146 
VOYAGE TO THE 
mand, “ Go ye and teach all nations baptizing them/’ are of 
a sect too austere, as we should think, for the purposes they 
are so anxious to promote. 
The old tabus are indeed no more, but they have called 
Sunday the la tabu, or consecrated day, and nothing in the 
heathen time could be more strictly tabooed. The mis¬ 
sionaries forbid the making of fire, even to cook, on Sunday; 
they insist on the appearance of their proselytes five times 
at church every day; and having persuaded them that they 
are the necessary conductors to heaven, they are acquiring 
a degree of public and private importance, which, but for 
the situation of the Islands, which secures a constant acces¬ 
sion of foreigners for the purposes of commerce, would bid 
fair to renew the Jesuitical dominion of Paraguay. It is 
true, they defend their system by saying, that since the 
tabu for the false deities was so severely kept, the proselytes 
might despise our doctrine did we pay less regard to him 
whom we preach as the true God; that as to the not 
cooking on Sundays it is no hardship, for it has always been 
the habit to cook enough for two or three days at a time, 
and to eat cold meats between the cooking days, because 
the mode of dressing food by fire-pits and heated stones is 
so very slow; and as to the frequency and length of the 
prayers, the people have nothing better to do. Such are 
