222 
DIFFICULTY OF CONVEItSATIOTL 
interpreter. Every mission lias at least two interpreters 
(lenguarazes). They are Indians, a little less stupid than the 
rest, through whose medium the missionaries of the Orinoco, 
who now very rarely give themselves the trouble of studying 
the idioms of the country, communicate with the neophytes. 
These interpreters attended us in all our herborizations ; 
but they rather understand than speak Castilian. "With 
their indolent indifference, they answer us by chance, but 
always with an officious smile, ‘‘Yes, Father; no, Father," 
to every question addressed to them. 
The vexation that arises from such a style of conversation 
•continued for months may easily be conceived, when you 
wish to be enlightened upon objects in which you take the 
most lively interest. "We were often forced to employ several 
interpreters at a time, and several successive translators, m 
•order to communicate with the natives.* 
“ After leaving my Mission,” said the good monk of 
Uruana, “ you wul 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 
a native perceives that you will not employ au interpreter ; 
when you interrogate him directly, showing him the objects; 
he rouses himself from his habitual apathy, and manifests an 
extraordinary capacity to make himself comprehended. He 
varies his signs, pronounces his words slowly, and repeats 
them without being desired. The consequence conferred 
upon him, in suffering yourself to he instructed by hi®> 
flatters his self-love. This facility in making himself coin - 
prehended is particularly remarkable in the independent 
Indian. It cannot ho doubted that direct intercourse with 
the natives is more instructive and more certain than the 
communication by interpreters, provided the questions he 
* To form a just idea of the perplexity of these communications 1 >1 
interpreters, we may recollect that, in the expedition of Lewis a"“ 
Clarke to the river Columbia, in order to converse with the Chopunnid 1 
Indians, Captain Lewis addressed one of his men in English ; that wa 1 ! 
translated the question into French to Chaboneau ; Chaboneau translate" 
it to his Indian wife in Minnetaree; the woman translated it it**® 
Shoshonee to a prisoner ; and the prisoner translated it into Chopnnnis“j 
It may he feared that the sense of the question was a little altered bj 
these successive translations. 
