234 



merits of nature, the remembrance of the moral 

 degradation of our species, and the contrast 

 between the virtue of a savage, and the barba- 

 rism of civilized man ! 



In 1797 the missionary of San Fernando had 

 led his Indians to the banks of the Rio Gua- 

 viare, on one of those hostile incursions, which 

 are prohibited alike by religion and the Spanish 

 laws. They found in an Indian hut a Guahiba 

 mother with three children, two of whom were 

 still infants. They were occupied in preparing 

 the flour of cassava. Resistance was impossible ; 

 the father was gone to fish, and the mother tried 

 in vain to flee with her children. Scarcely had 

 she reached the savannah, when she was seized 

 by the Indians of the mission, who go to hunt 

 men, like the Whites and the Negroes in Africa. 

 The mother and her children were bound, and 

 dragged to the bank of the river. The monk, 

 seated in his boat, waited the issue of an expe- 

 dition, of which he partook not the danger. 

 Had the mother made too violent a resistance, 

 the Indians would have killed her, for every thing 

 is permitted when they go to the conquest 

 of souls (a la conquista espiritual), and it is 

 children in particular they seek to capture, in 

 order to treat them in the mission as poitos, 

 or slaves of the Christians. The prisoners were 

 carried to San Fernando in the hope, that the 

 mother would be unable to find her way back 



