One gentle propensity these Brazilian savages showed, which seems hardly compatible with their cruel and vindictive characters,--they were passionately fond of music,--so fond, that one Jesuit thought he could succeed in Christianizing them by means of songs. He taught the children to sing; and when he went on his preaching excursions, he usually took a number of these little choristers with him, and on approaching an inhabited place, one child carried the crucifix before them, and the others followed, singing the litany. The savages, like serpents, were won by the voice of the charmer, and received the Jesuit joyfully. He set the catechism, creed, and ordinary prayers, to _sol fa_; and the pleasure of learning to sing was such a temptation, that the children frequently ran away from their parents to put themselves under the care of the Jesuits. These priests labored with devoted zeal to convert the natives. Their exertions were productive of great effect; a change has been gradually wrought, and the cannibal propensities, among those tribes that still remain independent, are no longer indulged. Many missions, as they are called, that is, villages, where a priest resides and instructs the Indians in agriculture and the most essential arts of civilized life, as well as in their Catholic duties, were established by the Jesuits, and are still continued. One very unfortunate circumstance has done much to alienate the independent tribes from their white neighbours. It was thought best to make slaves of the savages, in order to civilize them. Walsh thus describes the decree and its effect. “The Indians were, as late as 1798, the occupants of the woods, and were generally found resident on the banks of the rivers and streams which intersected the country. An elderly gentleman, who was secretary to the undertaking, informed me that it was necessary for the commissioners and workmen to go constantly armed, to be protected against their hostility. The Puvis lay on the River Parahiba, and others on the streams which fall into it. “By a mistaken humanity, however, permission was afterwards given to the Brazilians to convert their neighbours to Christianity; and for this laudable object, they were allowed to retain them in a state of bondage for ten years, and then dismiss them free, when instructed in the arts of civilized life, and the more important knowledge of Christianity. This permission, as was to be expected, produced the very opposite effects.