his birth and his misfortunes; and it was over the grave of him whom he still continued to mourn that the young savage related his story.

" My name,' said he, 'is Camira, I belong to the nation of the Guaranis, whom your brothers the Spaniards drove from these fertile plains, and who now dwell in the woods, behind yonder blue mountains. I was the only child of Alcaipa and Guacolda. They had loved each other all their life; after my birth they only lived to love me. When my father took me out a hunting, my mother went with us; when my mother kept me at home, my father did not go to hunt. I spent my days by their side; I spent my nights in their arms. If I was contented, they were happy, and our hut echoed with their songs; if I was suffering, they felt my pains, and both of them lamented; if I slept, they gazed upon me, and my slumber was repose to them.

""A Brazilian nation, which seems to have been driven out by your people, came to attack us in our forests. We fought a battle; it was gained by the Brazilians. Compelled to take to flight, my father and mother hastily constructed a bark canoe, in which we placed all that we possessed, two hammocks, a net, and two bows; and we embarked on the great river, without knowing where we should stop, for the Brazilians were behind us; and we trembled at the thought of advancing towards your brethren.

The river had overflowed, and it brought down with it large trees. Our canoe was overturned. My father, supporting me with one hand, swam with the other. My mother, who had for a long time been ill, could hardly swim, yet she helped to support me. Fatigue soon exhausted my mother's strength and mine. Alcaipa, who perceived this, placed us both on his back, and swam thus for several hours, without being able to land, because of the rocks which lined the shore. The rapidity of the current was too much for him, and he felt himself grow weaker, but he did not tell us so: for we were incapable of keeping ourselves up on the waves without his aid. At last, when we came to the plain, where the river expands and becomes a sea, my father exclaimed, We shall perish, my dear Guacolda; I cannot reach the shore with my double burden. If you have strength enough left to follow me for a few moments, perhaps-' He did not finish his speech; my mother let go her hold, and disappeared, her last words being, save our child, and I die happy!"

""I wished to throw myself in after my mother; but Alcaipa held both my arms with one hand. He made an effort, traversed the immense width of the river, reached the shore, placed me upon the sand, embraced me, and fell dead at my feet.

""You came soon after, my father, and you know

the rest.'

"The Jesuit wept as he listened to the story of Camira. He did not endeavour to console the young savage; he did not exhort him to dry up tears which flowed from so just a cause, but he mingled his own with them, and Camira, moved by his tenderness, ceased to weep, that he might wipe off the tears of his benefactor.

"The paternal goodness of Maldonado daily made a deeper impression on the mind of the feeling Camira, who eagerly followed his instructions, and learned, with astonishing facility, to read and to write. The -pious missionary spoke to him of religion, and he depicted it as he felf it. His eloquence, which sprung from his heart, soon touched the heart of his pupil. Camira easily believed what the good father told him, because he saw him practise what he taught. He went with him to the hospital, to the poor, and to the unfortunate; he saw Maldonado, seated by the bed of the sick man, and soothing his pains by consoling language; he saw him sharing with the indigent his frugal meal, and even the clothes which he wore; and when the young savage expressed his admiration of so much charity, My son,' said the Jesuit to him, I have not yet shewn enough. My God is the God of the poor, of the orphan, of the afflicted; they are the children of his care; it is them we must succour, if we wish to please their father.'

"Charmed by these divine precepts, and eager to imitate such excellent examples, Camira desired to be baptized. This request filled the good missionary

with joy, and he hastened to make it known to the governor. The ceremony was a festival. Pedreras himself was godfather to the converted American, whom the Spaniards vied with each other in loading with presents; and the Jesuit had now nothing more to do than to secure an independent fortune to his new proselyte.

