CHAPTER XLV. HOW ARDUOUS A TASK IT IS TO PERSUADE THE ABIPONES TO ENTER COLONIES, AND TO EMBRACE THE RELIGION OF CHRIST.
Having given a plain and faithful description of the superstitious rites of the Abipones, of their native vices, ferocious temper, and wars both domestic and foreign, I appeal to the judgment of my reader whether it be not a business of more time and labour to transform these savages into Christians, than to carve a Mercury out of a solid block, and whether it be due subject of wonder, that such astonishing efforts on the part of the Jesuits should be attended with so little success; which however was by no means despicable, if the difficulties of the undertaking be properly appreciated. I shall now clearly state, for your consideration, in what these difficulties consisted, and why it was so arduous a task to instruct the equestrian savages in civilization and Christian discipline.
Ever wandering, ever abroad, the Abipones from childhood were unaccustomed to home, and to remaining in any one fixed place. Wherever the hope of booty, the necessity of hunting, or danger of the enemy called them, thither they went on swift horses, subject to no authority which could either prohibit their departure, or enforce their speedy return; for the obedience which they paid their Caciques was entirely spontaneous. They thought it insufferable to depend on the will of another within the narrow limits of a colony, and to be confined to their houses, like a snail to its shell. Though free to range up and down the nearer plains and woods at pleasure, they found them, from being frequented by other hordes, despoiled of those fruits and wild animals to the use of which they had so long been accustomed, that, if deprived of them, even when plentifully supplied with better food, they complained of being starved and miserable. While they lived uncontrolled, like the birds which fly up and down, liberal nature spontaneously offered them food without need of agriculture: but as all things are not produced in all soils, they were constantly under the necessity of migrating from place to place, and this change of abode, and variety of hunting, seemed to contain a sort of charm for them.