The extensive
theological literature which we possess, printed or in manuscript, in
American tongues, and in many it is quite ample, is scarcely ever the
result of the efforts of the Christian teachers of indigenous
affiliations.
A notable exception was the licentiate Bartolome de Alva, a native
Mexican, descended from the Tezcucan kings, who composed, in Nahuatl and
Spanish, a _Confessionario_, which was printed at Mexico in 1634.
It contains some interesting references to the mythology and
superstitions of the natives.[55]
The Indian Elias Boudinot and other Cherokees have printed many essays
and tracts in that tongue, but whether original or merely translated I
do not know. The sermons of the native Protestant missionaries to their
fellows were probably extempore addresses. At any rate, I have not seen
any in manuscript or print. A volume of the kind exists, however, in
manuscript, in the Library of the _Instituto Historico_ of Rio
Janeiro, which it would be very desirable to have printed. It is the
_Sermones e Exemplos em lengua Guarani_, by Nicolas Japuguay, cura
of the Parish of San Francisco in 1727.[56] But when it is edited, let us
hope that it will be a more favorable example of critical care than the
_Crestomathia da Lingua Brasilica_, edited by Dr.
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