CANNIBALISM. 485 



But let me return to the Island of Moro. St Francis Xavier, not- 

 withstanding the dismal forebodings of his warmest friends, went 

 boldly to the island of cannibals. The inhabitants, in lieu of seizing 

 him for the frying-pan, fled precipitately to their woods, whither the 

 charitable father followed them. The meek and courteous behaviour 

 on his part soon allayed their imaginary fears ; and the whole island 

 was converted by St Francis Xavier to the Catholic faith. During 

 the three months that he tarried with these barbarians, no mention 

 is made, no hint is thrown out, no solitary instance is adduced, of 

 these people being prone to cannibalism. Had his conduct tended 

 to enrage them, he certainly might have run the risk of being 

 knocked on the head, and then devoured, whilst their ungovernable 

 paroxysm of frenzy lasted; for let it be remembered, that these 

 islanders were savages of the first description. They had not been 

 civilised ; neither did they know what it was to control their gusts 

 of passion. So that, in their rage, they ran the risk of being led to 

 commit an unnatural act, which, in their cooler moments, they never 

 would have perpetrated. 



I have remarked, at the commencement of these notes, that there 

 is a law written in the heart of man forbidding him to kill his fellow- 

 man. But this same law does not prohibit him from eating the flesh 

 of man. In doing so, a man must be governed entirely by his own 

 imagination. Thus, in a civilised state, when the party has not 

 actually been reduced to the last extremity of saving life, by casting 

 lots who should die, there would be great difficulty in persuading 

 them to make a meal of any part of a dead human body. Imagina- 

 tion alone is the actor in this case. A chop of man would be just 

 as palatable as a chop of mutton, under the hand of a good cook, 

 and fried in London gravy. A person, perfectly ignorant of the real 

 nature of the dishes placed before him, would undoubtedly approve 

 of them, and find them very good and nutritive. 



In the wilds of Guiana, we boil the large red or howler monkey 

 for dinner. It resembles, at first sight, the body of a child. In 

 fact, you would take its head to be that of a veritable infant. Still 

 I had too much nerve to be deprived of a wholesome repast by the 

 intervention of my own imagination. 



I can easily conceive that a savage, whose finer feelings had never 



