.-.: i PRESENT STATE OF THE SPANISH COLONIES; INCLUDING A PARTICULAR REPORT Otf HISPANOLA, OK THE SPANISH PART OF SANTO DOMINGO ; WITH A GENERAL SURVEY OF THE SETTLEMENTS ON THE SOUTH CONTINENT OF AMERICA, AS RELATES TO HISTORY, TRADE, POPULATION, CUSTOMS, MANNERS, &c. WITH A CONCISE STATEMENT OF THE SENTIMENTS OF THE PEOPLE ON THEIR RELATIVE SITUATION TO THE MOTHER COUNTRY, &C. BY WILLIAM WALTON, JUN. SlCRBTAUY TO THE EXPEDITION WHICH CAPTURED THE CITY OF SANTO DOMJSCO FROM THE FRENCH ; AND RESIDENT BRITISH AGENT THERE. Quod sol atque imbres dederant, quod terra crearat Sponte sua, satis id placabat pectora don urn. Quod superest, aes atqne aurum, ferrumquerepertum esf, Et simul argenti pondus. LUCRETIUS, lib. v. mores hominum....et urbes. * Ho*. VOL. It LONDON: PRINTED FOR LONGMAN, HURST, REES, ORME, AND BROWN, PATERNOSTER-ROW. 1810. CONTENTS OF VOL. II. CHAPTER XV PAGE, Division of Territory Ecclesiastical Government Revenues Missionaries Jesuits ; their influence over the Indians Loyalty of the Indians 1 CHAPTER XVI. How South America was first peopled Traditions of the Indians respecting it Their form of Govern ment Manners Religion Priests Languages . . 20 CHAPTER XVII. Civilized IndiansSpanish mode of treating them Their Police Exemptions they enjoy , 50 CHAPTER XVIII. Characteristic Sketches of the American Spaniards .... 69 CHAPTER XIX. Climate of Spanish America Animal and Vegetable Kingdom 99 CHAPTER XX. Administration of Justice Council of the Indies, &c US VI CHAPTER XXL PAGE* Negro Slaves Emancipation Penal Laws Abuses of them Inquisition ................. . ............................. 140 CHAPTER XXIT Trade of Spanish America CHAPTER XXIII. Population ......... * .......................................................... 181 CHAPTER XXIV. Considerations on the relative Situation of the Spanish Colonies to the Mother Country ............... . ............ 19* CONTENTS OF THE APPENDIX. A. Comparative View of the highest Mountains in dif ferent parts of the World, with those of Spanish America 293 B. Particulars of the Mines of the Brazils 294 C. Description of the City of Mexico; its Lakes, Churches, Inhabitants, Productions, &c ,., 291 Vll D. PAGE. A Letter from a Spanish American, written* to his Countrymen , 32(5 E. Spanish Particulars, relating to the Revolution, or Change of Government in Caracas *49 F. Spanish Documents, relating to the Reform of Go vernment in the Provinces of La Plata 352 Further Particulars respecting the Political Affairs of Buenos Ayres 367 G. Treaty of Friendship and Commerce, made between England and the PrinceRege nt of Portugal 379 PRESENT STATE OF THE SPANISH COLONIES, CHAPTER DIVISION OF TERRITORY. - ECCLESIASTICAL GOVERNMENT AND REVENUES. - MISSION ARIES. -- JESUITS. --- THEIR INFLUENCE OVER THE INDIANS. - LOYALTY OF THE INDIANS. IN our treatises of geography we are taught to divide the dominions of the Spaniards in North and South America, in the following way : East and West Florida, extending from 80 to 91 degrees of W. longitude, and 25 to 32 N. latitude. It confines with the state of Georgia to the N., the great river Mississippi to the W., the gulf of Mexico to the S. and the Bahama Straits to the E. New and Old Mexico, including California, VOL, II. B the first extending from Q4 to 126 degrees longitude, and 23 to 43 N. latitude, bounded by immense unknown deserts on theN., Louisiana on the E., and Old Mexico and the Pacific Ocean on the S. and W. Old Mexico stands in from 83 to no degrees W. longitude, and extends from 8 to 30 N. latitude, and is bounded by the Pacific Ocean on the South West, and New Mexico or Grenada on the N. The above are the divisions considered as belonging to Spain in North America ; and those situated on the other side of the gulph of Darien running S. to the equinoctial line, constitute the dominions of the Spaniards in South Ame rica. The first division is what we call Terra Firma, the Spaniards Castilla del Oro, and the French La Partie Orientale de la Terre Ferme. It is situated from 60 to 82 degrees W, longitude, and extends from the equator to 12 degrees N. latitude. Peru stands in from 60 to 81 W. longitude, and from the equator to 25 degrees S. latitude ; Chili from 65 to 85 W. longitude, and 25 to 45 S. latitude. Paraguay, or La Plata, from 50 to 75 degrees W. longitude, and 12 to 2/ S. latitude. The subdivisions of these regions are numer ous, and the boundaries to particularize them would be prolix and diffuse. The southern divi sion from the equator extending to 55 degrees, added to the northern division, both on a propor tional width of from 30 to 80 degrees, thus form a continent far superior to any other division of the globe ; but Paraguay, or La Plata, is the largest subdivision, and is thought to contain 1,000,000 square miles, to which, however, the Brazils of the Portugueze, are of nearly equal extent. The possessions of Spain in America are divided into four viceroy alties, viz. Mexico, Peru, Buenos Ayres, and Santa Fe. Besides these, there are six captain-generalships, viz. Caracas, Puerto Rico, Cuba, Guatimala, Chili, and the Philippine Islands in Asia, with respec tive governors in Hispanola and the Floridas. In this extent of dominion there are at present seven archbishops, and thirty suf fragan bishops, on the ecclesiastical list. The whole of these are nominated and confirmed by the pope, but first proposed and elected by the king ; the curates are chosen to the differ ent parishes by the respective governors, on the recommendation of the archbishop or bishop at the head of the diocese. Thus, in some measure, is the authority of the pope in direct, as it extends only to the bulls he gives, and to the points of conscience that create doubts. B 2 The episcopal sees are principally supported by tythes ; and the revenues vary according to the size and productions of the districts, some of which are extremely rich, and their establish ments splendid. The secular clergy have also an allowance from the tythes ; but their chief emoluments arise from pious donations, lodged in the right of the church, which have accu mulated, and of which they receive the rents. They have, moreover, the perquisites common in other countries, and receive frequent pre sents from their respective flocks. That the reader may form a better idea of the ecclesiastical authority in America, we will give a short detail of the archbishopricks and bishopricks, which may serve also as a col lateral illustration of its history and revenues. The archbishop of Los Reyes, the metropolitan see of Peru, has an annual income of 3o,ooo dollars, but the following statements of his suf fragan bishops will shew how unequally the revenues are distributed. Dollars. The bishop of Arequipa receives annually 16,000 Truxillo 14,ooo St. Francisco de Quito. . 1 8,000 The old Town of Cusco. . 24,ooo The bishop of St. John s de ]a Victoria. . 8,000 Panama 6,000 Chili 5,ooo Nuestra Seuora de Chili. . 4o,ooo The archbishop of Santa F de Bagota, in the kingdom of New Granada, is estimated to receive 14,000 dollars. Dollars. The bishop of Po pay a 5,ooo Carthagena 6,000 Santa Maria 1 8,000 The archbishop of La Plata, in the province of Charcas, is estimated to receive, per annum, the amount of 60,000 crowns ; the archdeacon 5,ooo; the master of the choir-children, the chanter, and treasurer, each 4,ooo ; six canons each 3,ooo ; and of six other dignitaries attached to the same see, the annual pay is valued at l,8oo crowns each. The archbishop of La Plata has the suffragan bishops of Tay, Tucuman, Santa Cruz de la Sierra, Paraguay, Buenos Ayres, and Rio de la Plata, who have from six to ten thousand dollars annual income. The archbishoprick of St. Jago, in the pro vince of Tucuman, is worth 6,000 crowns, and the bishop rick of St. Laurence de las Barancas, 12,000, The bishoprick of Paraguay may be estimat ed at i 8,000 dollars, And that of La Santa Tri nidad at I5,ooo. The archbishoprick of Mexico is only stated at 2o,ooo rials, but the perquisites reach to many times that value, whilst the bishoprick of Los Angeles is quoted at 5o,ooo rials. Dollars, The bishoprick of Mechoacan is valued at 1 4,ooo Antequera 7,000 Camayagua, capital of Honduras 3,ooo Guadalaxara, in New Gallicia 7,000 Durango 4,ooo Merida, capital of Yu catan 8,000 St. Jago, in the province of Guatimala ..... 8,000 St. Jago de Leon 3,ooo Chiapa 5,ooo Santa Anna de Coro . . 