TRAVELS IN BRAZIL. 



261 



for the following. It is said to have been ob- 

 served, that the Coroados generally choose Saturday 

 for this festival. It is common, also, to ^ieliber- 

 ate at these meetings on their quarrels and mi- 

 litary expeditions against a neighbouring race, 

 or common hunting parties. 



Thus the Indian passes months and years in 

 hunting, war, noisy feasts, and mechanical house- 

 hold employments, in a rude, dull way of life, 

 without being conscious that human nature has 

 any higher vocation. Though he gradually begins 

 to have some kind of intercourse with the masters 

 of the country, he is unacquainted with social 

 virtues. When he is near the colonists he depends 

 more upon their industry than upon his own, and 

 when he is in want, robs their plantations or steals 

 their cattle. The clergy, and the Portuguese, 

 in general, in S. Joao Baptista, take great pains 

 to propagate Christianity among them ; but even 

 the better informed Coroados and Coropos, have 

 hitherto no notion of the essence of Christianity, 

 and at the most, take part in the external cere- 

 monies, and even that not constantly. It is true, 

 that it is nothing uncommon for these people to 

 come to church to be married, or bring their 

 children to be christened ; but, they are merely 

 induced by the ceremony, at which they gaze 

 with astonishment, without betraying any emotion 

 of the mind, or reflection. In this they are very 

 different from the negroes, who are very fond 



B 3 



