Page:Colonization and Christianity.djvu/181

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AND CHRISTIANITY.
165

way; even the cow and the dog are not spared. For such outrages they pay dearly; small forts, or military stations, being placed around the colonized parts of the district, from whence a war of plunder and extermination is carried on against them. In this warfare not only are fire-arms made use of, but the lasso, dogs, and all the stratagems which are usually employed against beasts of prey." Mr. Luccock met with one man who had been thus engaged against the Indians forty years, and was on his way to ask some honorary distinction from the sovereign for his services!

Instead of a country swarming with labourers and good citizens, as it would have been under a Christian policy, Brazil now suffers for want of inhabitants, and the barbarous slave-trade is made to supply the whole country with servants. Ten thousand negroes are annually brought into Rio alone, whence we may infer how vast must be the demand for the whole empire; and of the estimation in which they are held, and of the sort of religion which still bears the abused name of Christianity there, one anecdote will give us sufficient idea. "Two negroes," says Mr. Luccock, "being extremely ill, a clergyman was sent for, who on his arrival found one of them gone beyond the reach of his art; and the other, having crawled off his bed, was lying on the floor of his cabin. As we entered, the priest was jesting and laughing in the most volatile manner—then filled both his hands with water, and dropped it on the poor creature's head, pronouncing the form of baptism. The dying man, probably experiencing some little relief from the effusion, exclaimed, 'Good—very good.' 'Oh,' said the priest, 'it is very good, is it?—then there is more for