who looked as fresh and healthy, as if she had come, not out of a state of captivity, but from a state of ease and affluence. Such is the wonderful versatility of human nature! But, on the other hand, there were many that bore marks of the severest bondage. A lady, for example, had wholly lost the use of one hand, by too heavy a task in grinding maize. Maxims and Measures of the Jesuits in converting, and first Intercourse between their Missioners and the Indians. [From the Same.] AMONG the maxims and mea sures by which the Jesuits steadily pursued, and at last ac complished their great and good design, were the following: First, they set themselves to remove the apprehensions of the Indians, and to impress them with a belief and conviction that they had come among them from the great world beyond the ocean, through a thousand hardships, and perils, purely for their good. It was not an easy thing, at first, for the missioners to get access to them. As self-preservation is the first law of nature, the first sensation produced by a new and unknown object, is fear. When the Jesuits, or other Spaniards, came to the huts of the Indians, they were frightened at the appearance of men wearing clothes. The women and children screamed, and even the men fled to the woods. It was by means of other Indians, living under the Spanish government, and converted to Christianity, at least acquainted with the existence of God, and Christ, and heaven, and hell, and were baptized, that the missioners made their approaches to the wild Indians. The best instructed, the most adroit and discreet of the Neophytes were deputed as missioners to their countrymen. They carried with them some presents, trifling in the eyes of an European, but to the Indians, matters of great curiosity, and articles of great value. Letters of compliment to the Cazique accompanied these, which the Christian Indians had it in charge to explain. Not a word was to be said of any wish on the part of the missioners to see the Cazique. The meaning of the embassy, presents, and letters, was to be understood as nothing more than an act of good manners, an expression of a wish for peace and good neighbourhood. Any farther advance at this stage of the business would have only served to excite jealousy. The Cazique then naturally put the question, From whence the missioners came? What was their profession? What was their object in coming to the Indian country? What they were doing? and how they behaved to the Indians that were about them? Satisfactory answers being given to all these questions, two or three of the most respected Indians generally accompanied the deputies in their return to the fathers, chiefly, if not entirely, from the motive of curiosity. If the Cazique and tribe to whom the first embassy was sent, was of a lofty and proud spirit, as they frequently were, a second, and even a third embassy was necessary, to soften and incline them to a friendly intercourse. The missioner now ventured to say, through his deputy, that he had the greatest desire to pay a visit to the chief, but that he was so much engaged in some concerns, that it was not in his power. The Cazique on this never failed to send an invitation to the missioner; and a particular month or moon (which was designated by the name of some principal fruit of the season), was fixed for meeting and receiving him. The missioner, accompanied by thirteen or fourteen of his Neophytes, for guides, and for carrying provisions, sets out on the journey, commonly a very long one, three or four hundred miles, or more. The provisions were soon devoured by the Indians, who are all great gluttons, and cannot refrain from eating voraciously when ever it is in their power. They had to depend afterwards on the fruit and roots they could pick up, and the fish and game they could eatch; birds, monkeys, wild boars, and so on. It was generally thought prudent to have a small escort of two or three soldiers, as every one of the Indians, that was capable, bore arms. This small escort, while it could not alarm the tribe or its chief, was sufficient, as above observed, to repress any sudden sally of one, or a few individuals. Fires were lighted in the night for keeping away the tigers. When the missioner with his suite drew near to the residence of the Cazique, a messenger was sent to announce their coming a day be fore their arrival. The Cazique assembled the chief people among his tribe, and was prepared to receive them in a spacious hall, open on each side to the four winds of the heavens; or rather a canopy, formed of the branches and leaves of trees, intertwined with straw or rushes, and supported by trunks of trees, fixed in the ground by way of colonnades. A hammock was swung for the missioner between two beams of wood set up for the purpose. He was allowed to wait for some time in the hall, for repose, before the Cazique with his attendants made their appear. ance. In the mean time, the Indians were employed in dressing, that is, painting themselves, for appearing at court in a suitable manner. The Cazique at length made his appearance: and, as soon as he was within easy hearing, said to the missioner, "You are come then?" The