8,000 Puerto Rico 8,000 The archbishop of St. Jago, in Cuba, has a revenue of 12,000 dollars, and the bishop of the Havannah 80,000. The archbishop of Santo Domingo was pri- mate of the Indies, with three bishops under him, but his salary did not exceed 6,000 dol lars ; this see, however, became vacant when the island was made over to the French, and has remained so ever since. Besides superintending the assemblage of the faithful, the clergy are placed as missionaries, amongst the Indian villages, to superintend their spiritual instruction, and infuse into them the first rudiments of social life. The most exemplary and enlightened of all the Spanish clergy are those who have been sent from Europe from time to time, to exercise these pastoral functions amongst the Indians; and the mental command and influence they have fre quently acquired over them ishighly astonishing. These missionaries and preachers fixed in the midst of the back woodsmen, or original na tives, have a small inadequate salary i rom the crown, which sometimes does not exceed twenty pounds sterling; but their wants are few ; they live recluse, and principally subsist on small presents they receive from their flocks, of fowls, cocoa, rice, fish, vegetables, and guarapo, a fermented drink made of the pine apple and wild honey, which the Indians prefer to wine. These are in general the gifts of their converts, who also consider that a day s per- 8 sonal labour, expended in the tillage of their pastor s garden, must be an acceptable offering to the Divinity, being dedicated to the use and purposes of that being, whom they consider im mediately between them and the Supreme. By law they cannot exact any thing from this part of their flock, in cases of marriage, baptism, burial, or spiritual advice. Government, early in possession of that fatal experience, which had marked the devastation of original population in Santo Domingo, found the ill effects of laying a stress in their instruc tions to their viceroys and subordinate govern ors, on the adherence to the stipulations of the pope s deed of I4y3, which gives them autho rity to extend conquest and dominion in those unknown climes, on condition of also widen ing the pale of Christianity. Far from form ing amongst the natives proselytes" to their own faith, this union of conquest with conver sion served to give to their expeditions the cha racter of crusades, under the direction, too often, of tygers w T ho breathed destruction and ravage, rather than to establish schools of instruction, and make the natives converts to their religion. They therefore, entered on the plan of sending out missionaries, assigned to this task alone, in dependent of the military, and as much as possi- ble selected from persons of the best character. These were directed to inculcate the precepts of religion and morality with the doctrines of sub ordination and passive obedience ; they were told to represent their lawful sovereign, whom their flocks now owned, as the most powerful vicegerent of heaven on earth, and to stigmatize any thing that could militate against this su preme magistrate, and supposed agent of the Divinity, as a glaring crime against the great first cause and ruler of the physical and moral universe, arid an infraction of the mandates of the church. They taught the people to believe, that resistance to rulers had often been punish ed with the thunder of the heavens, the deluge of the earth, plagues, pestilence and famine, the visitations suited to apostate and revolted subjects. This credence was not, however, established without the bl odshed of some of the mission aries ; but even the heroism with which they suffered seemed to cement the spiritual super structure of which they had, as yet, only laid the corner-stones. It is to them we owe the first knowledge of the interior of these regions, and the Spanish language has many testimonies of their labours entirely unknown to us. The 10 Jesuits have particularly described to us Para guay and Patagonia, the seats of their greatest zeal, \\ hich was, nevertheless, extended to the other parts of the continent. The dissolution of this valuable body of men was an event the Indians could never account for, and will ever regret. They called them their fathers, and had for them a veneration that was unexampled. At the time this society was expelled from Spanish America, they had in Mexico, Peru, and Paraguay, 1 1 7 colleges and houses appropriated as seminaries and schools. The number of their members, ex clusive of novices, amounted to 2,468, who had charge of upwards of 4,ooo pupils, many of whom were educated gratis, and the rest at a very small pension. That peculiar aptness to train up every species of elcves, which formed the characteris tic of this body of men ; their profound system, discipline, policy, and mode of suiting instruc tion to the ages and capacities of those under their care, have always been remarked by those acquainted with their history, and have led many ot the best Spanish writers to concur in vindicating their conduct. To this day they are respectfully remembered on the Main, and 11 their doctrines, their peculiar mode of life, with the occurrences of their history, are hand ed down by tradition in the Indian families. From being entrusted with the education of the first diplomatic and other characters, they acquired superior influence in the conduct of many great and weighty matters, and a consi derable ascendency in state affairs, which ena bled them to establish an extensive and lucrative commerce with the East and West Indies. In South America they were long the sovereigns of immense tracts and population, to whom they taught the precepts of morality, and the first arts of civilization. From these advantages, the southern Indians possess a degree of advancement in the prac tices of social and civil life, highly superior to that of the savages in the western regions of North America. They have also more native talent and refinement, which they seem to derive from their more genial climate, and are singularly well disposed to their lawful sove reign, whom they revere, without knowing, as a superior being, and with a devotion border ing on infatuation. The progress of time, and their peculiar schooling, seem to have effaced the sensations their forefathers received from the horrors that attended their invasion ; and 12 the many meliorations made in their condition, by the Council of the Indies, have greatly assisted this happy tendency. No testimony relating to the Indians, can be more respectable than that of the venerated father Las Casas, first bishop of Chiapa, who says, in his Memorial presented to Philip II. " The Americans are moreover, a people of a bright and lively genius, easy to be taught, and capable of comprehending every good doctrine, and extremely ready to embrace our faith and virtuous customs. They are, of all the people in the world, those who feel least embarrass ment in them." He says in another place, " they have as good an understanding and acute genius, as much docility and capacity for the moral and speculative sciences, are in most instances, as rational in their political govern ment, (as appears from many of their extremely prudent laws,) as far advanced in the know ledge of our faith and religion, in good customs and civilization, where they have been tutored by persons of a religious and exemplary life, as could be desired, and are arriving at refine ment and polish, as fast as any nation ever did since the time of the apostles," This must be a great contradiction to the words of Robertson, speaking of these same Indians, when he says, " that some mission aries, astonished at their slowness of compre hension and their insensibility, pronounced them a race of men so brutish, as to be incapa ble of understanding the first principles of reli gion." On the other hand, the great Colum bus, writing to their majesties, says " that it gives pleasure to perceive the great retentive faculty of these people, and their desire of knowledge, which incites them to ask the causes and effects of things." So many unfavourable impressions then, as we see circulated, respecting this race of beings, must be the emanation of hereditary prejudice. That the Indians and their descendants still retain a great veneration and spirit of patriotic love to their lawful sovereign has already been remarked, and in support of the assertion, I will mention two particular instances that may be found deserving of notice, The first is contained in a Report, dated Xalapa, in the province of Mexico, 23d October, 1 808, which shews the native genius of