423 



The hatred which savages for the most part 

 feel for men, who speak another idiom, and ap- 

 pear to them to be barbarians of an inferior 

 race, is sometimes rekindled in the missions, 

 after having long slumbered. A short time 

 before our arrival at Esmeralda, an Indian, born 

 in the forest * behind 'the Duicla, travelled alone 

 with another Indian, who, after having been 

 made prisoner by the Spaniards on the banks of 

 the Ventuario, lived peaceably in the village, or, 

 as it is expressed here, " within the sound of 

 the bell," debaxo de la camp ana. The latter 

 could only walk slowly, because he laboured 

 under one of those fevers, to which the natives 

 are subject, when they arrive in the missions, 

 and abruptly change their diet. Wearied ot 

 his delay, his fellow-traveller killed him, and 

 hid the body behind a copse of thick trees, 

 near Esmeralda. This crime, like many others 

 among the Indians, would have remained un- 

 known, if the murderer had not made prepara- 

 tions for a feast on the following day. He tried 

 to induce his children, born in the mission and 

 become Christians, to go with him for some 



* En el monte. The Indians born in the missions are dis- 

 tinguished from those born in the woods. The word monte 

 signifies more frequently in the colonies a forest (basque) than 

 a mountain, and this circumstance has led to great errors in 

 our maps, on which chains of mountains (sierras) are figured, 

 where there are only thick forests, monte espeso. 



