DOMESTICATED AHETA9. 
127 
of their birth, they prefer a savage life to all the charms 
of civiUjKation. It has occurred that individuals, who 
have taken Negritos duriug their infancyj and made 
sacrifices to give them an education, have found them- 
selves suddenly abandoned by them. An instance is 
given in which the Archbishop of ^fanilla brought up one 
of them with great care, and even ordained him as a 
priest I but who, unable to support a social life {la vie 
sociale)f left his cassock behind and returned to the 
mountains, a striking example of the power which a 
love of liberty and independence preserves,''** 
A few individual Negritos are always to be found 
about the capital, generally attached to the establishments 
of the higher funetionaries, where they lead a life by 
no means weH calculated to improve their habits, as they 
are alternately petted by their masters, and teased by 
their fellow-servants, who take delight in witnessing the 
fitful fury into which the little creatures are thrown. 
M. Jfalkt had one of tliem in his service while at 
Manilla, and therefore must have had favourable op- 
portunities of examining their characteristics. He was 
a native of the Siem which forms the western side of the 
port of jVIanilla. The almost inaccessible retreats of 
these wild mountains, are inhabited hy a great number of 
the little negroes, called Negritos, of whom we have 
gpoken above. It sometimes happens^ that they are 
hunted up in their places of refuge, when endeavours are 
made to take some prisoners, choosing the younger ones, 
who are brought up by the inhabitants until they attain 
* ilalkt " Les PMKpuines," tome m v. 95, 
