218 



gul tribes, speak languages, the mechanism and 

 roots of which present the greatest analogy. 



The Indians of the American Missions are 

 all agriculturists ; and excepting those, who 

 inhabit the high mountains, they cultivate the 

 same plants ; their huts are arranged in the 

 same manner ; their days of labour, their work 

 in the conuco of the community, their connex- 

 ions with the missionaries and the magistrates 

 chosen from among themselves, are all subjected 

 to uniform regulations. Nevertheless, and this 

 fact is very remarkable in the history of na- 

 tions, so great an analogy of situation has not 

 been sufficient to efface the individual features, 

 or the shades which distinguish the American 

 tribes. We observe in the men of copper hue, 

 a moral inflexibility, a stedfast perseverance 

 in habits and manners, which, though modified 

 in each tribe, characterize essentially the whole 

 race. These dispositions are found under every 

 climate, from the equator to Hudson's Bay on 

 the one hand, and to the streights of Magellan 

 on the other. They are connected with the 

 physical organization of the natives, but they 

 are powerfully favoured by the monastic sys- 

 tem. 



There exist in the Missions few villages, where 

 the different families do not belong to different 

 tribes, and speak different languages* Soci- 

 eties composed of elements thus heterogeneous 



