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new ideas in the place of the old. The Indian 

 of the Missions is more secure of subsistence* 

 Not being continually struggling against hostile 

 forces, against the elements and against man, 

 he leads a more monotonous life, less active, 

 and less fitted to impart energy to the mind, 

 than the savage or independent Indian. He 

 possesses that mildness of character, which be- 

 longs to the love of repose ; not that which arises 

 from sensibility and the emotions of the soul. 

 The sphere of his ideas is not enlarged, where, 

 having no intercourse with the whites, he has 

 remained at a distance from those objects, with 

 which European civilization has enriched the 

 New World. All his actions seem prompted by 

 the wants of the moment. Taciturn, without 

 gaiety, absorbed in himself, he assumes a se- 

 date and mysterious air. When a person has 

 resided but a short time in the Missions, and is 

 yet but little familiarized with the aspect of the 

 natives, he is led to mistake their indolence, 

 and the benumbed state of their faculties, for 

 the expression of melancholy, and a disposition 

 toward meditation. 



I have dwelt on these features of the Indian 

 character, and on the different modifications 

 which this character undergoes under the go- 

 vernment of the missionaries, to render more 

 interesting the partial observations, which are 



