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man, who seemed to govern his Indians with 

 great intelligence. The village has existed only 

 thirty years on the spot it now occupies. Be- 

 fore that time it was placed more to the South, 

 and backed by a hill. It is astonishing with 

 what facility the Indians are made to remove 

 their dwellings. There are villages in South 

 America, which in less than half a century have 

 thrice changed their situation. The native 

 finds himself attached by ties so feeble to the 

 soil he inhabits, that he receives with indiffer- 

 ence the order of taking down his house, to 

 rebuild it elsewhere. A village changes it's si- 

 tuation like a camp. Wherever clay, reeds, 

 and the leaves of the palm or heliconia are 

 found, a house is built in a few days. These 

 compulsory changes have often no other motive 

 than the caprice of a missionary, who, recently 

 arrived from Spain, fancies that the situation of 

 the Mission is feverish, or that it is not sufficient- 

 ly exposed to the winds. Whole villages have 

 been transported several leagues, merely be- 

 cause the monk did not find the prospect from 

 his house sufficiently beautiful or extensive. 



Guanaguana has yet no church. The old 

 monk, who had inhabited during thirty years 

 the forests of America, observed to us, that the 

 money of the community, or the produce of the 

 labour of the Indians, ought to be employed 

 first in the construction of the missionary's 



