Ch. IV. SOUTH AMERICA. 35 



futed by numberlefs inftances, and particularly by the 

 celebrated father Fr. Benito Feyjoo, Teatro criticOj 

 vol. iv. elfay 6. All who have travelled with any at- 

 tention through thefe countries, have obferved in the 

 natives of every age a permanent capacity, and uni- 

 form brightnefs of intellefts ; if they were not of that 

 wretched number, who diforder both their minds and 

 bodies by their vices. And indeed one often fees 

 here perfons of eminent prudence and extenfive talents^ 

 both in the fpeculative and pra6lical fciences, and who 

 retain them, in all their vigour, to a very advanced 



Charity is a virtue in which all the inhabitants of 

 Carthagena, without exception, may be faid particular- 

 ly to excel; and did they not liberally exert it towards 

 European ftrangers, who generally come hither to feek 

 their fortune, fuch would often perifti with ficknefs 

 and poverty. This appears to me a fubjccl of fuch 

 importance, though well known to all who have vifit- 

 ed this part of the world, that I Jliall ifdd a word or 

 two on it, in order to undeceive thofe, who, not con- 

 tented with perhaps a competent eftate in their own 

 country, imagine that it is only fetting their foot in the 

 Indies, and their fortune is made. 



Those who on board the galleons are called Puli- 

 zones, as being men without emiployment, ftock, or re- 

 commendation v/ho, leaving their country as fugi- 

 tives, and, without licence from the officers, come to 

 feek their fortune in a country, where they are utterly 

 unknown ; after traverfmg the ftreets till they have 

 nothing left to procure them lodging or food, they 

 are reduced to have recourfe to the laft extremity, 

 the Francifcan hofpital ; where they receive, in a 

 quantity fufficient barely to keep them alive, a kind 

 of pap made of cafava ; of which as the natives 

 themfelves will not eat, the difagreeablenefs to 

 wretched mortals never ufed to fuch food* may eafily 



D 2 be 



