304 



missions of the forests, you perceive that the 

 attention of the inhabitants is fixed on other 

 objects, on the inconstancy of the Indians who 

 desert the villages, on the harvest of turtle's 

 eggs being more or less abundant, and on the 

 inconveniences occasioned by a burning and 

 unhealthy climate. If the sting of the moschet- 

 toes suffer the monks to admit any other idea, 

 it is that of venting in whispers their complaints 

 against the president of the missions, and de- 

 ploring the blind ness of those, who would reelect, 

 at the next chapter, the guardian of the convent 

 of Nueva Barcelona. Every thing here has a 

 local interest, and that interest, as the monks 

 say, is confined to the affairs of the community, 

 " to these forests, estas selvas, which God has 

 ordained us to inhabit." This circle of ideas, 

 narrow and sad enough, enlarges as you pass 

 from the Upper Oroonoko to the Rio Negro, 

 and approach the frontiers of Brazil. There the 

 demon of European politics seems to occupy 

 every mind. The neighbouring country, which 

 extends beyond the Amazon, is called in the 

 language of the Spanish missions neither Brazil, 

 nor the Capitania-general of Grand Para ; it is 

 Portugal, and the copper coloured Indians, the 

 half-black mulattoes whom I have seen going 

 up from Barcelas to the little Spanish fort of 

 San Carlos, are Portugueze. These appella- 

 tions are found in the mouths of the people as 