missioner replied, "I am come." Every one of his captains, or chief warriors, made the same salutation, and received the same reply. The Cazique, and the wives of his officers, immediately, without saying another word to the missioner, set before him a plate of victuals, such bread as they had, and a bottle of chica. The wives of other inhabitants of the village did the same; so that the whole floor of this hall of audience was in an instant covered with dishes of meat and vessels replenished with chica. All this passed in profound silence. The missioner then chose the dish he liked best, and ate just as much or as little as he pleased. But he was not at the same liberty with respect to the chica, being obliged, if he had not a mind to give offence, to taste, or make a shew of tasting of every one's bottle. This was a formidable ceremony to the missioner; for chica, when one is not accustomed to it, is very apt to occasion a violent head-ach; but the feast was quite to the taste, and fully enjoyed by his suite. The accomplished Cicero tells his friend and correspondent Atticus, that he had a volume of prefaces or introductions always by him, and ready to be made use of, as circumstances or occasions might require. A similar method of facilitating, and expediting composition was fallen on by the Caziques of Peru. They had their harangue for the reception of strangers of distinction, which they called their mirray, ready for any occasion. A mirray of some kind, for it admitted of variation according to the genius of the author, was taught to every chief by his parents from his earliest years. There were in each of them certain customary compliments; but they were varied by flights of fancy, and the mirrays actually spoken, were very ingeniously interspersed with sentiments suited to the peculiar circumstances in which they were pronounced. In reply to the Cazique's mirray the missioner delivered another, in which, among a variety of particulars, he recounted the dangers he had escaped in his voyage from Europe; and expatiated on the motives that led him to undertake it, which neither were, nor could be, any other than a concern for the welfare of the Indians, a desire to conciliate their good-will and friendship, to rescue and preserve them from all ills, and to defend them against all their enemies. These professions of benevolence were followed by presents, first to the Cazique and his wives, and next to his captains. But it was necessary that every one present, both men and women, should have something, if only a pin, for picking the vermin out of their feet. It was not, after all, by any thing the missioner could say or do, that the minds of the Indians were reconciled to the idea of holding any intercourse, or reposing any confidence in the strangers. This was wholly the work of the Neophytes, who assured their countrymen, that all the missioner had spoken, was, to their certain knowledge, no more than the truth; all they sought after was, to do good to the Indians, and to receive their love and confidence in return. They would protect them against their enemies, take care of their sick, and furnish them with instruments for cultivating_the fields, and other purposes. They assured them, in a particular manner, that they entertained the warmest love for their children, whom they would teach how "to look at paper" (their phrase for teaching them to read). The Indians were, above all things, struck with the fact, that the missioners had quitted, for their sakes, their wives (as they thought) and children. In the mean time, while the Neophytes were thus happily employed in conversation with their countrymen, the missioner himself went from hut to hut, visiting the sick, and baptizing both infants and adults that seemed to be at the point of death. In the course of this visitation he was followed by troops of children, attracted by curiosity, and delighting in motion, of whom he never failed to take the kindest notice, or to give them pins, and hooks for catching fish, and other trifles. Sometimes he would, when he was about to enter a hut, take one of them in his arms, and caress the child in the tenderest manner; which was very pleasing to the parents of other children, children, whose mothers would present their children to be caressed in like manner. On such occasions the father would sometimes embrace the opportunity of baptizing the child, which did not offend the parents; with the secret intention of explaining both to the parents and the child the nature of this initiatory rite, afterwards. He would also tie strings of glass beads and ribbons about the children's necks, which had a wonderfully good effect in conciliating the favour of their mothers. It was always the wives that first declared themselves in favour of the missioner. They were incessant in their importunities with their husbands to use their utmost endeavours for keeping the missioner amongst them; or, if this could not be effected, that they might all accompany him in his return. The innocent children too, who returned the affection shown to them with great sensibility, would join their intercessions for the same end, to the importunities of their mothers. There