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the missionary's house, and who regulate the 

 public works, it does not arise from natural 

 stupidity, but from the obstacles they find in 

 the structure of a language so different from 

 their native tongues. The more remote man 

 is from cultivation, the greater his stiffness and 

 moral inflexibility. We must not then be sur- 

 prised, to find obstacles among the isolated In- 

 dians in, the Missions, which are unknown to 

 those, who inhabit the same parish with the 

 mestizoes, the mulattoes, and the whites, in the 

 neighbourhood of towns. I have often been 

 surprised at the volubility, with which at Ca- 

 ripe, the alcalde, the governador, and the sar- 

 gento mayor, harangue for whole hours the In- 

 dians assembled before the church ; regulating 

 the labours of the week, reprimanding the idle, 

 threatening the disobedient. Those chiefs, who 

 are equally of the Chayma race, and who trans- * 

 mit the orders of the missionary, speak all at 

 the same time, with a loud voice, with marked 

 emphasis, but almost without action. Their 

 features remain motionless : but their look is 

 imperious and severe. 



These same men, who displayed quickness 

 of intellect, and who were tolerably well ac- 

 quainted with the Spanish, could no longer 

 connect their ideas, when, accompanying us in 

 our excursions around the convent, we put 

 questions to them through the intervention of 



