THE PAMPAS INDIANS. 



unfortunate race ; the rest tliey considered as beasts 

 of burden, and during their short intervals of re- 

 pose, the priests were ordered to explain to them, 

 that their vast country belonged to the Pope at 

 Home. The Indians, unable to comprehend this 

 claim, and sinking under the burdens which they 

 w^ere doomed to carry, died in great numbers. It 

 was therefore convenient to vote that they were im- 

 becile both in body and mind ; the vote was se- 

 conded by the greedy voice of avarice, and carried 

 by the artifices of the designing, and the careless 

 indolence of those who had no interest in the ques- 

 tion : it became a statement which historians have 

 now recorded. 



But although the inquiry has been thus lulled to 

 rest, and is now the plausible excuse for our total 

 ignorance on the subject, ought not the state of 

 man in America to be infinitely more interesting 

 than descriptions of its mines, its mountains, &c. 

 &c. &c. 



During my gallop in America, I had httle time 

 or opportunity to see many of the Indians ; yet 

 from what I did hear and see of them, I sincerely 

 believe they are as fine a set of men as ever existed 



