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ECHENIQUE. 



with their character, who scruple not to say that the best use to which 

 an Indian can be put is to hang him ; that he makes a bad citizen and 

 a worse slave ; and (to use a homely phrase) " that his room is more 

 worth than his company." I myself believe — and I think the case of 

 the Indians in my own country bears me out in the belief — that any 

 attempt to communicate with them ends in their destruction. They 

 cannot bear the restraints of law or the burden of sustained toil ; and 

 they retreat from before the face of the white man, with his improve- 

 ments, till they disappear. This seems to be destiny. Civilization must 

 advance, though it tread on the neck of the savage, or even trample him 

 out of existence. 



I think that in this case the government of Peru should take the 

 matter in hand — that it should draw up a simple code of laws for the 

 government of the Missions ; appoint intelligent governors to the dis- 

 tricts, with salaries paid from the treasury of the country; suppress the 

 smaller villages, and gather the Indians into fewer; appoint a governor- 

 general of high character, with dictatorial powers and large salary; tax 

 the inhabitants for the support of a military force of two thousand men, 

 to be placed at his disposal; and throw open the country to colonization, 

 inducing people to come by privileges and grants of land. I am satisfied 

 that in this way, if the Indian be not improved, he will at least be cast 

 out, and that this glorious country may be made to do what it is not 

 now doing — that is, contribute its fair proportion to the maintenance of 

 the human race. 



November 18. — Returned to Echenique ; the walk occupied three 

 hours without stopping. Although the Orejones have left off some of 

 their savage customs, and are becoming more civilized, they are still 

 sufficiently barbarous to permit their women to do most of the work. 

 I saw to-day twenty of the lazy rascals loitering about, whilst the same 

 number of women were fetching earth and water, trampling it into mud, 

 and plastering the walls of the convento with it. I also saw the women 

 cleaning up and carrying away the weeds and bushes of the town ; most 

 of them, too, with infants hanging to their backs. These marry very 

 young. I saw some, whom I took to be children, with babies that I was 

 told were their own. They suffer very little in parturition, and, in a few 

 hours after 1 lie birth of a child, they bathe, go to the chacra, and fetch 

 home a load of yuccas. 



The musquitoes are very troublesome here. I write my journal under 

 a musquito curtain ; and whilst I am engaged in skinning birds, it is 

 necessary to have an Indian with a fan to keep them off; even this does 

 not succeed, and my face and hands are frequently quite bloody, where 



