The descendants of the now neglected Jesuit converts are in no wise distinguishable from other savages. By the labors of the brotherhood no permanent impression was stamped upon the Indians; they yielded themselves up in a great measure to the guidance of their missionary, who, in return, taught them the outward form and ceremony of his faith, but nothing more. He was the mind and the soul of the community; he alone exercised forethought, guarded against danger, and measured out enjoyment; to a certain extent he improved the temporary circumstances of his disciples, but he robbed them of their native energy, and crushed all freedom of thought and of individual action: he being removed, the body remained deprived of all directing intellect: the condition of the Christianized but uninstructed savage soon became almost the lowest of human existence, till weakness, hardship, and famine swept him away from the scene of earthly suffering. A very able writer on colonization ascribes the rapid decay in numbers of all Jesuit congregations, whether in the snows of Canada, or the burning sunshine of Paraguay, to the unnatural restraint in which they live. No vigilant superintendence, moral instruction, and physical well-being can compensate for the loss of freedom of action and the habit of self-guidance. The necessity of taking thought for himself, and living by the sweat of his brow, seems indispensable to the healthy action of man's nature. It can not be denied that many of these communities have held together for generations free from the corroding cares and corrupting vices of civilization; amply supplied (superstition apart) with religious instruction, and free from crime and punishment; and many may be tempted favorably to contrast the feeble innocence of this theocracy with the turbulent passions and vices which deform more advanced societies, and to forget that the man whose mind is thus enslaved is sunk below the level of his kind: his contentment and simplicity are apathy and ignorance, and his obedience is degradation.