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Rh him to house of the chief, where, far from meeting with the customary ornaments among these savages, the trophies of death, there was merely a kind of canopy, formed of the most valuable coverings, beneath which the new guest was seated. Prostrate at his feet, they surveyed him attentively, and exerted all their faculties to discover, by his demonstrations, and through the medium of the interpreter, the wishes of a man whom they regarded as an oracle sent from heaven.

Here our feelings are wrought to an extreme degree of compassion. How are the descriptions of the miserable Pano, in which he is represented as sanguinary and barbarous, to be reconciled with these traits of sincerity and humanity? And why, these Indians being the relatives and ancient allies of the Omaguas and Cocamas, converted to Christianity;—why, being absolutely dependent on them for the implements of agriculture, without which they find it extremely difficult to subsist; —why, we ask, now that so many years have elapsed since the Maynas nations were reduced, with so favourable a disposition on the part of the Panos, and with the advantageous means presented by the commerce to which they are urged by their very mode of subsistence; far from having been united, so as to form a commonalty or republic, they have been driven, on the other hand, to the hard necessity of labouring under apprehensions for their personal safety, and regarding themselves as enemies? A simple shepherd who penetrated into the interior