166 ' A VOYAGE TO 



and ecclesiastical, together with chiefs of their own 

 choosing, pretty much in the manner of the Spanish 

 missions. Many of them hire themselves as labor- 

 ers, and engage in the arduous task of clearing landsj, 

 and many are employed as seamen. During the early 

 periods of the settlement, the Portuguese engaged in 

 a continual chase after the natives, for the purpose of 

 reducing them to slavery; and they pursued the same 

 policy with the slave dealers of Africa, in stirring up 

 wars between neighboring nations, for the purpose of 

 purchasing their prisoners. The only excuse that 

 could be alleged for this, was the circumstance of their 

 being nearly all cannibals, and thus prevailed upon 

 to renounce their practices for the sake of profit. The 

 Indian slavery was carried to almost as great an ex- 

 tent, as the negro slavery has been since; and was only 

 renounced from their finding that the negroes answer- 

 ed their purpose better, and could be obtained at a 

 cheaper rate. The Indians were found to pine away 

 in slavery, and to become liable to a variety of dis- 

 eases, from which they were exempt in their native 

 woods, in consequence of a total change in their ha- 

 bits and mode of life. The exertions of the Jesuits in 

 their favor, must ever entitle that society to respect 

 from the friends of humanity; they drew upon them- 

 selves, in consequence, the enmity of the colonists; an 

 enmity exasperated to the highest degree, by what 

 their selfish interest induced them to consider, a med- 

 dling interference with their personal rights and pos- 

 sessions. We can form some idea of what this hostility 

 would be, by observing the light in which abolition 

 societies are regarded in other countries where slave- 

 ry is tolerated. The Jesuits in this instance, acted on 



