427 



all fell sick, and would no more eat monk or 

 layman." 



If the Caribbees of the Oroonoko, since the 

 commencement of the sixteenth century, have 

 differed in their manners from those of the West 

 India islands ; if it be always erroneously, that 

 they are accused of anthropophagy ; it is diffi- 

 cult to attribute this difference to a melioration 

 of their social state. The strangest contrasts 

 are found blended in this mixture of nations, 

 some of whom live only upon fish, monkeys, 

 and ants ; while others are more or less culti- 

 vators of the ground, more or less occupied in 

 fabricating and painting pottery, or weaving 

 hammocks or cotton cloth. Several of the latter 

 tribes have preserved inhuman customs altoge- 

 ther unknown to the former. The character 

 and manners of a nation are expressive at the 

 same time, like it's language, of it's present and 

 past state : and it is only by knowing the whole 

 history of the civilization or degradation of 

 a horde ; it is only by tracing societies in their 

 progressive development, and the different 

 stages of their existence ; that we can succeed in 

 solving problems, which the knowledge of their 

 present relations only would fail to render clear. 



" You cannot imagine," said the old mission- 

 ary of Mandavaca, " all the perversity of this 

 familia de Indios. You receive men of a new 

 tribe into the village ; they appear to be mild. 