"The credit and respect which Maldonado enjoyed in the colony, and even in Spain, rendered it easy for him to obtain for Camira whatever place he might chuse. Camira was now sixteen; his education was finished; and the pupil of Maldonado, more accomplished than most of the colonists, understood Latin and mathematics, and had read the historians, the poets, and all the works of the best Spanish authors. His just and penetrating mind had profited by what he had read : he loved books, he formed a correct judgment of them, and frequently he drew from them more sound philosophy than had been put into them by the authors themselves. Maldonado, whom he astonished by his good sense, seriously talked to him of the necessity there was that he should make choice of a profession, for the purpose of gaining a fortune. He proposed to him the study of the law, a military life, or commerce; and, with his accustomed indulgence, he left him at liberty to chuse. Camira replied to him in the following manner:

""There is, my dear father, only one error which I can perceive that you commit; it is that of believing that a fortune, of which you so frequently talk to me, is necessary to my happiness. I can readily conceive from what I have read, and from what you have told me, of your Europe, where all that nature bestows belongs only to a small part of the inhabitants, and where the poor are condemned to be the servants of the rich, that they may have the right of breathing the air and supporting their existence on the fruits of the earth, I can, I repeat, readily conceive that, in such a country, all means, whether just or unjust, are employed to quit the numerous class of those who have nothing, in order to belong to the small class of those who have every thing. But consider, father, where we are, Look round these vast plains, where maize, cassava, potatoes, pine-apples, and a multitude of salubrious plants grow ander our eyes, almost without the trouble of culture; look at the immense forests, full of cocoa-trees, lemons, pomegranates, citrons, and other delicious fruits, which nature produces with more ease than you can remember their names! All these belong to me; I can enjoy them; and it will be a long while before the population of Paraguay will have increased to such a number that men, dividing these extensive countries among themselves, will assign a master to each portion of the land, and disinherit of their share of the goods of nature, those who may come after them.

""As to the trade, which you call, for what reason I know not a profession, and which you so much wish me to chuse, I must candidly tell you that I am not pleased with any of those which you have mentioned to me. 1 do not like your laws, which I consider as being inadequate, uncertain, and frequently as being even contradictory. Among all the things which you have made me read, they are those which have tired me the most, and, as we learn badly every thing that tires us, I do not wish to learn them at all, or, like many persons, to have the reputation of being learned in them. War excites horror in me. I admire and love with all my soul, the brave man who, when his wife, his children, or his country, is attacked, arms himself instantly, and exposes himself to death for the safety of his brethren. Such a man is not a warrior, as you very mistakenly call him in your country; he is a man of peace and justice, since he fights for both. But that I, who was born a Guarani, that I should hire out my life, that I should sell my blood to the king of Spain, to ravage countries and destroy men at his pleasure! no, father, the religion which you have taught me forbids it, and I have still to find out, how you Spaniards contrive to reconcile this trade with your duties as Christians.

""Commerce at first met with my approbation. It seemed to me to be a charitable and noble office to traverse the seas, and to spend one's life in the midst of dangers, for the purpose of bearing to distant nations the succours of which they stand in need, and to distri

bute among the great family of the human race all the benefits which are bestowed by our common father. But, on looking more closely, I perceived what is the real end of this charity. I saw that the most respectable merchants made no scruple of furnishing the savages with murderous arms, or of intoxicating them, that they might make a better bargain. I saw them also drag hither the Africans, and expose them for sale in the market like beasts of burthen! Sell men! and this, O my father, is called commerce! No, my friend! never will I be a merchant!

""Let me then, remain as I am. It is of no use your smiling, and making me understand, with your polite mildness, that I am nothing. On the contrary, I can assure you that I am something; and, thanks to you, something good enough, and happy enough. I enjoy health and a quiet conscience; I am at any moment ready to appear before a God of justice; and I shall have no other sorrow to feel than that of leaving you. Trust me, father, the profession of innocence is a glorious one; suffer me to have no other. While with you, I shall be in want of nothing. Should I have the misfortune of losing you, I will return into my native woods, where our trees will supply me with more than sufficient to support my existence, and where the remembrance of you will be still more sufficient to keep alive my virtue. Let me, then, peaceably enjoy the happiness which you procure for me. We have read many great volumes, on what men call happiness; for my part, I can make a little treatise upon it, which may be comprised in two lines :-To preserve a pure heart, and to learn to renounce those things about which we do not care.'

"Maldonado could make no reply to his young philosopher. He confessed that the scholar surpassed the master, and he laughingly requested that Camira would, in turn, become his preceptor. The wisdom of the young Guarani was, however, on the point of being put to the proof."

TO BE RESUMED.

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