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tween the Oroonoko and the river of Amazons* 

 in open land amid the forests, to which the 

 missionaries have never penetrated. What 

 has been effected by the system of the Missions 

 is an increased attachment to landed property, 

 the stability of dwellings, and a taste for a more 

 calm and tranquil life. The progress however 

 is slow, and often imperceptible, on account of 

 the perfectly isolated state, in which the In- 

 dians are held. But it would be to imbibe 

 false ideas on the actual condition of the nations 

 of South America, to consider as synoriiinous 

 the denominations of Christians, reduced, and ci- 

 vilized ; and those of pagans, savages, and in- 

 dependent. The reduced Indian is often as 

 little of a christian, as the independent Indian 

 is of an idolater ; both, occupied by the wants 

 of the moment, discover a marked indifference 

 for religious opinions, and a secret tendency 

 toward the worship of Nature and it's powers. 

 This worship belongs to the earliest infancy 

 of nations ; it excludes idols, and reeognizes 

 no other sacred places, than grottoes, valleys* 

 and woods. 



If the independent Indians have nearly dis- 

 appeared for a century past to the north of the 

 Oroonoko and the Apura, that is from the snowy 

 mountains of Merida to the promontory of Paria, 

 it must not thence be concluded, that fewer na- 

 tives exist at present in those countries, than 