the minds of those people that have not yet reached the midway to civilization. " El Comandante de las fronteras internas escribe de oficio a la audiencia, que una noche *e oyeron en su presidio tantos alaridos de In- 14 dios bravos, que pusieron en cuidado a todos ; y a la manana, viendo que baxaban de la sierrar millares de Mecos armados, creyeron los del presidio que morian sin remedio. Pero quando se encomendaban a Dios y a la Santisima Vir- gen en tal conflicto llego un Meco buscando a Salcedo a quien dixo : que sabian que un Sefior muy fuerte habia preso a su Rey FERNANDO por engano, pues de otro modo era imposible, porque FERNANDO era el mas fuerte que habia venido del oZ ; y que por lo mismo venian a que Salcedo los llevase a librarlo de la prision. Fue necessario mucho para ponerlos en razon, y hacerles creer que no era en Mexico donde estaba el Rey preso. Despues de tres dias se retiraron a los montes, quedando en volver muy a menudo. Es necesario conocer a los Indios y su caracter, para quedar persua- didos a que solo Dios pudo moverlos para esto. Decian que una Gullupina morena se lo habia dicho." " The commander of the frontiers of the inte rior officially announces to the government, that there were heard one night in his advanced tort such shouts of wild Indians, that every person was in the greatest dread ; and when morning came, on seeing thousands of armed Mecos (tribe of Indians) coming down from the 15 mountains, the garrison was apprehensive of being overpowered and slain. In this state of terror and anxiety, solely occupied in recom mending themselves to the protection of the Di vinity, a Meco stepped forward and demanded Salcedo (governor of the fort) to whom he said, that they had been informed, a very powerful lord had taken prisoner their king, Ferdinand, by de ceit, for by any other means it was impossible, for Ferdinand was the most powerful that had descended from the sun ; and, for that reason they came, that Salcedo might lead them to li berate him. It was necessary to employ much reasoning to convince them, that it was not in Mexico their sovereign was confined. After three days, they retired to the mountains, promising to return frequently, It is necessary to know the character of the Indians and their peculiarities, not to think with them, that this impulse was the dictate of a supernatural being, for they asserted, they had derived the information from a vision.*" As examples of this nature tend to convey the most correct ideas of the state of mind of The Indians in this Country, like the Quakers in England, never use any distinctive titles, and always address even the most exalted in the second person singular. They approach more to the natural and primitive state of man, than any people existing. H5 this people, and shew us how vague are the deductions of so many speculationists, who have thought these tribes the most inflammable of that continent, we will briefly relate an other anecdote. Some years ago,, Calves was viceroy in Mexico, a man of extraordinary talent, address, and insinuation, and much revered by the In dians. Their chiefs looked upon him as a tu telary god, and his acquaintance with their lan guage and manners, gave him the double empire of influence. In his own breast he had long formed the plan of revolutionizing the country, to give it independence, and the whole ad ministration of his public authority tended to that object. The patron of the arts and sci ences, he introduced the fabrication of arms and of casting the cannon, beautified Mexico in its finest elevations, on plans that might serve for fortifications, if required, and built an immense strong work on the road from Vera Cruz* In the whole progress of the design he had not a confi dant, and never did schemes advance with greater secrecy and disguise. He courted the Indian chiefs and elders, but did not yet avow to them his views. What at first put them on the alert, and gave them some distant ideas that machinations were on foot, was. 17 that in opposition to the express and established regulations of the government, he solicited to become god-father to some of their children, which with the Indians is the greatest tie that can be formed. When the term of his com mand had expired, he disclosed his secret to them only, which in a most magnanimous way they forbore locally to reveal or betray ; but immediately sent one of their own confidential agents to Europe, who put the king in pos session of the whole clue, which was followed by the arrest and removal of Galves, with equal privacy. The principle of fidelity and spirit of alle giance, inherent in this class of beings, is evi dently derived from the apostolic labours of the first missionaries sent amongst them for their conversion, and has fully answered the views proposed. The choice of this arduous task was voluntary, and did not emanate from the oath of obedience proffered by each individual on admission into their respective orders. In general, none but the most unexceptionable and learned obtained from the governing councils of the Indies letters patent to cross the seas on these missions. Hence their work in the Lord s vineyard was the more zealous* disinterested, and efficacious ; this was at least VOL. II. C 18 their prevailing character, though there some, who thought the temporal gifts of for tune worth possessing, and who, in this climate and state of morals, relaxed from the rigidity they professed in their outset. In support of what we have asserted respect ing the veneration of the Indians for their pas tors, we will quote the authority of one of the best writers on that country. Vasco de Queroga was bishop and first founder of the diocese of Michuacan, where he died, after many years labour and instruction of the Indians. He founded amongst them hospitals and schools^ for the training of their children, and may well deserve to be ranked with the first fathers of Christianity. To this day, it is the first care of the Indian women to give to their infants an account of their Taita (which means father) Don Vasco ; they represent his life by pictures, and never pass his image without bowing their heads. They preserve his bones with such sacred respect in the city of Pascuane, that once when the chapter of the cathedral of Valladolid attempted to transport them thither, the Indians became uneasy, and attempted to oppose it by force of arms. Hence we may conclude, that it was from a wish to propagate the faith, and extend the 29 chain of allegiance, that the missionaries sacrific ed their repose at home, and in a distant country braved the face of danger and the dread of cli mate. The cause they undertook, supported them through every species of fatigue; and Pro vidence was the only shield they opposed to all assaults. Many, as we have before observed, fell victims to their own neophites, some to wild beasts, and others to the rage of pestilence, in climates destitute of medical succour. This apostolic zeal has, indeed, for many years be come remiss, but the traces of its former preva lence are the greatest pillars that now support the machine of government amongst the Indian tribes, and the chief guards against civil dis- sentions or foreign influence. In the Indian villages of the interior, scarcely any other white than the curate is met with, to whom is sometimes added an alcalde or civil officer; but the former frequently unites the adminis tration of the civil police with his eccle siastical functions ; and the government, from political motives, seems to discourage and oppose any mixture of white population with the primitive natives, who are in clans in the bosom of the woods. 