from adopting his opinions merely because he says there is good reason for their support. We have other, and what appears to us better testimony to maintain their Chinese descent. And if we were to hazard a conjecture upon what we have seen of the Asiatic and American researches, we should feel greatly disposed to believe with Sir William Jones that they are of Hindoostan origin, perhaps after an intermediate residence in China. This would be in a great measure supported by the statement of Father Du Poisson as referred to above.

We now proceed to inquire concerning the religious practices of the South American Indians, &c.

One of the best remarks that we recollect to have met with in these letters on the subject of our present inquiry is contained in one written by Father Cat a Jesuit Missionary from Buenos Ayres on the 18th of May, 1729.

"To undertake painting for you manners which would equally characterise all the savage people of India would be to attempt an impossibility. You conceive that usages and customs vary to infinity, I shall therefore content myself with giving you what appears to me the most universally established amongst them."

He then draws a line of distinction between tribes perfectly barbarian, and nations considerably advanced in civilization. He shews that Mexico and Peru appear to have been already civilized, and therefore the accounts given of them by Las Casas, exhibit a mild and amiable race of men, whilst the savage of Paraguay was debauched, dissolute, ungovernable and negligent. After extending those remarks, and exemplifying his positions he proceeds to give a general idea of their religion:

"The Roman orator has said that in no part of the world does there exist a people that does not recognize a Supreme Being and pay to him homage. This is perfectly verified amongst certain tribes of Paraguay; a stupid and barbarous race, some of whom in truth do not pay any homage to God, yet are persuaded of his existence and fear him greatly, They are equally convinced that the soul does not perish with the body, at least I judge so from the care with which they bury their dead. They place near them provisions, a bow, arrows and a club, so that in the next world they might be able to procure subsistence, and not be indueed through hunger to return to this world to torment the living. This principle, universally received amongst the Indians is of great use to lead them to the knowledge of God. In other respects, there are but few of them who care much what will happen to the souls after death.” "The Indians give to the moon the title of mother, and pay to her due honor as such; when she is eclipsed, you might see them come in crowds from their huts yelling and shouting dreadfully and shooting a vast VOL. II.-NO. 4. 41

number of arrows into the air to guard this star of the night against the dogs which they believe have seized upon her, to tear her to pieces.— Many nations in Asia though civilized look upon eclipses of the moon very nearly in the same way as do our American savages. When it thunders, these nations think that the storm is raised by the soul of some deceased enemy who thus wishes to avenge the shame of his defeat. The Indians are very superstitious in their inquiries into future events, they chiefly consult the singing of birds, the cry of some beasts, and the changes of trees: these are their oracles and they suppose that from them they can obtain certain knowledge of untoward accidents with which they are threatened."

We find in a letter written by Father Stanislas Arlet, a Bohemian Jesuit, to the general of his order, in 1698, September 1st, from the Peruvian province in the latitude of 14 deg. south, and in the Spanish government of Moxos, an account of the aborigines who wandered near the river which they called Cucurulu, and in a country which they called Canisi. After describing them as barbarians who went perfectly naked, and had no fixed habitation, no laws nor form of government, he states of their religion, that although they had sufficient notions of a Supreme Being, they did not appear to worship either God or the devil; they were given to drunkenness, and exhibited in their conduct all the bad consequences which this vice produces upon a barbarous people with unrestrained passions; yet from his account there was much less difficulty than usual in bringing them to Christianity. In consulting an ancient map of the missions of the Moxos under charge of the Jesuits, we have been enabled to fix the spot where Father Arlet built his church of St. Peter, at a little less than 14 deg. about twenty miles east of the river Mamore, one of the head streams of the Madeira, a principal tributary of the Amazon.

A question would naturally appear to present itself. If this was part of Peru or in its vicinity, how shall we reconcile the favourable account which we have of the Peruvians to this statement of the Bohemian Jesuit? In the first place, the entire range of country now known as Peru and Chili, together with the United Provinces of South America, was all known as the Province of Peru, and the character of its inhabitants was first designated from that of the portion, which occupied the seaboard of the Pacific; secondly, the Province of Cusco, though an interior division of Peru, is separated from the territory of Moxos, by the territory of La Paz, from which latter it is also divided by the high and craggy Andes of Chuchon, and the river Beni on the north-east, and on the south-east by the lake Titiaca or Chucuito, which cut off their intercourse: and thirdly,

the usual ingress into the territory of Moxos, was by the pass of Santa Cruz de la Sierra, in the present Province of Cochamba, until after several heroic efforts, which had nearly cost his life, Father Cyprian Baraza, a Spanish Jesuit, who might properly be called the founder of this mission, discovered a trail over the Andes, passing several Cordilleras, by which he understood from the Indians that some Spaniards under Quiroga had begun to open a passage many years previous. This was about the year 1695. From Peru to the stations of Father Baraza, on the right bank of the river Mamore, was now but a journey of fifteen days, and this discovery was viewed as a junction of two nations which had previously no intercourse save by a circuit of several months' journey: hence the one might be well civilized, and the other perfectly barbarian. Father Baraza had proceeded from Santa Cruz de Sierra, in a northerly direction to the 15th degree of latitude, establishing his missions; and after this new pass was discovered, the two Bohemians, Fathers Arlet and Borina were sent in 1697 by the new passage to a more northerly place to found a new mission, and fell in with the Canisi, whose station they fixed at St. Peter's.

