Indian Charactek. 469 



though the Xegro has an exemption from yellow fever 

 from prolonged acclimatization, he is very liable to the 

 ordinary malarial fevers." 



The typical South American Indian is by nature more 

 peaceable and submissive than his Northern brother. If 

 some tribes are treacherous and cruel, one has only to 

 witness the Spanish-Portuguese system of extortion and 

 oppression to wonder that they are not all transformed 

 into devils. Their inflexibility, taciturnity, and poverty 

 of thought are mainly owing to their isolated life. Be- 

 sides, having no other occupation than to keep from starv- 

 ing, their minds are nearly blank. As Bates truly says, 

 " all Indians have the same way of thinking, and the same 

 objects to talk about."* They are without curiosity or 

 emotion, gloomy like the dense forests they love so well ; 

 for here, as e\ery where else, man is molded by the na- 

 ture which surrounds him. 



It will never be possible for two consecutive travelers 

 to agree on the names and localities of the Amazonian In- 

 dians. The vagabond tribes are shifting, while some be- 

 come extinct, or multiply by a process of self - division. 

 About one hundred are known ; the rest flit like spectres 

 through the forest. The following list differs somewhat 

 from the one obtained by the author in 1867, as also from 

 .Castelnau's, Herndon's, Bates's, and Chandless's. They 

 are located by the tributaries, as nearly all of those along 

 the main river are Tapiiyos.f Those known to be savages 

 are italicized ; but it need not be inferred that the rest are 

 saints. 



* After a centuiy and a half of trial, the Franciscan friars on the Ucayali 

 and the Napo confess that the results are not proportioned to the efforts. 

 The Indian's conversion is a change of idolatry. He will not or can not 

 comprehend a spiritual religion. 



t Tapiiyo was originally applied to foreigners ; CabOclio is another term 

 for an aboriginal reclaimed from the wild state. 



