10 COMMERCE. 



progress was free from the danger of enemies' 

 ships. The Jesuit missionaries would appear 

 to have performed their duty with assiduity and 

 success ; the native Indians, with the exception 

 of a very few tribes, having adopted in a great 

 measure the language, religion, and habits of 

 their civilized teachers. The objects of this 

 mission having been considered as effected, 

 the establishment has ceased to exist, and the 

 spiritual charge of the mixed population is now 

 entrusted to ordinary priests, as amongst the 

 Roman Catholic nations of Europe. 



The commerce of the residents at the Cape 

 is nearly confined to the English and American 

 South-Seamen, that call there for supplies, and 

 from which they procure the foreign manufac- 

 tures they require, in exchange for the produce 

 of their farm. The nominal price of a bullock 

 is from three to ten dollars ; cheese two dollars 

 the 20 Ibs. ; turkeys a dollar and a half each ; 

 and other provisions in proportion ; but the 

 difficulty they find in procuring foreign mer- 

 chandise, excepting at the exorbitant prices of 

 the Spanish-American market, as well as the 

 profit they derive from vending contraband 

 goods at the town of St. Jose, or annual fair at 

 La Paz, makes them anxious to trade in kind 

 with the vessels they supply. When foreign 