20 CHAPTER XVL HOW SOUTH AMERICA WAS FIRST PEOPLED* BEFORE we enter into any details of the people who, with the Spaniards, at present occupy the extensive continent, of which we have undertaken a succinct description, it may not be improper to ask the question, in which way this immense tract was peopled ? To an swer this in its full extent, were, however, not only to wander into a Daedalian labyrinth of conjectures, but to exceed the bounds of our present essay. It will nevertheless be the subject ot a future research of the author, in which will be traced the history of the Mexi cans before the arrival of the Spaniards amongst them, founded on their own memoirs, and illustrated by antique Spanish manuscripts, some of which, good fortune has placed with in his reach, and others he is in hopes of ob taining from knowing where they are to be found. Perhaps no problem in history is more diffi cult of solution than this. That America was peopled before the deluge, appears maintained 21 by many authors, and is indeed probable ; as, according to the sacred scriptures, there elaps ed a space of 1656 years from the first forma tion of man to that great epoch, nor could it be imagined that a superior and provident being, would have created so vast and valuable a tract of country, without assigning to it a propor tionate mass of population. If, however, the human race, with the ex ception of one family, generally and universally perished in that great inundation, a fact support ed by the sacred writings, and even the tradition of the Aborigines of America, we have still to trace their second germ of population; a task at once difficult and essential, in forming a well grounded hypothesis of this curious and im portant event. Though the traditions of the Mexicans, al most the only ones from which any points of ancient chronology can be derived, do not carry us beyond eight centuries previous to the discovery of the Spaniards, yet, in these same traditions, expressed in durable signs and symbolical paintings, they retain a memory of the creation of the world, of the deluge, of the building of the tower of Babel, and of the confusion of languages ; all which they de scribe by emblematical representations; still 22 they have no knowledge of any secondary occurrences, nor historical records of any thing that took place in Asia. This, however, proves not that their original population was not thence derived, but that the emigration was of so distant a date, that all traces were lost. Though many of the modern philosophers of the day assert, that it was impossible for the Aborigines of this vast and detached conti nent, to be descended from one common parent stock with those of Asia ; and that God must have formed another for them ; yet divesting ourselves of any authority from the writings of Moses, this hypothesis is opposed to the tradition ot the Americans, who, though they cannot specify any time for the emigra tion of their forefathers, from an old continent, nevertheless taught their posterity as a point of faith and history, that they were descended from those men, who escaped the deluge ; and if we argue from the consequences of this great event, both in Europe, Asia, and Africa, we shall find analogous phenomena existing in America. On the summit of the Andes, are dug petrified marine remains, which indicate its diluvian state ; and most of the original In dian tribes are agreed on this point. 25 A learned author tells us that Nunez de la Vega found many ancient calendars of the Chiapanese, and an old manuscript in the lan guage of that country, in which it was said, according to their ancient traditions, that a certain person, named Votan, the chief of those twenty men, whose names are given in the twenty days of the Chiapanese month, was pre sent at that great building which was made by order of his uncle, in order to mount up to heaven ; that then to every people was given its respective language, and that Votan him self was charged by God to make the divisions of the lands of Anahuac, or Mexico. The pre late adds, afterwards, that there w^as in his time, a great settlement or family in his diocese, surnamed Votan, who were reputed de scendants of that ancient population. We are not, however, here endeavouring to give antiquity to the population of America, on the faith of these Indians, but merely to shew that this people themselves considered that they sprung from Noah. Of the ancient inhabitants of Cuba, several historians of America relate, that when they were interrogated by the Spaniards, concerning their origin, they answered, they had heard from their ancestors, that God created the 24 heavens, the earth, and all things ; that an old man having foreseen the deluge, with which God designed to chastise the sins of men, built a large canoe, and embarked in it, with his family, and many animals ; that when the in undation ceased, he sent out a raven, which, because it found carrion to feed on, never re turned to the canoe ; that he then sent out a pigeon, which soon returned, bearing a branch of hoba, (a fruit of America, resembling a small yellow plum) in its mouth ; that when the old man saw the earth was dry, he disem barked, and having made himself some wine of the wood grape, he became intoxicated and fell asleep ; that then one of his sons made ri dicule of his nakedness, and that the other son piously covered him ; that on awaking he blest the latter and cursed the former. Lastly, that they drew their origin from the cursed son, and, therefore, went almost naked ; that the Spaniards, as they were well clothed and of a white colour, descended perhaps from the other. The Mexicans and Michuacanese had the same tradition, to which time had in deed attached a similar degree of fable. From which of the descendants of Noah they had root, the most learned Spanish authors disagree ; some are of opinion it was from 25 Naphtuhim, son of Mezraim, the son of Cham ; and others from the posterity of Ophir, the fourth son of Shem. The learned Huet seems to accord with Siguenza, in their origin being from the Egyptians, from some similarity of names in both languages, and the use of pyramids and hieroglyphics, and par ticularly their mode of computing time. A great doubt again here originates from the variety and diversity of languages, remarkable even in the same province and amongst those immediately contiguous ; for in Mexico alone, the Spaniards have traced thirty-five which have no affinity, and the Portuguese fifty in the Maranon. It indeed appears impossible even in the great lapse of time, for nations arising from the same parent root so much to have altered their dialects, as to have no words left in common to all, and no traces of their general origin. As Acosta and several learned French authors deny the general inundation of Ame rica, and consider it as partial, like those of Deu calion and Ogyges in Greece, it may deserve re mark, that on the mountain of Descalezado, (which means without a head), situated amongst the Alps of Chili, upwards of five hundred miles from the sea, and according to 20 Molina, three miles high, a great quantity of marine bodies are found, which certainly could not have been carried to that stupendous height by a partial inundation, different from that which happened in the time of Noah. Neither can it be asserted that this summit might once have been the bed of the sea, and have grad ually been raised by subterraneous fires, bearing along with them those said marine bodies ; because although this case is not im probable in some places, which we see but a little elevated above the surface of the sea, in a height like this it appears impossible, and may be considered as an unquestionable proof of the traces of an universal deluge that equally extended to America ; nor w^ill the assertions of Buffon himself, in his theory of the earth, controvert this fact. That this subject is however enveloped in doubt and mystery, is evident from the dis tance of intervening time, and our having no ancient data on which to ground our conjec tures. The general and most received opi nion is, that the new w^orld was primitively united to the ancient, and separated from it either by one of those great convulsions of na ture which detach and tear asunder regions of the greatest extent, or by the subsiding 27 of the waters of a deluge. That they were once united, is the opinion of Buffon, to ac count for the beasts found there, which could not go in boats or be conveyed on the ice. We are the more strengthened in this first opinion from the constituent formation of immense volcanoes that have burned for ages with unquenched fury, and which we find in a variety of places on this division of the globe ; but what again staggers our belief is, the dif ference of plants and animals opposed in the same latitude and climate, of the old and new world. We find it laid down by our own- travellers and voyagers, not as the speculation of hypo thesis, but as an undeniable fact, that the Nor wegians once had intercourse with Greenland, which by fortuitous causes was suspended till the seventeenth century; but that thence ori ginated the population of the latter, from which sprang generations that spread on the surface of America. This theory is founded on the similarity of manners, features, and language, that characterize theGreenlandersand the Esquimaux, and