consequence of this scarcity of raiment, to a stranger was really intolerable. Yet amongst these degraded creatures are found men endowed with natural powers, which, if properly directed, would soon render their situation very different. The wax figures, with which Bullock's exhibition has rendered most people in London acquainted, are all made by the Leperos, with the rudest possible implements. Some of them are beautifully finished, particularly the images of the Virgin, many of which have a sweet expression of countenance, that must have been borrowed, originally, from some picture of Murillo's, for it is difficult to believe that the men by whom they are made could ever have imagined such a face. It is Humboldt, I believe, who remarks that it is to imitation that the powers of the copper-coloured race are confined: in this they certainly stand unrivalled, for while the Academy of San Carlos continued open, (a most liberal institution, in which instruction was given in drawing, and models, with every thing else required for the use of the students, provided at the public expence,) some of the most promising pupils were found amongst the least civilised of the Indian population. They seemed (to use the words of the Professor, who was at the head of the establishment,) to draw by instinct, and to copy whatever was put before them with the utmost facility; but they had no perseverance, soon grew tired of such little restraint as the regulations of the Academy imposed, and disappeared, after a few les-
