ART. THE PARAGUAY INDIANS. 529 



their great chiefs in profile. " Why was half his face left out ?" 

 they asked ; " Mahtocheega was never ashamed to look a 

 white man in the face." Mahtocheega himself does not seem 

 to have taken any offence, but Shonka, The Dog, took advan- 

 tage of the idea to taunt him. " The Englishman knows," he 

 said, "that you are but half a man; he has painted but one- 

 half of your face, and knows that the rest is good for nothing." 

 This view of the case led to a fight, in which poor Mahtocheega 

 was shot ; and as ill-luck would have it, the bullet by which 

 he was killed tore away just that part of the face which had 

 been omitted in the drawing. This was very unfortunate for 

 Mr. Catlin, who had great difficulty in making his escape, 

 and lived some months after in fear for his life ; nor was the 

 matter settled until both Shonka and his brother had been 

 killed in revenge for the death of Mahtocheega. 



Like so many other savage races, the North Americans are 

 rapidly disappearing. Left to themselves they would perhaps 

 have developed an indigenous civilization, but for ours they 

 are unfit. Unable to compete with Europeans as equals, and 

 too proud to work as inferiors, they have profited by inter- 

 course with the superior race only where the paternal govern- 

 ment of the Hudson's Bay Company has protected them both 

 from the settlers and from themselves, has encouraged hunting, 

 put an end to war, prevented the sale of spirits, and, in times 

 of scarcity, provided food. Ere long almost the only remains 

 of the Indian blood will, perhaps, be found in the territories 

 of the Hudson's Bay Company. 



The Paraguay Indians. 



The Indians of Paraguay have been described by Dobritz- 

 hoffer* and by Don Felix de Azara,-)- who lived a long time 

 among them. He found them divided into several different 



* Dobritzhoffer, History of the f Voyages dans 1'Amerique Me- 

 Abipones. ridionale, 1809. 



2 M 