seem to demonstrate that they have had the same common origin. The most general belief however is, that America received the first seeds of its population, from 2b emigrants from the north east part of Asia, going to the west part of America, from which it is only divided by a strait of fifty leagues, discovered by Bering, and still called by his name. The conformity of the Indians to the Tartars upholds this way of thinking, and it will be found accordant with the tradition of the Aborigines, of whom those of Mexico* particularly have handed to us some singular remains, but greatly blended with their primi tive superstitions. Humboldt himself appears to join forcibly in this opinion, and the idol and small fragments of moulded pottery from St. Domingo, mentioned in our preceding chapters, come in to support it. The Talte- quas had paintings of their migration through Asia, and the northern countries of America ; and Botorini traces the route they took. The amount of Indian population, spread over this surface of country at the time of the discovery, is at present incalculable , but it must have been very considerable, from the armies that were brought into the field, and perhaps greater than most writers are aware of. On this subject the Spaniards leave us much in the dark, and the reports of the first conquerors who wrote in exaggerated strains, differ widely from the more authentic me- 29 moirs of succeeding historians. Accustomed as the Aborigineswere to live on fishing and hunting, by which they principally supplied the wants of nature ; dwelling often for con venience on the distant lake or river- margin, and buried in the hidden forest gloom, it was impossible to take a collective view of them ; but all the best Spanish writers seem to con cur in opinion that the present population, in cluding Creoles, whites, imported negroes, and their descended mixtures, added to the In dians, greatly exceeds its original stock, and surpasses, in a great degree, that of old Spain. The entire population of Spanish America is estimated at seventeen millions The Indians of the southern division of America, are generally represented to us with out beard ; but this has many exceptions, and it may be remarked that those of the interior were found more civilized, less ferocious, and approaching nearer a state of refinement, than those who bordered on the ocean. Their character seems formed by their way of life, and their manners receive a tinge from the circumstances of their condition. They are solemn, grave, thoughtful, and possessed of great reflection. In general they are strong, well made, and often athletic, the pursuits of 30 the chase giving activity and elasticity to their limbs. Their features are fine and soft, their countenances expressive, and their action re plete with meaning. Amongst themselves? the influence of the elders and chiefs is their principal tie of government; they are ex tremely attentive to the voice of wisdom, age, and experience ; and the pow r er of their leaders is more persuasive than coercive. Their public assemblies, consisting of the bet ter orders of people, are conducted with great decorum, and frequently with a display of natural eloquence, when the subject discussed calls forth the energies of the souL They have a peculiar style of dances, which are slow, and often accompanied with the chaunted re cital of the exploits of their ancestors, and most famed heroes. Good faith particularly characterizes the better sort, and a default of it they implacably remember. Many of their ancient superstitions exist, as well as some savage practices ; but they are only traced to those who live separated from the Spaniards,, from whom they particularly conceal them r dwelling beyond some desert frontier, or hid den in the bosom of impenetrable and bound less woods ; nay, in some of the deep recesses of the mountains they have idois, to which 31 * they still minister by stealth. They however no longer offer human sacrifices, or immolate their children on the altars of their deities ; the abolition of which inhuman practices may be considered as a collateral increase of population. War, which used to be their great delight, and constant occupation, is now changed rather into a sullen idleness, and quiet existence. They are extreme in their resent ments as well as in their attachments ; and though they entertain no sentiments of general benevolence, which appears a virtue too sub lime for their confined understandings, habit and the exchange of social affection bind them sometimes to a congenial principle, and in that case their sincerity may be relied on. Though there yet exist some tribes of anthro pophagi, the habitual thirst for blood, arid the savage custom of mangling their fallen ene mies has worn away ; and those once re markable scenes of horror that followed their victories, are out of use yet they are still singularly brave, intrepid, and superior to the dread of death. The Caraibs, who border on the Oroonoko, are the most warlike .of all the tribes. The religion of the Indians is so involved in superstition and obscurity, that it is difficult 32 to establish the dogmas of their belief. The natives of Mexico and Peru had indeed som e appearance of form, but the other hordes that occupy the remaining scattered regions, seem to have been in this respect, rather the dupes of impostors, and empirics, who had sufficient address to speculate on the credulity of their fellow beings. The greatest part of the tribes of this con tinent professed that there was a supreme being, who had the attributes of omnipotence ; though their belief, like that of other nations given to idolatry, was mixed with errors and superstitions. They had priests, temples, sacrifices, and rites, in honour and for the worship of that divinity. They had a king, government, and magistrates ; they had laws, customs, and commerce, and penalties to in- force justice and equity in contracts. Lands were distributed and property secured. They had arts and sciences, though rude and im perfect ; nor was perhaps any nation ever dis covered more advanced in civil life than they were. Yet by some authors they have been called barbarians, because they wanted money. Had they not however an equivalent circulat ing medium, which was cocoa ? Had the Romans in a similar stage of civilization more S3 than sheep and oxen to represent the value of merchandise, and hence the word pecunia # And do not the Abyssinians yet use salt ? Many authors have imagined a near resem blance between the religions of the inhabi tants of America and those of the old conti nents ; and in some points they may even be said to have assimilated to those of the Greeks and Romans. In reviewing the mythologies of ancient nations, two peculiarities have always been remarked, viz. that the style of worship de pended upon the ideas which the people en tertained of the presiding divinity; hence, if his attributes were believed to consist of be nignity and goodness, his worship was cor responding ; but if he was regarded as re vengeful and inexorable, sacrifices, nay, even bloody oblations were used to appease his wrath. If he was conceived to be omnipo tent, he alone was venerated ; but if his power was thought confined, the objects of idolatry were relatively multiplied. The latter notion accorded best with the systems of the Indians of America ; they deified the several attributes of the Supreme Being, and assigned a separate jurisdiction to each. VOL. II. D 34 " Our god Camaxtle," the Hascalans used to say to Cortes, " grants us victory over our enemies : our goddess Matlalcueje sends the necessary rain to our fields, and defends us from the inundations of Zahuapan. To each of our gods we are indebted for a part of our life." The first of these would resemble the Bel- lona, and the second the Ceres of the ancients; but this divinity was, with the latter, again subdivided into a number of inferior deities with appropriate offices. Sega presided over the grain just sown, Proserpina over that sprung up, Volatina defended green ears from the birds, Lactantia tended them in their milky state, Matuta when they were ripe,, and so on ; but these unimportant subdivisions were un known to the Indians. The Romans had more than twenty Lares or household gods ; and who could imagine that the threshold and hinges of the door were deified, or that one of the common sinks of the town was turned into a divinity, and called Cloacina ! Yet what shall we say of the Egyptians, who