limited a period, the lives of females. Could we collect together the various barbarities which Christianity has destroyed; could we calculate the accumulated effects by multiplying ages and nations and destructive customs; could we add to this result, that of a similar multiplication of blessings which were its inevitable consequences; we might well cast away all the enjoyments of a world to come, and pointing to the mighty mass of destroyed evils and created good, say to those who have written or spoken of wars, persecutions, and other evils or crimes, which according to their allegation it has produced, and triumphantly ask, how much does the alledged evil fall short of the undoubted good? But this is not our theme.

There is a letter dated March 30, 1718, at Buenos Ayres, from Father James De Haze, a Belgian Jesuit, who had then spent thirty years in the province, twenty-two of which he had been amongst the Indians, and then, much against his inclination, was withdrawn from the missions to be placed at the head of the College of Paraguay. The letter is addressed to Father John Baptiste Arendts, provincial of Flanders. He describes amongst others, some tribes on the river Paraguay, particularly the Guaycureens, a very barbarous and ferocious nation; they are generally horsemen, who without clothing for themselves, or saddles on their steeds, rove about the country: also the Parayguas, who principally lived on fish, and remained in their canoes on the river, a cruel and perfidious race, greatly opposed to Christianity, and of whose enmity and deceit he gives some melancholy instances. He writes

"All these barbarians adore the Devil, and they report that he appears to them occasionally under the figure of a large bird."

Father Fauque, of whom we made previous mention, writing from Ouyapoc, in French Guiana, on the 27th September, 1733, to Father Neuville, procurator of the American missions in France, relates a conversation which confirms the testimony here given by Father De Haze. He had gone out from Ouyapoc into some of the neighbouring settlements of the Palikours, and states

"On Monday I left the river Tapamouru, and lay down at night in a thicket, on the banks of the Ouassa. I was obliged to sleep in the same place next night, for having gone to the middle of a creek which separated me from the other habitations, and finding it too deep, I was obliged to return. On Wednesday I arrived at the dwelling of an Indian named Coumarouma, who had invited me to visit him, and had even offered me ground to establish a mission; but the place is not at all so convenient as the height of Oussa, which I previously mentioned. As this Indian had been to Kourou, and there witnessed the charity of the missionaries for their neophytes, we conversed for a long time upon the steps which might be taken to form a similar establishment in this vicinity. I said among other things, that the Pyapes who are a sort of enchanters or magicians, were altogether driven from the mission of Father Lombard; and I knew of only one who was reputed to be of that description. I mentioned his name; he knew him, and being aware of his being blind of an eye, 'Whew,' said he laughing, is that fellow a Pyape? How could he see the Devil with only one eye?' This witticism pleased me the more, as it confirmed what I already began to know, that the Palikours cannot bear these sort of jugglers.'

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However strange the assertion might seem at first to some of our readers, that those Indians on the Paraguay stated the apparition of the devil to them, yet when we find from the remark of our friend Coumarouma, that a monoptic was scarcely fit for the ministry because of the difficulty he must experience in seeing his Satanic majesty; we must be led to conclude that this belief was really prevalent amongst them, and when we discover it upon the Paraguay and in French Guiana, we find reason to suppose that it must have pervaded the intermediate country.

In a letter of the same Father Fauque, written nearly five years later, to the same superior, 20th of April, 1738, he is giving the account of his mission in company with Father Besson, to some new tribes more to the north-west, and after relating the great fervour and piety of the converted Indians of the settlement of St. Paul, where the tribes of Pirious, Palanquas and Macapas had united with some of the Caranas, he proceeds

"After having remained three days in this mission, we set out upon our journey, Father Besson and myself each in his canoe. After the

first day's passage, found one of the famous pyapes, named Canori, who is held in great esteem amongst the Indians, and had the audacity, during a short absence of Father Dayma, to come to his mission of St. Paul's, and perform his superstitions all around the house which had been built lately for his lodging. I endeavoured to no purpose to learn what were his intentions. One can never draw the truth from persons of this description, who are long and extensively accustomed to perfidy and falsehood.

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“What gives influence to this sort of Pyapes, is the talent which they have of persuading the Indians, especially when they are attacked by any sickness, that they are favoured by a spirit much superior to the one that afflicts the patient: that they are ready to ascend to Heaven to call upon this benevolent spirit to drive off the malicious one, who is the sole author of the evils endured, but they generally make the good folk pay very highly and beforehand, the expenses of their journey."

The Chiquitos ranged through a very extensive territory, stretching from that of the Moxos, which our readers will recollect joined Peru on the west, to the head waters of the Paraguay, comprehending not only the present government of Chiquitos in the United Provinces, but a large portion of the province of Matto Grosso, in Brazil. In the beginning of the last century, Father Francis Burges, procurator general of the Jesuits of Paraguay, made a report to the King of Spain of the state of the missions in that province and some of the neighbouring territory. We suspect that he writes of the Chiquitos, but must be construed in the same manner as we have treated Father Arlet's account of the Moxos.

