The Dominican contented himself with almost turning his back on the whole group.
"Do you really believe so ?" the young man at length asked with great seriousness, as he looked at the friar with curiosity.
"Do I believe so?
As I believe the Gospel! The Indian is so indolent!" "Ah, pardon me for interrupting you," said the young man, lowering his voice and drawing his chair a little closer, "but you have said something that awakens all my interest.

Does this indolence actually, naturally, exist among the natives or is there some truth in what a foreign traveler says: that with this indolence we excuse our own, as well as our backwardness and our colonial system.

He referred to other colonies whose inhabitants belong to the same race--" "Bah, jealousy! Ask Senor Laruja, who also knows this country.

Ask him if there is any equal to the ignorance and indolence of the Indian." "It's true," affirmed the little man, who was referred to as Senor Laruja.

"In no part of the world can you find any one more indolent than the Indian, in no part of the world." "Nor more vicious, nor more ungrateful!" "Nor more unmannerly!" The rubicund youth began to glance about nervously.