42 



their syndic, who resides at Cumana. This re- 

 commendation was so much the more useful to 

 us, as the missionaries, either from zeal for the 

 purity of the morals of their parishioners, or to 

 conceal the monastic system from the indiscreet 

 curiosity of strangers, often adhere with rigor 

 to an old regulation, by which a white man of 

 the secular state is not permitted to sojourn 

 more than one night in an Indian village. In 

 order to travel agreeably in the Spanish Mis- 

 sions, it would be in general imprudent, to trust 

 solely to a passport issued by the Secretary of 

 State's office at Madrid, or that of the civil go- 

 vernors. A traveller must provide himself with 

 recommendations from the ecclesiastical autho- 

 rities, particularly from the guardians of the 

 convents, or the generals of the orders, residing 

 at Rome ; who are infinitely more respected by 

 the missionaries, than are the bishops. The 

 Missions form, I will not say according to their 

 primitive and canonical institutions, but in fact, 

 a distinct and nearly independent hierarchy^ the 

 views of which seldom accord with those of the 

 secular clergy. 



The missionary of San Fernando was a ca- 

 puchin, a native of Arragon, far advanced in 

 years, but strong and healthy. His extreme 

 corpulency, his hilarity, the interest he took in 

 battles and sieges, ill accorded with the ideas 

 we form in our northern countries of the melan- 