turned their pot-herbs into gods, and as Juvenal has said, O sanctas gentes quills hie nascuntur in horlis nwnina. But we do not find any depravity of a similar nature in the mythology of the Americans ; they honoured 35 the virtues, not the vices, of their gods ; they had divinities to represent bravery, beneficence, justice, chastity, and prudence which pre sided over all ; they considered that guilt dis pleased them, that sacrifice appeased their an ger, and that repentance and religious devo tions ensured their protection. Signs and omens formed great part of their superstition ; they consulted the flight of the raven, the screech of the owl, and a variety of other auguries, which indicated calamity, But did not the Romans do the same ? Pliny tells us that a public lustration was ordered in Rome, because an owl had entered the Capi tol. To such excesses is man led when aban doned to the capricious dictates of passion, or stimulated by fears arising from a sense of his own weakness. The religion of the American Indians was however more bloody and cruel, as the sacrifices were human ; yet a system equally barbarous is mentioned in the sacred writings, as prevailing amongst the Ammonites and Israelites, who even offered up their children, and immolated them on the altars of their deity, This was also the case with a variety of other nations both of Europe and of Asia ; nor according to Pliny, was it exhibited in Rome till the year ID 3 657) A. U. C. so that the rites of the Ame ricans were not, comparatively, more cruel or less rational. The American Indians had no idea of hu manity to their vanquished and fallen foes, and the answer of Montezuma to Cortes, who complained of the horror of their sacrifice of prisoners, has something certainly forcible, but repugnant to humanity : " What injustice is there," said the emperor to the Spanish conqueror, " to make those who are condemn ed to death die in honour of our gods." A practice, however, in which the Indians surpass ed other savage nations in barbarity, was, that of eating the flesh of their human victims ; this we have not on the record of !any people mentioned in the sacred writings, or in the histories of the ancients, and it has only been met with on the western side of the ocean. To the present day, they universally believe in the immortality of the soul, but the beast partakes, in their opinion, of the same property. The destination of the soul after death varies materially. In many districts, their priests were equally physicians and magicians, the functions of the three professions being inse parable. To take their degree, they were mys teriously secluded for some time in the solitude 37 of caverns; the old piachas, or doctors, instruct ed them during the night, and when sufficient ly schooled, they received the authority to preach, administer to the sick, invoke evil spirits, and foretel the future. Their mode of cure, was by the application of a variety of herbs, prepared differently, and used with unintelligible phrases, to call out the evil spirits they considered, or rather pretended to be, the cause of all disorders. In case of death, the physician was not blamed, but the destiny of the patient. Lopez de Gomaraz has gone into considerable details on these impos tors. Their power was dreaded by the com mon people, and their exactions were consi derable. Most of the Indians believed the sun to be the Supreme Being and great first cause of every thing, and worshipped him ac cordingly. Others also, addressed themselves to the moon. On the banks of the Oroonoko, some tribes paid divine honours to the toad, and particularly ascribed to that reptile the empire of the weather ; others again, to a va riety of small idols, to which they gave a di versity of attribute. Their languages were not, however, devoid of a degree of merit, though some were more po lished than others. The idioms were, indeed, dif- 38 ferent from ours, and often to express a single idea, combinations of words and circumlocu tion were necessary. Though they could ex press the simple appearance of every thing that struck their senses, they could not argue on abstracted points, and as Mr. Condamime says, they had no terms analogous to duration, space, matter, and substance, nor any meta physical expressions ; nevertheless, by compa rative and redundant sounds they could convey the idea of goodness, truth, reflexion, fore sight, doubt, remembrance, &c. Though they had only fifteen defined numerical figures, they could reckon up the greatest numbers, by multi plication and combination, of which two pro- cessess their way of counting consisted ; so that, for example, by combination they could say 8,000, and with the aid of multiplication, by saying forty times eight thousand, they could sum up 32o,ooo. To convey ideas of the Divinity, they explain ed his attributes, such as Tloque, he who has every thing within himself; Ipalnemaoni, he by whom we live ; and so on. The Spaniards, who have most studied the Peruvian and Mexi can languages, have formed dictionaries and treatises on them, and there are Indian profes sors, whose occupation is to teach them ; but 39 they are extremely difficult to the European, from the great difference of idiom, the extreme length of the words, and the quantity of sylla bles ; for who would suppose, that Thamela- huacachicahualitztli signified justice, which is rather the definition of a just man, than of the virtue itself. The language has, neverthe less, been learnt to a degree of perfection, by some of the indefatigable missionaries, during a life of habitual intercourse, and it is to them we owe the knowledge we possess of it, and not to the European philosophers, who have undertaken to ridicule it, without almost ever having heard its sound. It cannot be expected, indeed, to be so re fined as those of Europe, which have been culti vated and enriched for successive ages, by every thing we have found deserving adoption, from other languages, and which have defined rules, and are polished by the labours of the learned ; but to call it crude and barbarous, as has been done by Buffon and others, is illiberal, for as well might we call that of the Latins so, be cause Cicero, in his philosophical works, is at a loss, and often obliged to create terms to cor respond with the metaphysical ideas of ttie Greeks. Still, its acquisition will never com pensate the pains of the European, as it is only 40 used by the solitary Indians, who, though they retain their own language amongst themselves, speak Spanish in the towns. Nor would the possession of the dialect in one province be of any use in another, owing to their difference and variety. Though the impartial philologist cannot concur in the praises bestowed on this language by the Spaniards, he cannot, however, deny to it a degree of merit, and must confess, that it was adequate to the expression of every idea suited to the condition of the beings by whom it was used. As well might the Indians cry out against the Spanish language, though the most expressive and copious spoken in Europe, because it has riot words equivalent to some of theirs, which bear the stamp of origi nality, and are derived from local manners, customs, and sensations ; or as well might the Spaniards laugh at the poverty of the English language, because we cannot translate Don Quixote with all its zest. In all our histories of China, we have dwelt with a degree of wonder on their statutes and penal laws, which form an exemplary system 1 of jurisprudence to other nations ; and, in con sidering those of the Mexicans particularly, we should find equal cause for admiration. They were not, however, written on tables, 41 but perpetuated by tradition and paintings. No subject was ignorant of them, because fa thers of families did not fail to instruct their children in them, that they might avoid trans gression, and escape punishment. The Spani ards investigated the laws of these nations with more diligence even than their history, because a knowledge of them was essentially requisite to the civil and ecclesiastical government, par ticularly in respect to marriages, privileges of nobility, the conditions of vassalage, and of slavery ; and Acosta, speaking of them, says, that " many were worthy of our admiration." The constitution of their state, with respect to the succession of the crown, could not have been better framed, as by means of it they not only avoided the inconveniences of hereditary succession, but those of election also. An in dividual