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    restraint of a cloister , weary of Hs insipid uniformity , arid fatigued with the irksome repetition of its frivolous functions , who offer their services with eagerness , and repair to the new world in quest of liberty and distinction . " Now unfortunately a great deal of this is niere imagination . The Spanish possessions were subjected to tithes , but the king had one half as patron of the church , and the bishop , or religious establishments at a distance , which had

    little actual duty to perform , got the other half . The regular clergy , who were generally of a respectable character , were overrun by the members of the religious orders ; and the " curcw , " most of whom moreover belonged to those orders , being robbed by the government of the proper source of income in a tithe-paying country , were left to live upon the profits of the altar and on extortion of the most flagrant kind . Their evil courses brought contempt and hatred upon themselves and their religion . Nothing can be

    expressed m stronger language than the indignation and reprobation of Ulloa at the scandalous way in which the poor Indians were made Christians in order to become assessable to their iniquitous imposts . To shew to what account the offerings of the altar were turned , he mentions , that in a single cure , and that not a large one , the cura had extorted , in one year , more than 200 sheep , 6000 pullets , 50 , 000 eggs , and other articles in proportion . — Their lives were most profligate , many not contenting themselves either with

    one wife or one concubine . Ulloa mentions an instance of a holy father advanced in years , whose congregation was made up of his children of every age , some assisting him in the service of the altar , and many older than the woman he then lived with , who was the forth or fifth in succession . To explain the object and destiny of the missionaries who were so eagerly invited over , it may be as well to give some idea of the system , for which the editor prepares us by an account of the mode in which these men were , down

    to his time , collected and exported . The religious houses having the patronage of many of the good things , which it was necessary to occupy for the benefit of their communities by a supply of Spaniards , ( the Creoles and they being perpetually at war , ) regular agents were kept at work to beat up at home for missionaries under pretence of preaching the gospel to the Indians . All the idle , disorderly , refractory , and disreputable characters , were thus

    brought together , enlisted , and marched to the port for embarkation . The governors there forced the vessels at hand to take these men ; for it was an important part of the policy of the administration to keep up the delusion and stock the Colonies with these useful supporters of the existing system . The state paid a small sum for each passenger ; but so offensive and odious was the office of taking out these adventurers , that every artifice was used to evade it , and soldiers were often obliged to enforce the duty .

    On their arrival , instead of going to preach to the Indians , as those who were really zealous had expected , they were employed and turned to account for the mercenary purposes of the different orders who had thus been recruiting ; and thus added , by their profligacy and extortion , to the misery of the country , the annoyance of the regular clergy , and the emoluments of the religious orders . Ulloa acknowledges that the niost respectable of the regular clergy expressed their wishes to him that the English should subjugate the country , and thereby free them from the intolerable burthen which the profligacy of the government threw upon them , provided they could be sure that the English would sallow them the free exercise of their religion . For these , and indeed all the enormities which Ulloa details , he points out obvious and efficient remedies ; and their neglect is a proof that the state

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    Review . — Ulloa a Secret Report oft Spanish America , 551

• Citation
  • Monthly Repository (1806-1838) and Unitarian Chronicle (1832-1833), May 2, 1827, page 351, in the Nineteenth-Century Serials Edition (2008; 2018) ncse-os.kdl.kcl.ac.uk/periodicals/mruc/issues/vm2-ncseproduct1796/page/39/