ACCOUNT OF BOOKS. 



747 



and sung out the mysteries of the 

 faith, running round ihe auditors, 

 stamping his feet, clapping his 

 hands, and copying ail the tones 

 and gesticulations by which they 

 were wont to be affected. Nobrega 

 had a school near the city, where 

 he instructed the native children, 

 the orphans from Portugal, and 

 the iVIestizos or mixed breed, here 

 called Mamalucos. Reading, writ- 

 ing, and arithmetic were taught 

 them : they were trained to as- 

 sist at mass, and to sing the 

 church service, and frequently led 

 in procession through the town. 

 This had a great effect, for the 

 natives were passionately fond 

 of music, so passionately that 

 Nobrega began to hope the fable 

 of Orpheus was a type of his 

 mission, and that by songs he was 

 to convert the pagans of Brazil 



course of these wars, the Dutch 

 committed the most atrocious 

 cruelties, the recital of which 

 would scarcely command our cre- 

 dit, if their conduct towards the 

 English at Amboyna did not 

 prove them to be capable of any 

 crime that would subserve their 

 interest. 



In a note (p. 638, 639) on a 

 passage which investigates the 

 language of the Brazilian tribes, 

 and their modes and powers of 

 reckoning, we meet with a severe, 

 yet not unfair critique on the ce- 

 lebrated historian. Dr. Robertson. 



'< The Orinoco tribes count as 

 far as five, then proceed to five- 

 one, five-two, as far as two fives, 

 and so on to four fives. This is 

 digitary numeration. It is remark- 

 able how far the Achaguas carry 

 it. With them, Abacaje means 



He usually took with him four or five, and the fingers of one hand ; 



five of these little choristers on Tuca macaje, ten, or all the fin- 



his preaching expeditions ; when gers ; Abacaytacay, twenty, or all 



they approached an inhabited the fingers and toes ; Inchamata' 



place, one carried the crucifix be 

 fore them, and they began sing- 

 ing the Litany. The savages, like 



cacay, forty, or two persons com- 

 plement ; and so, says Gumilla, 

 (c. 48.) they can go on to 2,000, 



snakes, were won by the voice of 6,000, and 10,000 fingers in a 

 the charmer ; they received him jargon, which, by dint ot labour 

 joyfully, and when he departed and attention, may be understood 



with the same ceremony, the 

 children followed the music. He 

 set the catechism, creed, and or- 

 dinary prayers to sol fa ; and the 

 pleasure of learning to sing was 

 such a temptation, that the little 

 Tupis sometimes ran away from 

 their parents to put themselves 

 under the care of the Jesuits." 



In the remainder of this volume 

 Mr. Southey details, with much 



at last. 



" In some of the South Sea 

 islands also, six is five-one, &c. 

 Numeration naturally proceeds 

 by fives, — the number of fingers 

 on one hand ; tens, — the fingers 

 on both ; or twenties,— the fingers 

 and toes. 



" Herrera (4. 10. 4.) describes 

 a curious mode of arithmetic in 

 Yucatan. They count, he says, 



minuteness, the invasion of Brazil by fives, till they come to twenty ; 



by the Dutch, in 1623, and the and then by twenties as far as 



sanguinary wars that succeeded, a hundred, then to 400, and then 



down to the year 16i0. In the toS.QOO, and from thence to infi- 



