88 A N T I E N T r^I E T A P H Y S I C S. Boole L 



I will mention only one thing more concerning thefe nations : It 

 is what may appear very furprifmg at firft fight to thofe of my rea- 

 ders wha have been informed, and truly informed, that barbarous 

 •nations are much more healthy than the clvillfed, whereas the na- 

 tions of Paraguay are more difeafed than any civHtfed people we 

 read of. For, according to the account Charlevoix gives of them, 

 they are liable to more peftilentlal and epidemic difeafes than any 

 other people upon the face of the earth, and not only grown peo- 

 ple among them die of thofe difeafes, but there is a great mortality 

 among their children ; fo great, that their forcerers and magicians 

 imputed it to the baptifm which the Jefuits adminiftered to them. 

 But when we confider what I have faid of their manner of living, 

 devouring fo much fleih, and drinking fo much of intoxicating li- 

 quor, it is rather furprlfing that they are not more depopulated or 

 altogether extinguished. 



Upon the whole, though we read of many nations, wlio In an- 

 tient times lived in a brutifla manner, copulating promifcuoufly, e- 

 ven fuch nations as in later times became moft learned and polite, 

 fuch as the Athenians, among whom Cecrops firft inftituted mar- 

 riage, from whence he had the name of ht(pv>;?, yet there is no ex- 

 ample in antieni or modern hiftory of men fo extremely barbarous, 

 fo wicked, and fo much worfe than any brutes, as the inhabitants of 

 Paraguay were, before they were tamed and humanifed by the 

 Jefuits. 



Thefe fathers began their operations among them about the be- 

 ginning of laft century ; and fuffered hardfhips, and encountered 

 dangers, in the profecutlon of their defign to civilife and make chrif- 

 tlans of them, fuch as could not be credited, if they were not very 



well 



