424 



the dead body. They had much difficulty in 

 persuading him, to desist from his purpose; 

 and the soldier, who was posted at Esmeralda, 

 learned from the domestic squabble caused by 

 this event, what the Indians would have hidden 

 from his knowledge. 



It is known that anthropophagy, and the 

 practice of human sacrifices, with which it is 

 often connected, are found in all parts of the 

 Globe, and among people of very different 

 races * ; but what strikes us more in the study 

 of history is, to see human sacrifices retained in 

 a state of civilization somewhat advanced, and 

 that the nations, who hold it a point of honor 

 to devour their prisoners, are not always the 

 rudest and most ferocious. This observation, 

 which has something in it distressing and pain- 

 ful, has not escaped such of the missionaries, as 

 are sufficiently enlightened to reflect on the 

 manners of the surrounding tribes. The Ca^ 



* Some casual instances of children carried off by the 

 Negroes in the island of Cuba have led to the belief in the 

 Spanish colonies, that there are tribes of cannibals in Africa. 

 This opinion however, supported by some travellers {Bow- 

 dich, p. 431), is contrary to the researches of Mr. BarroW 

 on the interior of that country. (Exp. to the Zaire, Introd. p. 

 xx.) Superstitious practices may have given rise to impu- 

 tations perhaps as unjust as those, of which Jewish families 

 were the victims in the ages of intolerance and persecution. 



