A missionary’s life. 
213 
morals of tueir parishioners, or to conceal the monastic sys- 
tem from the indiscreet curiosity of strangers, often adhere 
with rigour to an old regulation, by which a white man of 
the secular state is not permitted to sojourn more than one 
night in an Indian village. The Missions form (I will not 
say according to their primitive and canonical institutions, 
but in reality) a distinct and nearly independent hierarchy, 
the views of which seldom accord with those of the secular 
clergy. 
The missionary of San Fernando was a Capuchin, a native 
of Aragon, far advanced in years, but strong and healthy. 
His extreme corpulency, his hilarity, the interest he took 
in battles and sieges, ill accorded with the ideas we form 
in northern countries of the melancholy reveries and the 
contemplative life of missionaries. Though extremely busy 
about a cow which was to be killed next day, the old 
monk received us with kindness, and permitted us to hang 
up our hammocks in a gallery of his house. Seated, without 
doing anything, the greater part of the day, in an arm- 
chair of red wood, he bitterly complained of what he called 
the indolence and ignorance of his countrymen. Our mis- 
sionary, however, seemed well satisfied with his situation. 
He treated the Indians with mildness; he beheld his Mission 
prosper, and he praised with enthusiasm the waters, the 
bananas, and the dairy-produce of the district. The sight of 
our instruments, our books, and our dried plants, drew 
from him a sarcastic smile ; and he acknowledged, with the 
naivete peculiar to the inhabitants of those countries, that of 
all the enjoyments of life, without excepting sleep, none was 
comparable to the pleasure of eating good beef (carne de 
vaca): thus does sensuality obtain an ascendancy, where 
there is no occupation for' tlie mind. 
The mission of San Fernando was founded about the end 
of the 17th century, near the junction of the small rivers of 
the Manzanares and Lucasperez. A fire, which consumed 
the church and the huts of the Indians, induced the Capu 
chins to build the village in its present fine situation. The 
number of families is increased to one hundred, and the 
missionary observed to us, that the custom of marrying at 
thirteen or fourteen years of age contributes greatly to this 
rapid increase of population. He denied that old ago was 
