Cii. IV. SOUTH AMERICA. 35 



dice, confuted by numberlcfs infiances, and particu- 

 larly by the celebrated father Fr. Benito Feyjoo, 

 Teatro Critico, vol. iv. eflay 6. All who have travelled 

 with any attention through thcfe countries, have ob- 

 ferved in the natives of every age a permanent capa- 

 city, and uniform brightnefs of intelleft; if they were 

 Hot of that wretched number, who diforder both their 

 minds and bodies by their vices. And indeed one 

 often fees here perfons of eminent prudence and ex- 

 teniive talen(s, both in the fpecglative end prndlical 

 leiences, and who retain them, in all their vigour, to 

 a very advanced age. 



Charity is a virtue in which all the inhabitants of 

 Carthagena, without exception, may be faid particu- 

 larly to excel ; and did they not liberally exert it to- 

 wards European ñrangers, who generally come hither 

 to feek their fortune, fuch would often periih with 

 ñcknefs and poverty. This appears to me a fubjedt 

 of fuch importance, though v^'ell known to all who 

 have viiited this part of the world, that I ihall add a 

 word or two on it, in order to undeceive thofe, who, 

 not contented with perhaps a competent eflate in their 

 own country, imagine that is only letting their foot in 

 the Indies, and their fortune is made. 



Those who on board the galleons are called Puli- 

 zones, as being men without employment, iiock, or 

 recommendation ; who, leaving their country as fugi- 

 tives, and, without licenfe from the officers, come to 

 feek their fortune in a country where they are utterly 

 unknown ; after traveriing the ftrects till they have 

 nothing left to procure them lodging or food, they 

 are reduced to have recourfe to the Ian extremity, 

 the Francifcan hofpital ; where they receive, in a 

 quantity fufficient barely to keep them alive, a kind 

 of pap made of cafava ; of which as the natives them- 

 feives will not eat, the difagreeablenels to wretched 

 mortals never ufed to fuch food, may eaiily be con- 



D 2 ceivedL 



