744 ANNUAL REGISTER, 1810. 



barians by methods which can- 

 not fail to command our esteem. 

 On this interesting topic Mr. 

 Southey shall speak for himself. 



" They began by winning the 

 affections of the children, giving 

 them store of trifling presents ; by 

 this sort of intercourse they ac- 

 quired some use of the language 

 themselves, and soon qualified 

 these little ones for interpreters. 

 They visited the sick, and when 

 they believed that every one they 

 sprinkled at the hour of death 

 was a soul rescued from the devil, 

 the charitable services which ac- 

 companied such conversions were 

 not lost upon the living. The 

 Portuguese on their arrival in Bra- 

 zil, had been welcomed by the 

 natives as friends : but when the 

 original possessors of the land per- 

 ceived that their guests were be- 

 coming their masters, they took 

 up arms, suspended their internal 

 quarrels, and attempted to expel 

 them. European fire-arms re- 

 pulsed them, and European policy 

 soon broke their short-lived union. 

 But even peace with the Portu- 

 guese settlers afforded them no 

 security ; when it is permitted to 

 reduce enemies to slavery, no 

 friends can be secure. It was in 

 vain that humane edicts were 

 enacted in Portugal ; while the 

 atrocious principle is acknow- 

 ledged, that man can by any cir- 

 cumstances lawfully be considered 

 as the slave of man, all edicts and 

 all formalities will be ineffectual 

 protections against violence and 

 avarice. Many tribes were in 

 arms against this oppression when 

 the Jesuits arrived ; won first by 

 the first report that men were 

 come who were the friends and 

 protectors of the Indians, and af- 



terwards by experiencing thefr 

 good offices, they brought their 

 bows to the governor, and soli- 

 cited to be received as allies. 



" These missionaries were every 

 way qualified for their office. They 

 were zealous for the salvation of 

 souls; they had disengaged them- 

 selves from all the ties which at- 

 tach us to life, and were there- 

 fore not merely fearless of mar- 

 tyrdom, but ambitious of it; they 

 believed the idolatry which they 

 taught, and were themselves per- 

 suaded that by the sprinkling a 

 dying savage, and repeating over 

 him a form of words which he 

 did not understand, they redeemed 

 him from everlasting torments, 

 to which he was otherwise inevi- 

 tably, and, according to their no- 

 tions of divine justice, justly des- 

 tined. Nor can it be doubted 

 that they sometimes worked mi- 

 racles upon the sick ; for when 

 they believed that the patient 

 might be miraculously cured, and 

 he himself expected that he should 

 be so, faith would supply the vir- 

 tue in which it trusted. 



" Nobrega and his companions 

 began to work with those hordes 

 who were sojourning in the vi- 

 cinity of St. Salvador ; they per- 

 suaded them to live in peace, they 

 reconciled old enemies, they suc- 

 ceeded in preventing drunkenness, 

 and in making them promise to be 

 contented with one wife ; but the 

 cannibalism they could not over- 

 come : the delight of feasting up- 

 on the flesh of their enemies was 

 too great to be relinquished. All 

 efforts at abolishing this accursed 

 custom were in vain. One day 

 they heard the uproar and rejoic- 

 ing of the savages at one of these 

 sacrifices; they made way into the 



