Ch. VI. SOUTH AMERICA. 411 



ÍQllowing Sunday, when he had been particularly or- 

 dered to make his appearance, charged him with his 

 fault, and directed that he should receive some lashes, 

 the usual punishment of such delinquents, be their 

 age or sex what it will, and perhaps the best adapted 

 to their stupidity. After undergoing the punishment, 

 he turned about to the priest, and thanked him for 

 having chastised him according to his deserts ; to 

 which the priest replied with some words of exhor- 

 tation to him, and the audience in general, that they 

 would never omit any duty of Christianity. But he 

 had no sooner done, than the poor Indian stepped up 

 to him, and desired that he would order him a like 

 number of lashes for the next Sunday, having made 

 an appointment for a drinking match, so that he 

 should not be present. This may scrv e as a specimen 

 of the little impression made ou thenijnotwithstanding 

 all the assiduity of the missionaries ; and that though 

 continually instructed, from the first dawnings of 

 reason till the day of their death, they are found to 

 continue in a strange ignorance of the most essential 

 points of religion. Their indificrence here is so very 

 deplorable, that they may be said to give themselves 

 no m.ore concern about their souls than about their 

 bodies : and though 1 with pleasure allow, that there 

 are many who, in the culture of their minds, sanctity 

 of manners, and delicacy of conscience, equal the 

 most wiseand circumspect; yet the bulk of them, ei- 

 ther by that gross ignorance which clouds their intel- 

 lects, and renders them insensible of their eternal con- 

 cerns, or their natural depravity, are hardened against 

 religious exhortations. For though they readily grant 

 every thing that is said to them, and never offer to 

 make the least objection ; yet they secretly harbour 

 suspicions of some evil design, and leave room for 

 mental reservations, which spoil all. I am little in- 

 clined to lay any false charge to this or any nation, 

 and especially with regard to such an important sub- 

 2 ' , j(ct: 