of the royal family was always chosen king, both to preserve the dignity and splen dour of the crown, and to hinder the throne from ever being occupied by a man of low birth. The brother succeeded, in prefer ence to the son, by which means, the indis cretion of youth and the stratagems of an am bitious regent were equally avoided. The judicial forms of both the Mexicans and Tescucans afford many useful and political les- 42 sons. The gradations of rank among the ma gistrates contributed to keep good order ; their attendance at the tribunals from break of day till sunset shortened the process of causes and impeded abuses. The capital punishments against prevaricators of justice, the punctuality of their execution, and the vigilance of the so vereigns, kept the magistrates in check ; and that care which was taken to supply them with every necessary, at the expense of the king, rendered any misconduct in them inexcusable. Assemblies were held before the king every twenty days, definitively to judge all cases re ferred to his authority. The* Mexicans punished with severity all crimes repugnant to nature or prejudicial to the state; but, in some cases, their punishment was excessively disproportioned and cruel. Un like many nations of the East, they did not confound the children in the crimes of the pa rent. Their rules in marriages were exemplary, and very different from those of the Assyrians and Egyptians ; nor were conjugal alliances al lowed in cases of consanguinity. If the widow married, it was ordained to be with the brother- in-law, as the most natural guardian to the issue of the deceased, but such marriages were seldom contracted. Conjugal fidelity was re- 43 spected, nor was there any traffic in wives known, as among the Romans, of whom Montesquieu tells us, that Cato lent his wife to Hortensius ; and this appears legal, for Cato was incapable of transgressing the laws of his country. Ancient paintings are yet produced, frequent ly before the Spanish tribunals, by the Mexi cans, as titles of property, and the tenure of lands ; and on that account interpreters, skilled in the significations of such paintings and symbols, are consulted. In this art, also, there have been public professors. Some painted representations contained the horoscopes of children, in which were figured their names, with the day and sign of their birth and fortune. Some, again, were dogmatical, containing the system of their religion, and filled with hieroglyphics, others historical, and others again geographical. The same authors, who attest the architec tural skill of the Mexicans, bear witness also to the ingenuity of their goldsmiths, their weavers, gem-cutters, and artificers in feathers Their art of casting metals was admired by the gold smiths in Europe, and many of the ancient writers (especially Gomara) affirm, that they could not imitate them, Particular mention is 44 made of a cast fish with scales, alternately of gold and silver, which, in this respect, surpass ed their ingenuity. In the possession of the author, is an ancient gold chain of Mexican manufacture, of complicated and exquisite workmanship, w^hich has been considered by the most experienced artificers in England as a chef d oeuvre, rivalling even their o\va skill. The Mexicans were acquainted with the ma nufacture of paper, though of a coarse nature, from being intended for painting and not wri ting. In point of improvement and advance ment in their original state, both they and the Peruvians may rank after the Chinese ; and be sides the casting of metals, they had the art of making mosaic works of shells and feathers, of dyeing with indelible colours, spinning and weaving the fine hair of their various animals, breeding the cochineal to use its colouring, making cement for the erection and pavements of houses, besides the cultivation of several other useful arts, which astonished the first European conquerors. They had fishes taught to trace and hunt others of their species in the waters, in the same way as we have hawks for the following of birds, and in which they greatly resemble the Chinese. It may be much regretted, both by the historian of this country 45 and the virtuoso in painting, that the first mis sionaries, in their blind zeal, destroyed nearly all the paintings of the Indians, thus confound ing the historical representations of this peo ple, with those which they thought symbolical of their religion. The funerals of the Indians are often attended with what they consider great solemnity, but to judge of these peculiarities in their original state, it is necessary to visit the Indians who border on the Oroonoko, and Spanish Guiana, where the hand of civilization has not yet ex tended, nor even the missionaries have dared to penetrate. A late foreign author mentions se veral tribes, bordering on each other, whose customs and manners are perfectly opposed, and form a striking contrast. The Salivas Indians paint the virtues of the deceased by different emblematic tints, and the burial of a great man creates a general assem blage of the nation, They howl, cry, dance, and drink round him in quick succession, whilst the body lies in state amidst them, after which ceremony, the whole is thrown into the river. The Guaraunos tie the dead body to a stake in the river, w^here the small fishes eat off all the flesh ; the .skeleton is then packed in a basket 46 and hung at one corner of the roof of the house. The Aroacas bury their chiefs with great pomp, and often inter their arms and valuables along with them ; a monument of masonry is raised over their remains, and great care is ta ken that no inlet is left to admit the ants. Other tribes, on the contrary, think that their dead bodies cannot be too soon devoured by these insects. The Caraibs expose the body of their chief, suspended in a hammock in the centre of his shed, during one revolution of the moon, and the wives attend on each side, constantly, to keep off the flies. The most favoured, or the mother of his children, is buried with him. All Indians are fond of strong liquors, and consider intoxication as an accomplishment and a happiness ; their drinks are made out of fer mented fruits, such as the pine-apple, corosol, and grains ; the palm tree also furnishes them with wine. The Otomaques, who border on the high margins of the Oroonoko, are the most active and enterprising of these tribes ; but, the life of the Indian is, in general, an existence of sloth, and the Spanish government, in all its late regulations, seems to have encouraged this 47 supine state, in order to keep them contented, by not opposing their mode of life, by which means they have not turned to national ac count, so many thousands of useful hands. They plat a variety of necessary and ornamen tal things for wearing and domestic use out of the leaves of the palmetto, and the pita, before described. According to father Gurnilla, one of their great luxuries is oil extracted from the shark,, in killing which they are very dex terous, being good swimmers and divers. There are some again, that border on the Amazons, according to the same author, who eat ants, and a certain species of clay mixed with fat, of which they distinguish one kind as more savoury than another. Dried turtle and its eggs form great part of their food, of which immense quantities are taken in the proper sea son in the sands of Oroonoko. The Indians ap pear to treat their women as secondary and sub ordinate beings, for whom they have no feelings of humanity, nor consider them entitled to any respect or social intercourse. In this particular, civilization appears to have taken a retrograde motion. Repudiation also rests with the hus band, who sometimes exchanges wives, yet the fidelity of the latter is remarked to arise not from any principle of inherent virtue, but 48 from the dread of vengeance. They generally grease their bodies, and cover their limbs with rocou, that gives them a red colour. The chief assemblage of the uncivilized In dians is in Guiana, and above the cataracts oftheAtures; for this reason, that immense space, which lies between the Oroonoko and the Amazons, has hitherto, and w r ill long re main, untrodden by Europeans, yet the sa vage inhabitants keep generally confined with in their own limits. The missionaries have made very partial progress amongst them. The Guaraunos, who live on some of the islands at the entrance of the Oroonoko, are a tribe that remain uncontrolled and untaught, but this is a good deal owing to their local si