1812. 
BACHAPIN NOTIONS RESPECTING THE DEITY. 
427 
some time in uncertainty ; as he appeared a different person under 
different circumstances. On some occasions he was obstinate and 
most vexatiouslj troublesome ; on others, submissive and good- 
tempered : but, notwithstanding that I suffered much from the un- 
pleasant part of his character during my stay at this town, I must 
do him the justice to believe that he was not without some share of 
goodness of heart, nor without a desire to oblige others, where his 
own interest was not in the way to prevent it. Although he plagued 
me even more than his brother Mattivi did, I must acknowledge that 
of the two, he was the better character ; as he had much less of that 
mean insatiable covetousness, and was often more easily persuaded 
by reasonable argument. 
He listened to the explanation which I gave him respecting 
prayers, with so much more attention than I should have supposed 
the subject could have awakened in him, that I pursued it farther, 
not only with a view to gratifying my own curiosity as to his know- 
ledge and conceptions of the Divinity, but with a wish also of giving 
him some new and better ideas. I found no difficulty in making 
him sensible of a future state of existence, as the Bachapins seemed 
to possess some confused notions of this kind ; but of their belief 
in retributive justice after death, I never could gain any clear ac- 
count. Neither did it appear to me that they had any very sublime 
idea of the soul or of immortality. Of the worldly superintendence 
of a Supreme Power, they are not ignorant ; but their knowledge is 
so mingled with superstition, that this can be of little practical 
benefit to their moral conduct or religious feelings. These supersti- 
tious notions could only have been the offsprings of the weakest 
mind ; and the respect which continues to be paid to them, proves, 
better than any argument, how low is the state of intellect and reason 
among these people. 
Yet, with an education so unfavorable to mental improvement, 
Mollemmi listened to me with an apparent desire of learning, and 
with a facility of assent, which I should not have expected. All 
which I told him, of our notions respecting the Deity ; of the 
absolute necessity of a virtuous life ; and of the preservation of good- 
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