THE MO.TOS INDIANS. 
185 
left in peace for some time to come ; and thus has a countiy, particularly 
adapted for cattle breeding by its immense natural prairies, excellent 
climate and sparse population, been most brutally deprived of one source 
of future national wealth and prosperity. 
With the wild cattle have also vanished the stags, the deer, and the 
troops of long-necked emus,* which once lived on the campos in the 
immediate vicinity of the Pueblos. All have been sacrificed to the wild 
greed of the white man, and the thoughtlessness of the Indians ; durable 
profit being postponed to the advantage of the moment. One thing 
ouly, strange to say, siu'vivos amid all these sad changes — ^the practice 
of the Government in Sucre and La Paz of paying the officials in the 
Pueblos by bonds on wild cows; those gentlemen evidently shutting 
their eyes resolutely to the reductions they have already effected ; and I 
should not at all wonder if, on occasion of some future loan, European 
capitalists were offered the Avild herds on the campos as supplementary 
securities to the treasures to be dug out of the silver and copper mines 
in the mountains, and to the taxes and tolls to be levied on roads and 
railroads yet to be built, j" 
At present it is impossible even to calculate the extent of the damage 
that has been done ; but it is quite certain that the Indians of the 
Missions, who till now Avere Avell fed, arc ah-cady so far degraded as to 
seek greedily for earth-worms, which they dry on cords before their 
cottages for their OAvn consumption, and that they have begun to decrease 
in an accelerated ratio ; Avhich is sm-ely efi'ected, among other causes, 
by physical want. 
While, on the one side, the wild cattle are destroyed Avith a zeal 
worthy of a better cause, on the other, no pains Avhatever are taken 
to turn the rich vegetable treasiu’cs of the country to account. Not the 
least effort is made to extend and improve the culture of the cacao, sugar- 
* The American ostrich, Ema or Emii, also called N’handu, hy the Mojos Pi-3'U 
{Itlm Anwricam), is still frequently found on the remoter campos of the proAdnee of 
Minas. Its eggs are about tAvo-thirda the size of African ostrich-eggs. 
t Since Avriting the above, 1 have seen the Concession of the Bolivian Government, 
authorising Colonel G. E. Church to lum steamers on all the rivers of the Eepublic 
belonging to the Madeira basin ; and, sure enough, in it Avas an article (No. 3) Avhich 
ran as foUoAVS:— The Bolman Government concedes to the Steam NaA'igation Company 
the right of approjiriating fuel and timber Avherevor it is not on priA'ate property, and 
of taking 8,000 head of cattle from the herds OAvned by the State in the Departamento 
del Beni (sic), on condition, hoAVOA’er, that this be done in the Avaj' most adA'antageous 
to both the State and the Company. 
I 
