550 



" After leaving my mission/' said the good 

 monk of Uruana, u you will travel like mutes/* 

 This prediction was nearly accomplished ; and, 

 not to lose the advantage we might derive from 

 intercourse even with the rudest Indians, we 

 sometimes preferred the language of signs. 

 When a native perceives that you will not em- 

 ploy an interpreter ; when you interrogate him 

 directly, showing him the objects; he rouzes 

 himself from his habitual apathy, and displays 

 an extraordinary capacity, to make himself com- 

 prehended. He varies the signs, pronounces 

 the words slowly, and repeats them without 

 being desired. The consequence conferred upon 

 him, in suffering yourself to be instructed by 

 him, flatters his self-love. This facility in mak- 

 ing himself comprehended is particularly re- 

 markable in the independant Indian : and in the 

 Christian establishments I would advise" travel- 

 lers, to address themselves in preference to 

 those of the natives, who have not been long 

 reduced, or who from time to time return to the 

 forest, to enjoy their former liberty *. It can- 

 not be doubted that direct intercourse with the 

 natives is more instructive and more certain, 

 than the communication by interpreters ^, pro- 



* Indios neuvamente reducidos ; Indios medio-reducidos, vagos? 

 que vuehen almonte. 



+ See above, chap, ix, vol. iii, p. 239—241. 



