LIFE IN TEFFE. 247 
gentry of the land, while they profit by the ignorance of 
the Indian to cheat and abuse him, nevertheless adopt his 
social habits, sit on the ground and eat with their fingers 
as he does. Although it is forbidden by law to enslave the 
Indian, there is a practical slavery by which he becomes 
as absolutely in the power of the master as if he could 
be bought and sold. The white man engages an Indian 
to work for him at a certain rate, at the same time prom- 
ising to provide him with clothes and food until such time 
as he shall have earned enough to take care of himself. 
This outfit, in fact, costs the employer little ; but when 
the Indian comes to receive his wages he is told that he 
is already in debt to his master for what has been ad- 
vanced to him ; instead of having a right to demand 
money, he owes work. The Indians, even those who live 
about the towns, are singularly ignorant of the true value 
of things. They allow themselves to be deceived in this 
way to an extraordinary extent, and remain bound to the 
service of a man for a lifetime, believing themselves under 
the burden of a debt, while they are, in fact, creditors. 
Besides this virtual slavery, an actual traffic of the Indians 
does go on : but it is so far removed from the power of the 
authorities that they cannot, if they would, put a stop to it. 
A better class of emigrants would suppress many of these 
evils. Americans or Englishmen niisht be sordid in their 
o o 
transactions with the natives ; their hands are certainly not 
clean in their dealings with the dark-skinned races ; but 
they would not degrade themselves to the social level of 
the Indians as the Portuguese do ; they would not adopt 
his habits." 
I cannot say good by to Teffe without a word in com- 
memoration of one class of its inhabitants who have 
