Chap. II. BANKS OF TOOLS AND CREEKS. 81 



lish missionaries, but they were on a »much larger scale. 

 The Jesuits, as far as I could glean from tradition and 

 history, were actuated by the same motives as our mis- 

 sionaries ; and they seemed like them to have been, in 

 gi'eat measure, successful in teaching the pure and ele- 

 vated Christian morality to the simple natives. But the 

 attempt was vain to protect the weaker race from the 

 inevitable ruin which awaited it in the natural struggle 

 with the stronger one ; which, although calling itself 

 Christian, seemed to have stood in need of missionary 

 instruction quite as much as the natives themselves. In 

 1759, the white colonists finally prevailed, the Jesuits 

 were forced to leave the country, and the 51 happy 

 mission villages went to ruin. Since then, the aboriginal 

 race has gone on decreasing in numbers under the treat- 

 ment which it has received ; it is now, as I have already 

 stated, protected by the laws of the central government. 



On our second visit to the mills, we stayed ten days. 

 There is a large reservoir and also a natural lake near the 

 place both containing aquatic plants, whose leaves rest on 

 the surface like our water lilies, but they are not so ele- 

 gant as our nymphsea, either in leaf or flower. On the 

 banks of these pools grow quantities of a species of fan- 

 leaved palm-tree, the Carana, whose stems are sur- 

 rounded by whorls of strong spines. I sometimes took 

 a montaria, and paddled myself alone down the creek. 

 One day I got upset, and had to land on a gi^assy slope 

 leading to an old plantation, where I ran about naked 

 whilst my clothes were being dried on a bush. The 

 creek Iritiri is not so picturesque as many others which I 



