30 REMARKS AND OPINIONS. 



banks an animal is met with, thougli not frequently, 

 which lives on fish, and is called by the Spaniards, 

 water-cat, and by the Indians, guillin. Its skin 

 furnishes a most valuable fur, and its extremely 

 fine hair has not its equal for the manufacturing of 

 hats, (Castor Huidohrius, Molina.) 



But let us return to the Indians. They make 

 use of a very cautious policy to preserve the inde- 

 pendence of their states. They will suffer no 

 Spaniard or stranger to travel through their terri- 

 tory, much less to explore it, without the permis- 

 sion and consent of >the Cacique of the district ; 

 which permission he never gives, unless he knows 

 to whom it is given. This is likewise observed 

 with respect to the missionaries who travel in the 

 interior of the country without being accompanied 

 by the missionary of the district himself; for the 

 distrust of the Indians does not go so far as to make 

 use of these measures of precaution towards them. 

 Most of the Indians are Christians, and all, with- 

 out exception, desire, and wish that their children 

 should be baptized ; but they refuse, when they 

 come to an age to receive Christian instruction, to 

 present them to the church j because, say they, if 

 the missionaries make themselves masters of the 

 children, they would also make themselves masters 

 of the parents ; and they would, consequently, lose 

 the political liberty of their fathers. Therefore, 

 in the annexed tables, only those Indians will be 

 mentioned, who live in the missions as children of 



