320 



TRAVELS IN BRAZIL. 



perfect equality of rights with the other free na- 

 tives. This ordinance has so far an unfavourable 

 effect in all places where there are Indians under 

 the superintendence or tutelage of Portuguese, 

 because the former now withdraw more and more 

 into the solitary forests. The mission had at pre- 

 sent only sixty Indians under it, the rest had al- 

 ready dispersed throughout the province. They 

 are not the remains of a single nation, but a 

 mixture of several which possessed this country 

 before it was occupied by the Portuguese. Their 

 physiognomy was not very agreeable. The general 

 characteristics of the race, gloomy stupidity, and 

 reserve, which is especially indicated in the un- 

 steady dark look, and the shy behaviour of the 

 American, is increased on the first step towards 

 reflection, by the constraint of civilisation to which 

 he is wholly unused, and the intercourse with 

 negroes, mestizoes, and Portuguese, to the most 

 melancholy image of internal discontent and abase- 

 ment. The manner in which they are treated 

 by many of the present landholders contributes, 

 indeed, to this moral and physical degeneracy* 

 Neither national features, nor voluntary bodily 

 mutilations, nor peculiar manners and customs 

 of these poor remains of the ancient inhabitants, 

 enable us to infer to what race they originally 

 belonged. The language, too, of the Indians 

 of this mission seems not be simple, but com- 

 posed of several dialects, and to have adopted 



