from Europeans.  “The Creoles are generally well made, and are rarely found with those deformities which are so common in other countries.  Their courage has frequently signalized itself in war, by a series of brilliant exploits, nor would there be better soldiers in the world if less averse from submission to discipline.  Their history furnishes no examples of that cowardice, treachery, and baseness which dishonour the annals of all nations, and scarcely can an instance be adduced of a Creole having committed a disgraceful action.  Untainted by the mean vices of dissimulation, artifice, and suspicion, they possess great frankness and vivacity of character, joined to a high opinion of themselves, and their intercourse with the world is not stained by that mysterious reserve so common in Europe, which obscures the most amiable characters, depresses the social spirit, and chills sensibility of disposition.  Possessed of an ardent imagination and impatient of restraint, they are prone to independence yet inconstant in their inclinations and pursuits.  By the warmth of their temperature, they are impelled to the pursuit of pleasure with an eagerness to which they sacrifice their fortunes and often their lives.  They possess keen penetration, and a remarkable facility of conceiving and expressing their ideas with force and clearness, together with a happy talent of observation, combined with all those qualities of mind and character, which render men capable of conceiving and executing the greatest enterprises, especially when stimulated by oppression[103].”

[Footnote 103:  This character of the Creoles is inserted by the original translator, in a note, from the Abbe Raynal.—­E.]

Whatever intelligent and unprejudiced travellers have observed respecting the characters of the French and English Creoles, will perfectly apply to those of Chili.  The same modes of thinking and the same moral qualities are discernible in them all.  They generally have respectable talents, and succeed in all the arts to which they apply.  Had they the same motives to stimulate them as are found in Europe, they would make as great progress in the useful sciences as they have already made in metaphysics.  They do not readily imbibe prejudices, and are not tenacious in retaining them.  As however, scientific books and philosophical instruments are very scarce and difficultly attainable in Chili, their talents have no opportunity of being developed, and are mostly employed in trifling pursuits; and as the expence of printing is enormous, they are discouraged from literary exertion, so that few among them aspire to the reputation of becoming authors.  The knowledge of the civil and canon law is held in high estimation, so that many of the youth of Chili, after completing their academical education in their own country, proceed to Lima to study law.  The fine arts are in a low state in Chili, and even the mechanical arts are far from perfection.  The arts of carpentry, of working in iron, and in