21S 
SOUTH AMERICAN MISSIONS 
The road skirted with the bamboos above mentioned led 
us to the small village of San Fernando, situated in a narrow 
plain, surrounded by very steep calcareous rocks. This was 
the first Mission* we saw in America. The houses, or 
rather the huts of the Chaytna Indians, though separate 
from each other, are not surrounded by gardens. The 
streets, which are wide and very strait, cross each other at 
right angles. The walls of the huts are made of clay, 
strengthened by lianas. Tho uniformity of these huts, the 
grave and taciturn air of their inhabitants, and the extreme 
neatness of the dwellings, reminded us of the establishments 
of the Moravian Brethren. Besides their own gardens, every 
Indian family helps to cultivate the garden of the community, 
or, as it is called, tho conuco de la comunidad, which is situated 
at some distance from the village. In this conuco the adults 
of each sex work one hour in the morning and one in the 
evening. In the missions nearest the coast the garden of 
the community is generally a sugar or indigo plantation, 
under the direction of the missionary; and its produce, if 
the law were strictly observed, could" be employed only for 
the support of the church and the purchase of sacerdotal 
ornaments. Tho great square of San Fernando, in the 
centre of the village, contains the church, the dwelling of 
the missionary, and a very humble-looking edifice pompously 
called the king’s house (Casa del Bey). This is a cara- 
vanserai, destined for lodging travellers; and, as we often 
experienced, infiuitely valuable in a country where the name 
of an inn is still unknown. The Casas’ del Bey are to 
be foimd in all the Spanish colonies, and may be deemed 
an imitation of the tanibos of Peru, which were established 
in conformity with the laws of Manco Capac. 
We had been recommended to the friars who govern the 
Missions of the Chayma Indians, by their syndic, who resides 
at Cumana. This recommendation was the more useful to 
us, as the missionaries, either from zeal for the purity of the 
* A certain number of habitations collected round a church, with a mis- 
sionary monk performing the ministerial duties, is called in the Spanish 
colonies Mision , or Pueblo de mittion. Indian villages, governed by a 
priest, are called Pueblos de doctrina. A distinction is made between the 
Cura doctrinero, who is the priest of an Indian parish, and tho Cura 
rector, priest of a village inhabited by whites and men of mixed race. 
