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though there were very few, they discovered them far more quickly 

 than I could ; and, cautiously creeping along until they were within 

 bow-shot, never failed to bring down their game. The stillness and 

 expedition with which they penetrated the thickets, and passed 

 through the brush-wood, were truly surprising ; nor could any thing 

 have aflforded me a more satisfactory idea of their peculiar way of 

 life. Their bows are made of the tough fibrous wood of the Iri, six 

 or seven feet long, and very stout ; their arrows are full six feet long, 

 and near an inch in diameter, pointed with a piece of cane cut to a 

 feather edge, or with a bone, but of late more frequently with iron. 

 They are loathsome in their persons, and in their habits but one 

 remove from the anthropophagi ; for they will devour almost any 

 animal in the coarsest manner, for instance, a bird unplucked, half- 

 roasted, with the entrails remaining*. They are not of a shy or 

 morose character, but have a great aversion to labour, and cannot be 

 brought to submit to any regular employment. Rarely is an Indian 

 to be found serving as a domestic, or working for hire, and to this 

 circumstance may be ascribed the low state of agriculture in the 

 district ; for as the farmers, when they begin the world, have seldom 

 funds sufficient to purchase negroes at Rio, their operations are for a 

 long time very confined, and frequently languish for want of hands. 

 What benefits would result to the state, and how much would the 

 general cause of humanity be served, if these Indians were civilized 

 and domesticated ! A tribe of idle and unsettled savages would be 

 converted into useful and producfive labourers ; the whole face of 

 the district would be improved ; the roads which at present connect 



* Ere they departed, I saw an instance of that dangerous excess to which the paST< 

 sions of savages are liable when once excited ; for, on presenting a few bottles of 

 liquor, there was a general strife for them, and the person, man or woman, who first 

 obtained one, would have drank the whole of its contents, had it not been forcibly taken 

 away. It is very unsafe to give them ardent spirits, for when intoxicated it is necessary to 

 confine them. If preference is given to one, the rest are insolent and unruly until they 

 obtain the same marks of favour. 



