al was accepted by the delighted
Indians, who, with their chiefs and a large number of people, were
invited into the town to attend the ceremony. Meantime soldiers were
concealed in the houses to which the chiefs were conducted, and orders
were given to supply them amply with intoxicating liquors. While they
were thus deprived of their senses, soldiers were sent across the river
to destroy the remainder of the tribe who had not come to the wedding.
At a given signal the native village was attacked, and every inhabitant
slaughtered; while the hosts of those in the town killed more than three
hundred of their helpless guests.

The invaders were creating a fearful heritage for their descendants by
intermarrying with the native women. From these marriages have sprung
the race which now occupies, in vast numbers, a large portion of that
magnificent territory, and who, by their low moral condition, their
ignorance, and instability of character, have been the chief cause of
the melancholy wars which have so long saturated its plains with blood.
The Jesuits, by the missions they formed in various parts of the
country, introduced a superficial civilisation among some of the tribes;
but their system failing, as it ever has done, to raise the moral
character of the people, and fit them for independent thought and
self-government, has left them as ignorant and superstitious, and
scarcely less savage, than before. Thus they have become the facile
tools of every leader who, by greater audacity, craft, or determination,
has risen to authority among them.

THE GUARANIS AND THEIR DESCENDANTS.

The Guaranis were the principal nation dwelling on the eastern portion
of South America. They were probably the same race as the Quichuas, who
inhabited the western shores, and a large portion of the Andes, under
the rule of the Incas. The two languages are still spoken in various
parts of the country. The Guaranis were superior in civilisation to
numerous other intervening and more isolated tribes, who had sunk by
degrees into greater barbarism. Like the Quichuas, they were
agriculturalists--cultivating mandioca, maize, calabashes, and potatoes.
They fed on honey and wild fruit; and hunted birds, monkeys, and other
animals, and caught fish with their bows and arrows. They had also
canoes; and had a better established system of government than their
neighbours. Yet they were among the first to bow their necks to the
yoke of their inva