LOUISIANA. 7 



Thefe Spaniards, greedy of gold, forced the 

 wretched Indians to work in the mines, and kept 

 them almofl buried in the earth for eight or nine 

 months together. This hard labour, the ful- 

 phureous vapours which continually rofe from 

 the mines, and the famine to which they were 

 reduced by the impoflibility of cultivating their 

 grounds, fo corrupted the mafs of their blood, 

 that their faces became tinged with a faftron co- 

 lour ; a kind of puflules came out on every part 

 of their body, and caufed them infupportable 

 pains. They foon communicated this ficknefs 

 to their wives, and fo of courfe to their ene- 

 mies ; and they all perifned for want of a re- 

 medy. 



The afflifted Spaniards hoped, that this kind 

 of peft would not follow them to Europe^ whi- 

 ther they went for the change of air ; but they 

 were deceived ; and, on their return, they gave 

 the Europeans the dillemper they got from the 



^me7'icans, 



B 4 How- 



" and publifned laws, that they fhould be inftru(fled with 

 ** mildnefs, dirmterellednefs, and by example : but as an 

 ** arrow falls without force at the bottom of the aim, when 

 ** it is beyond the reach of the arm that fhot itj fo, all the 

 ** m-Cthods which he made ufe of to make his defigns fuc- 

 *' ceed, loft their force as they got to a greater diftance." 

 Dan Antonio de Solis, 



