There was another usage which was stopped by orders from Spain. This was the employment of natives as carriers of merchandise. The abolition of this system was found to be disadvantageous to the prosperity of the country, and it was submitted to the king that it had always been the custom amongst the Indians to transport all things by men working as porters, for before the arrival of the Spaniards there were no horses or other beasts of burden. The practice of personally carrying heavy loads still forms part of the habits of all the inferior classes of Indians in Central America. The restrictions enforced upon the Spanish landowners did not however much affect the prosperity of the church, particularly in the more remote districts, where the priests and friars devoted themselves to the spiritual welfare and education of the natives. At the convents, schools were established for boys and, in the chief towns, sisters belonging to nunneries in Spain, came across the Atlantic to teach the girls. The monks also endeavoured to arrange that the boys upon completing their studies, should teach other Indians and thus spread education amongst them. These exertions which, in their origin, seemed to promise well were not subsequently attended with success, and the authority of the brethren declined. Finally the declarations of Independence, the revolutions, and the establishment of republics, dealt a fatal blow to all educational work. Amongst the various consequences of the nationalisation of ecclesiastical property, it had come to pass that in the country parishes, there were no funds available for maintaining the churches in repair, and they were all rapidly falling into ruins. The Presbitero was convinced, now that the influence of the priests upon the characters of the tribes was no longer felt, and the church services were not maintained, that the Indians, especially the Tzendales under his care, would return to the practice of their ancient idolatries. Upon a subject so doubtful as the effect of the teaching of the priests upon the minds of the Indians it is difficult to form an opinion. In the sixteenth century the Roman Catholic religion appeared to be willingly accepted by the natives; but several of the priests that I had met and who discussed this question, were in doubt as to whether this readiness to conform with the ceremonies had not some vague connection with some previous religious customs. The influence of the friars also possibly had some relation to the system of Indian priesthood before the conquest; for, according to the statements of the Spaniards, there was a strange and inexplicable coincidence between certain regulations by which they were bound, and those of the Franciscans and Dominicans.