was nothing that gave greater offence to the Indians than to seem indifferent, and much more to decline a participation in their feasts or other offers of hospitality and kindness. For this reason, just noticed, the fathers were obliged to drink some chica, and even to taste a little of every one's bottle. But a severer trial was sometimes to be encountered than that of the chica. It was customary among some Indian nations, as among several Tartar tribes, for men of distinction to offer to their guests the company of any one of his wives. When such an offer was made to a missioner, it would have 43 been as imprudent as impolitic, to reject the offer at once, in any tone of positiveness or decision. After many expressions of gratitude, and compliments too, to the personal merits of the wives, who were generally present, he turned the conversation a little aside to spiritual concerns, and then reverting to the great mark of hospitality with which he had been honoured, said, that he loved only heavenly things; that he desired nothing in this world, and that he aspired to nothing more than to indulge an affection for the Indian nations, and to do them good. When the savage people were at length fully convinced that the missioner was their sincere friend, numbers came to him every day, expecting to receive some immediate token of that benevolence and beneficence of which they heard so many reports. They were by no means shy or delicate on this subject. One asked a hatchet, another a saw, a third a chisel or knife, and so on. In general they cles that were of most use to themhad sense enough to ask the artiselves, but at the same time the most costly, and, being the most bulky, of the most difficult conveyance. On such critical occasions, which demanded the greatest management and address, the missioner was obliged to put them off, without offending, or even leaving them discontented, the best way he could. He told them that, from so great a distance, he had not been able to carry more of such tools than two or three for the Cazique, who would not refuse to lend them occasionally; but if they would settle in fixed habitations, or places adapted to fishing, in such and such places, places, which he pointed out, it would be as much in his power, as it was in his inclination, to come to see them now and then; to furnish them with instruments of various kinds, and to visit the sick. The success of the mission generally turned on this reply of the missioner to the request of the Indians. If it pleased them, the Cazique, with his chief men, pitched on some place in the vicinity of some reduction or colony already established, and settled there. They stirred up the earth, and sowed grain. When the time of harvest arrived, they came with their families to reap it, and built huts to dwell in. Turkish government, like those of more polished nations, are rather the dictates of caprice than the deductions of reason; and the soil of the most fertile countries in the world, wetted with the tears and the blood of the inhabitants, reproaches the legislators with their barbarity and their ignorance. To describe with impartiality a people among whom every thing is contradictory to our usages, though not perhaps more repugnant to reason, requires a superiority to prejudice, a sobriety of observation, and a patience of inquiry, which few travellers possess. In the scarcity of information, we have not hesitated to receive, as the authentic history of an illustrious nation, anecdotes collected by chance, as NATIONAL CHARACTER OF THE sertions unsupported by evidence, TURKS. [From Mr. Thornton's Present State of Turkey.] THE genius of a people, and the best learned from the study of their history; and the annals of the Ottoman nation represent this horde of Tartars issuing from the deep forests which skirt the Caucasus, impelled by their native turbulence and love of war; inflamed with the thirst of universal conquest by the precepts of their religion; terrible to their neighbours, but restrained in their domestic excesses by veneration for the law, which enforces reverence for the state, though it fail in insuring respect for the monarch. For amidst the most outrageous exertions of violence against individuals, the sovereign power, the rights of the military and the great body of the people have always been sacred. The maxims of and facts perverted by design. The national character of the Turks is a composition of contradictory qualities. We find them brave and pusillanimous; gentle stant; active and indolent; passing from devotion to obscenity, from the rigour of morality to the grossness of sense; at once delicate and coarse; fastidiously abstemious and indiscriminately indulgent. The great are alternately haughty and humble; arrogant and cringing; liberal and sordid: and in general it must be confessed, that the qualities, which least deserve our approbation, are the most predominant. On comparing their limited acquirements with the learning of the Christian nations of Europe, we are surprised at their ignorance: but we must allow that they have just and clear ideas of whatever falls within the contracted sphere of their observation. Physical |