We shall now advert to the testimony of Father Cyprian Baraza and his associates, for we will call it such, though it be not written by him but by them. The extracts which we make, and the testimony which we advance are from "an abridgment of a Spanish account of the life and death of Father Cyprian Baraza, of the society of Jesuits, and founder of the mission of the Moxos in Peru; printed at Lima by order of the Right Rev. Nicholas Urban de Matha, Bishop of La Paz, 1704." In the year 1705, Father Nyel, a French Jesuit, wrote on the 20th of May, from Lima to Father la Chaise, confessor to the king of France, an account of his voyage from St. Malo, together with several other missionaries bound to China, but who in consequence of the danger of capture by the British or Dutch preferred taking the western passage to this most eastern part of the Asiatic continent: another letter of his written six days later to Father Dez, rector of the college of Strasburg, gives amongst others an account of the missions of the Moxos. In it he mentions that he has sent to Father Gobin the history of Father Bazara, who had been martyred two years and a half before, which history he says "was printed at Lima by order of one of the most holy and enlightened prelates of Peru." Our readers will now be able to form some opinion of the value of its state

ments:

"There is not amongst the Moxos either law, or government, or regulation; if any difference arises between individuals, each person

seeks to do himself justice; there is no one who commands, nor does any one obey."

*

'They have no regular time for their meals; when they can find any thing to eat, it is an excellent hour for the repast. But as their food is coarse and insipid, they seldom are guilty of excess; but they well know how to make up for it in their drink. They have found the secret of making a very strong liquor with an infusion of some rotted roots which they decompose in water. This liquor quickly intoxicates, and drives them to the last excess of madness. They chiefly use it on festivals which they celebrate in honor of their Gods. At the noise of instruments, whose sound is very disagreeable, they assemble under bowers which they form by intertwining the branches of trees; and there confusedly dance through the day, and swill long draughts of this inebriating beverage. These festivals generally end in a tragical and indecent manner."

"The only alleviation which they obtain in sickness, consists in calling certain enchanters who they imagine have received a special power to heal them. These jugglers visit the sick, repeat some superstitious prayer over them, promise to fast for their cure, and to smoke tobacco for them a certain number of times every day; or, what is a special favour, they suck the part affected, after which they withdraw, but always well paid."

"All the people of this country live in a profound ignorance of the true God. There are amongst them some who adore the sun, the moon, and the stars; others adore the rivers; some worship a pretended invisible tyger; some others always carry with them a great number of little ridiculous idols. But they have no dogma which is an object of their belief; they live without any hope of future reward, and if they perform any act of religion, it by no means flows from love; fear alone is its principle. They imagine that in every thing there exists a Spirit which sometimes is angry with them, and sends upon them the evils with which they are afflicted, hence their chief care is either to avoid offending, or to appease this secret power which they say it is impossible to resist. They do not exhibit any solemn external form of worship, and amongst so many tribes, only one or two can be discovered who use any kind of sacrifice. There exist amongst the Moxos, however, two descriptions of ministers of religion; some might be truly called enchanters, whose only function is to restore the sick to health; others are like priests, destined to appease the Gods. The first are not elevated to this grade of honor until after a rigorous fast of a year, during which they abstain from flesh and fish; besides, they must have been wounded by a tyger, and escaped from his claws, they are then revered as men of rare virtue, as it is believed they are respected and favoured by the invisible tyger who has protected them from the efforts of the visible one which they have combatted.

"When they have during a long time discharged the duties of this office, they are raised to the priesthood, but to render them worthy of

this, they must fast during another year with the same rigour, and their abstinence must have given them sad and emaciated countenances; then the juice of certain herbs which are very pungent, is extracted and spread over their eyes, by which they are greatly tortured, and thus the sacerdotal character is imprinted upon them; they pretend that their vision is made more clear by this, and hence their priests are called Tiharaugui, or he who has clear eyes.'

·

"At particular periods of the year, and especially about the time of new moon, these ministers of Satan assemble the people upon some hill, not far from their village. From early dawn the people go in silence towards this spot, but when arrived there, they break out into frightful yells, to mollify, as they say, the hearts of their divinities: the day passes away in fasting and shouting, and at night-fall, they conclude by the following ceremonial:-Their priests commence by cutting off their hair, which is amongst them a sign of joy, and then cover their bodies with red and yellow feathers; large vessels are then produced, into which the inebriating beverage, prepared for the solemnity, is poured; this is received by them as a first-fruit offering to their Gods, and having drank abundantly, they leave it to the people, who following their example, swallow down unmeasuredly: the night is employed in drink and dance; one intones, the rest form a circle around, mark time with their feet, carelessly loll their head from side to side, with indecent gestures; this is their whole dance; and those who are most foolish and extravagant in this exhibition are considered the most religious and devout. The rejoicings usually terminate in the wounds or death of several. They have some knowledge of the immortality of the soul, but this light is so obscured by the dark clouds amidst which they live, that they do not even suspect any thing of future rewards and punishments; and, therefore, scarcely give themselves any concern about what will happen after death."

We have taken this extract pretty fully and at some length, as the result of the observations of Father Baraza and his companions, as well to confirm as to explain the testimonies of Fathers Cat and Arlet: these two latter wrote their letters within the second year of their acquaintance with these people, and might not have been sufficiently acquainted with their customs to know in which of the ceremonials that fell under their observation, the public worship consisted; whereas, in the other body of witnesses, we have the close observation of persons who resided twenty years amongst the people whose religion they describe. Father Cyprian Baraza was slain by the Bauros, the last tribe which he undertook to instruct, on the 16th of September, 1702, at the age of sixty-one years; upwards of twenty-seven of which he had lived amongst those people. Hence he had a better opportunity of knowing the fact of their adoration and its mode. The Canisians described by Father Arlet, and some of the tribes of Paraguay mentioned by Father