THE WILD INDIAN TRIBES OF THE MADEIRA VALLEY. 
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them; and, as soon as the slu’ill whistle of the locomotive sliall sound 
throngh the clearing, and proud steamers rock on the rivers, he will 
ho totally undone. He never will submit readily to the entire aban- 
donment of his old ways, and never will take to agiiculture, an 
cmplojnnent which he despises as belonging to the lot of his humble 
enslaved wives, unless he be compelled to adopt it, or unless ho be 
brought up to it by patient degrees, with a combination of paternal 
kindness and unswerving firmness. The unalterable course of his 
thoughts ever will be that he had a better claim to the soil on the 
ground of jiriority of residence, and that it Avas asking too much of 
him to change his mode of life in favour of the intrudei-s; and the 
Avhite man (I mean the settler, the unedneated man) Avill ahvays look 
haughtily down on the broAvn “animal,” and will be only too happy 
to execute his mandate : “ Get hence to jiiakc room for me and my 
family !” A Anolent contest, carried on from both sides with treacherous* 
Aveapons, must ensue ; but its end cannot be doubted, and another nation 
Avdl soon have ceased to exist. 
An intelligent Guarani Indian of the Aldeamcnto of San Ignacio, 
on the Parauapancma, once asked me : “ Why do not the AA'hito people 
leaA^e us nndistui'bed in our forests ? Why are Ave to live like them ? 
Is there not room enough for us all ? ” And AA'hat could I reply ? He 
AA'ould easily haA'e refuted any sentimental talk about the blessings of 
ciAulisation by simply pointing to the importation of the measles, just 
then decimating his AHlage; and it Avmdd have been cruel to insist 
xipon the naked tnith that by the highest right in the world, the right 
of might, Ave should in time drive them to still greater extremities. 
The schoolmaster-like advice, to keep on good terms Avith the Avhite 
man for his OAvn benefit, Avas aU I could give the honest fellow. To 
sum up our observations on the firture of the South American Indians, 
Ave may briefiy note that, Avhenever they haAn come into contact with 
the white race, their doom has been sealed. Like their more energetic 
northern brvthi'cn, they arc visited Avith physical and moral destruction ; 
* If a talo AVd Iieard on the Eio da Poniha (an affluent of the Parahyha) be true, 
tlie ])ahn of treachery must bo conceded to the white race. Planters who had boon 
occasionally troubled by littlo thefts committed by the Indians, but who,^ otherwise, 
lived in peaiio with the numerous hordes of the vicinity, had the woollen jackets and 
blankets of tlicii’ negroes, who had been swept ofi in an outbreak of small-pox, carried 
into the woods. In uccordnuco with Iho design, tho effect on the Indians, who of course 
availed tlicmselves of the i-lolliing, was terrific. Nearly tho whole ti-ibe was destroyed. 