"There is no nation, how barbarous soever it may be, that does not recognise some divinity. But as regards the Chiquitos, there is no vestige amongst them of any worship paid to any thing visible or invisible, not even to the devil, of whom they are in great dread. Thus they live like beasts, without any knowledge of another life, having no God but their belly, and bounding all their happiness by the gratifications of the present life. For this reason they have been led to the complete destruction of the sorcerers whom they looked upon as the greatest enemies of life; and at present, if one of them only dreamed that his neighbour was a sorcerer, it would be sufficient cause for taking away his life if he could. Yet they have not ceased to be very superstitious, especially as regards the singing of birds, which they observe with a most scrupulous attention; they augur evils from them, and thence often suspect that the Spaniards are about to make an irruption into their country; the sole apprehension of this is capable of making them fly far beyond the mountains; the children are separated from their parents, and the fathers regard their children no more than if they belonged to strangers. The bonds of nature which are found even in the brute VOL. II. NO. 4. 42

creation, do not appear to unite them: a father would sell his child for a knife or a hatchet; this causes great apprehension to our missionaries, that they may not succeed in placing this people in villages, which is absolutely necessary, because they must be humanized before they can be christianized."

The description given in this place is not of a nation of atheists, but of savages, who had cast away a mode of worship which they once practised, having found the leaders in this worship, the sorcerers, a curb upon their enjoyments; and though Father Arlet stated that their neighbours, the Moxos, had no worship, still we find that Father Cyprian Baraza, who had better opportunities of knowing, discovered that they had a form which he describes. This report states of them that they had no form of government or police; still even this assertion must not be understood in its full latitude, for the writer qualifies it by the immediate addition of the statement "that in their assemblies they followed the advice of their ancients and their caciques,' and we are again told, that "the power of these latter is not transmitted to their children, but must be acquired by valour and merit." Hence, the want of government and policy is rather relative than absolute; and, in the very next passage, it is mentioned that polygamy is in a measure rendered necessary for the caciques, for the purpose of supporting their rank and dignity, by supplying a sufficient quantity of chica, their intoxicating beverage, which is made by their wives; the measure of which, to meet the decent hospitality of a cacique, could not be brewed by less than two or three women. All this exhibits a degree of power and a subordination of rank. In another part of the report, we are informed that those caciques possess great influence.

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They know of but two modes of treatment in sickness: the first is to have the part in which they feel pain, sucked by persons whom, on this account, the Spaniards call Chupadores; this function is discharged by the caciques, who are the principal persons of their nation, and who, on that account, assume great authority over the minds of this people. They ask a good many questions of the patient. "Where do you feel pain"? Whither have you gone immediately before your sickness?' 'Have you spilled any chica?' [They make it a matter of great concern if any of this inebriating liquor is spilled.] 'Have you thrown away any of the flesh of the stag, or any piece of the turtle ?’ If the sick person acknowledges any of these things, 'It is all correct,' the physician answers; this is the cause of your death, the soul of the stag or of the turtle has entered you for the purpose of avenging the outrage you have committed.' The physician begins to suck the part affected, and after some time he spits out.

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some black matter; 'Behold,' he says, 'the poison which I have extracted from your body.' The second remedy to which they have recourse, is more in conformity with their barbarian custom: they kill the females whom they suspect to have been the cause of their sickness, and thus give to death a sort of tribute, by payment of which, they persuade themselves they will obtain an exemptiou."

We have alluded to these parts of the report to shew that the expression of their having no government must be restricted, for they have governors; and to shew, that however limited their notions of another state might be, they were not altogether. confined to ideas of this material world. We shall now quote another passage of the report, which testifies a custom, similar to one exhibited to us by Father Baranza and his companions, as religious worship amongst the Moxos.

They received the name of Chiquitos or the diminished, from their habit of gliding like serpents at full length into their huts, which are small, low, and oven-like, made of straw, with a very small aperture close to the ground for creeping in. This they have been forced to, for the purpose of endeavouring to avoid the musquitoes, by which they are dreadfully annoyed in the rainy season.

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They have, however, large houses constructed with branches of trees, in which they lodge their sons who have attained fourteen or fifteen years of age, and who must no longer live with their parents; in these houses too they regale their guests with chica. These festivals last usually during three days and three nights, passed in eating and drinking. The contention is who will drink most chica, with which they become so furiously drunk, that they immediately fall upon those from whom they have received any imaginary affront, and frequently, these sort of rejoicings terminate in the death of some of these wretches."

Let our readers compare this with the account of the worship and festivals terminated by the chica, as described by Father Baraza, and he will, probably, be inclined to our opinion, that the Chiquitos and Moxos were not only neighbours in territory, but were allied in barbarity and worship.

The eastern part of Charcas and the north-western portion of Paraguay, were occupied about a century since, as are now the United Provinces, by an extremely barbarous tribe, called by the Spaniards, Chiriguanos: during more than a century previous to that period, several ineffectual attempts had been made by the missionaries to bring them to the faith, but they had firmly determined to reject all that the Jesuits could bring them, save the little presents by which sometimes it was sought to

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