liabilities are mere formalities, for there never has been an instance of a legal prosecution carried on against an Indian for such crimes.

According to the council of Lima, ecclesiastic censures can in no case be inflicted on an Indian. His ignorance is a sufficient apology for all such religious offences as he may be guilty of.

All the instruction, necessary to admit Indian adults to the ordinance of baptism, amounts only to their being brought to assent, by signs or words, that idolatry, superstition and falsehood are mortal sins; that fornication, adultery, incest and uncleanness, áre horrible sins; and that drunkenness, which destroys reason, is also a sin.

The general custom is to cut off the hair of the adult who is going to receive baptism. The first missionaries observed with respect to the Indians, who are particularly fond of their hair, that rather than lose it, they preferred the gates of heaven to be shut against them. The king, informed of this obstacle to the conversion of the Indians, issued an edict, on the 5th of March, 1581, by which, contrary to the doctrine of St. Paul, he dispensed with cutting their hair.

It is so difficult to impress an Indian with the utility of confession, that he carries to the tribunal of penitence, neither the necessary contrition nor attrition; he approaches with the intention of neither declaring his sin, nor reforming his conduct. If we were to adopt the opinion of Soto, that the duty of the confessor non est interrogare pænitentem, sed audire confitentem, the confession of the Indian

would be of very little avail. Instead of the solemnity of deportment usual on such an occasion, there arise between the minister of the church and the Indian who confesses, debates which are sometimes extremely ludicrous. It is rare that the Indian can be prevailed upon to put himself in the attitude of a penitent. When in the beginning of the ceremony he is desired to kneel, he immediately squats on the ground; and in this posture, instead of declaring his sins, he stoutly denies every thing, which the confessor, knowing his practices, wishes him to confess he must be absolutely convicted of a falsehood, before he will acknowledge himself guilty of any sin; and when reduced to this last extremity, he frequently curses those who have given information to the priest. Such a confession made by a Spaniard, or any other christian whatever, would be nothing, a thousand times worse than nothing; but, if made by an Indian, according to different doctors of divinity, it is valid, provided the confessor extorts from him a demonstration of contrition; and that is done by dictating to him a form of contrition which the Indian mutters indistinctly. His ignorance is so gross, and his faculties so limited, that nothing else can reasonably be expected of him; and according to the theological axiom, fucienti quod est in se, deus non denegat auxilium, it is concluded that the Indian has thus well and duly confessed.

By a particular favour of the Pope, the Indians are not strictly bound to conform to the rule of con fessing during caster. It is sufficient, that they confess once a year even extra tempora pasche.

Their confession is allowed to be excellent, al though it specifies neither the kind of sin, nor the number of times they have committed it; because they are ranked amongst those who are spoken of by Reginaldo and Euriquez: Rustici nesciunt discernere species morales aut numerum, sed crasso modo confitentur; hi non sunt cogendi repetere totius vitæ confes-/ siones.

Divines recommend to impose slight penances on the Indians. They are inclined to think that, if even they should be entirely exempted, that omission would not operate against them as a mortal sin: for it is sufficiently excusable, says the Monk John Baptist, on account of the weakness of their memory, their carelessness, and lack of understanding.

The church recognizes so little capacity in the Indians, as to suppose it impossible to make them comprehend, that the god-father contracts a degree of spiritual relationship with the god-son and his mother; and upon account of this ignorance, it has been decided that they contract none. Nemo enim obligatur ad id quod omnino ignorat.

It is in the power of the bishops to grant to the Indians a full dispensation with regard to that kind of relationship, without being able to extend any to the Spaniards; for it is exclusively in favour of the Indians.

The Indians are obliged to hear mass only on Sundays, Christmas, and New-Year's day, Ascen sion and Corpus Christi day, on the festivals of the Virgin, viz. the Nativity, the Purification and the As

sumption; and finally on St. Peter's day. That is not one half of the days which Spaniards must lear mass under the penalty of incurring mortal sin. Further, according to bishop Montenegro, the Indians are to be dispensed with, if they live too far distant from church, and are afraid of getting wet upon the way going or coming; if they have any suspicion that the corregidor will make them pay the trilure, or as go them some work; if they are under any apprehension of receiving any correction from the curate; or if they have any reason to be afraid of being made alcades against their will. All these cases have been foreseen and inserted in the itinerary of the Indian

rates.

cu

The only days which the Indians are obliged to observe as fast days are the Fridays of Lent, hely Saturday and Christmas-cvc. Without being obliged to take a bull they are at liberty to eat whatever is permitted to those who purchase bulls. In short, so strong has been the persuasion, that the best means of recommending religion to the Indians was to accommodate it to their tastes and habits, that it became a serious question among divines, whether it was against the laws of God to cat human fesh, and what adds to the singularity of the question is, that it has been decided in the affirmative. Montenegro, whom I have just cited, supporting himself with the doctrine of Lesio and Diana, gravely says, in his Itinerario de parochos de Indios, lib. 4, trat. 5. sect. 9, num. 8: That in case of necessity, one may cat human flesh, without being guilty of any sin, be

cause the thing is not evil in itself. And where does he presume that those cases of urgent necessity can present themselves? In the most fertile part of the globe, covered with forests where game supplies an inexhaustible resource, and watered with rivers abounding in fish, turtle, &c.

Unhappy Results.

From the preceding sketch may be seen how much policy and religion have laboured to make the Indians enjoy all the blessings of civilization, and in order to accomplish that object, how much they have studied to render the transition from the savage to the civil life, easy and gradual. Where is there an example of a people so barbarous, as not to be moved by such care and attentions, or whose very posterity would give such proofs of stubborn insensibility? The most stupid, as well as most ferocious of animals, discover some sense of gratitude and attachment to those who caress, or carefully feed them.— The Indian is singularly distinguished in nature, by an apathy and indifference, which is not to be found in any other being. His heart, shut against pleasure as well as hope, is only accessible to fear. Instead of manly boldness, his character is marked with abject timidity. His soul has no spring, his mind no vivacity. As incapable of conceiving, as of reasoning, he passes his life in a state of torpid insensibility, which shows that he is ignorant of himself and of every thing around him. His ambition and desires never extend beyond his immediate wants.