37 



that men, who are all born free, should not 

 become the slaves of one another." 



We observed with surprise, during our abode 

 in the Caribbee missions, the facility with which 

 young Indians of eighteen or twenty years of 

 age, when raised to the employment of algua- 

 cil, or fiscal, harangued the municipality for 

 whole hours. Their enunciation, the gravity of 

 their deportment, the gestures which accompa- 

 nied their speech, all denoted an intelligent peo- 

 ple capable of a high degree of civilization. A 

 Franciscan monk, who knew enough of the Ca- 

 ribbee language to preach in it occasionally, 

 made us notice in the discourses of the Indians, 

 how long and harmonious the periods were, 

 without ever being confused or obscure. Parti- 

 cular inflexions of the verb indicate previously 

 the nature of the object, whether it be animate 

 or inanimate, one or many. Little annexed 

 forms (suffixa) mark the gradations of senti- 

 ment ; and here, as in every language formed 

 by an unshackled development, the clearness 

 arises from that regulating instinct *, which cha- 

 racterises human intelligence in the various 

 states of barbarism and cultivation. The whole 



* William von Humboldt, on the comparative Study of 

 Languages, and the different Epochs of their Development, 

 1821 (in German), p. 13. See also, vol. iii, p. 272 ; and 

 vol, v, p. 295. 