tuation ; for those islands, immersed in w^ater great part of the year, are not tenable by Europeans, on account of the insects and mias mata. Their population is reckoned by the Spaniards, at 1 0,000. The Goahiros are between the jurisdiction of Maracaibo and the Rio de la Hacha, where they occupy more than 30 leagues of coast which is visited by traders to procure dye- woods. Curasao and Jamaica send their ves sels annually. Their number exceeds 3o,000 ; they are governed by their own cacique, and 49 are in possession of European fire-arms. The English have considerable influence amongst them, from an acquaintance which they have cultivated for the purposes of trade, but which the French have not failed to point out to the Spaniards as the result of design and political artifice. The town these Indians most visit, is that of Rio de la Hacha, where their women carry down for them the articles of trade, which they barter for strong liquors, and other neces saries. Some Spanish smugglers do, indeed, traverse their coasts, but pay for this indul gence. The maritime traders seldom go on shore, and generally receive their dye-woods and other cargo on board, where they also effect the payments, and Spanish guarda- costas in vain strive to check these clandestine transactions. The Spaniards have hitherto found it impracticable to reduce this horde of Indians, who daily increase in strength and means of defence. The above remarks, prin cipally collected from the best Spanish and other authors, may suffice to convey an idea of the primitive condition of the Aborigines in Spanish America. VOL. II, CHAPTER XVII. CIVILIZED INDIANS. iT appears singular, as we have before remark-* ed, that the Spaniards have not adopted some political means of turning the labours of such an immense mass of civilized Indians, who border on them, to some national utility, by encouraging industry amongst them, and teaching them to collect and manufacture the various productions of nature with which they are surrounded. Excepting those employed in working the mines, and in domestic uses in the towns, the whole of whom cannot be es timated at more than one eighth, they all live in a state of indolence and apathy, subsisting on the spoils of the chase, and the almost spontaneous gifts of the earth; heedless of the future, and transmitting to their posterity no thing but their vices. This class of population appears to have de clined even from their primitive state, for it was amongst their originally fundamental maxims, that no one should be idle, and that those of them, who were not occupied in agriculture, or busied and skilled in warfare, should be herbalists to aid the sick> or otherwise usefully employed. Many of them are still found so well ac quainted with the virtues of plants, and their application to certain disorders and bruises, that they are preferred by the Europeans, in cases of local sickness from the climate, to many of the regular physicians sent out ; and their experience and knowledge in this branch of medicine has been of the greatest utility to the late French literati, who traversed their country in search of subjects of natural history. Many of their valuable secrets, particularly in dyeing and poisons, are yet hidden from us> and the obstinacy and tenacity with which they are \\ ithheld, like a system of freemasonry ^ have been frequently noticed by Spanish au thors. We have already seen, that the system of tyrannic rigour, observed by the first conquer ors of Spanish America, was replaced by one of mildness and lenity, as far as the enactions of their own court could be carried into effect, at that distance, and the influence the mission aries, and some humane characters, could with stand the ambition and abuses of the prevailing 52 great ; and in my few remarks, on this parti cular, I shall accord with the best and most un prejudiced authorities, I have been able to meet. The fate of the Indian population, in Hispa- fiola was what first roused the feelings of the humane Isabella, and her wishes for reform were communicated and transmitted to the councils of the monarchs who followed. They felt for the wretchedness of the Aborigines, and by regulations, formed on principles of humanity, endeavoured to work a reform. They wished to extend to them their own pro tection, and to guarantee their personal liberty. They considered them a desirable appendage to their crown, but beheld them as vassals, not as slaves, as subjects, not as victims. They wanted their obedience and submission, not their per sonal degradation ; and in laying the basis of their regulations, they were guided by the ex amples of cruelty and oppression, to which, ambition and the thirst of gold had driven many of the first colonists, and which they undertook to curtail, and in future counter act. Few foreign authors, says a late good voyager, have done the Spanish government the justice due to them, for their regimen, pre scribed to the Indians. Many of them, specu- 53 iatively philosophic, have dwelt with enthusi astic eagerness on the horrors that marked the first ages of conquest, and have quoted them as the criterions of the present way of thinking, and as characteristics of that class of beings on whose ancestors they were exercised. Raynal, too much considered as an infallible authority in the hands of even the present age* whose works are more philosophic than histori cal, whose relations are often more" vehement than exact and impartial, has left us a portrait of the Indians of this continent, that bears no ap plication whatever to the reality. Robertson, more the historian, has, in this particular, grounded himself on Spanish authority ; but it appears, from his brevity on this subject, that he feared his representations would, in the midst of so much prejudice that existed, be thought incorrect and partial. The Spanish legislators, however, seem to have had in view the giving them every ad vantage and exemption that was consistent with their dependance on the mother country, in doing which, they have rendered them use less members of society, and have fallen into an extreme, that, in a great measure, annihi lates their value to the nation, and its commu nities. If the civil and moral institutions 54 which ought always to be adapted to the manners and comprehensions of the people, for whom they are formed, ground their merit on suppressing vice, engrafting virtue, and ex tending civilization; those destined for the Indians owe their fault to being too relax, and seem rather drawn up to counteract the abuse of power, than to further industry and the pursuits of civil life. Indolence, the natural characteristic of the Indigenes, required a spur ; and though it was the duty of the magistrate to free the oppressed from the trammels of abusive power, it was equally so to increase the energies of their minds. After the repartirnientos, which was a di vision of them into a kind of fiefs, a system that was attended with great abuses, came that of encorniendas ; but, whilst we admire the sound views of the legislator, we cannot but regret, that like almost all other human institutions, it was not wholly efficacious. This system appears entirely intended for their protection, as the conditions that related to their instruction and civilization are excluded, or but partially brought into view. The application of the encomicndas was by putting a certain quantity of Indian popula tion, contained in defined boundaries, irnme- diately under the charge of a respectable Spa- Fiiard, who lived in the midst of them, and whose province it was to settle their family disputes, and to support their rights against civil oppression ; to see their children bap tized, to unite and retain them in clans or vil lages, to instruct them in the principles of morality and the Christian religion, to train Ihem in the arts of civil life, to suppress irre gularities in their females, and to destroy in them the fanaticism of their old modes of worship and superstitious customs. For the whole ob servance of these cares and duties, they made him presents of poultry, or appropriated to his use annually some days of labour; never theless, that influence which the encomienderos acquired, sometimes became too productive of abuses, and the office was often solicited by persons at court, who had their agents there, as a distinguished species of sovereignty, which reduced the Indians to vassals, and in some cases became hereditary. This system was afterwards superseded by the plan of the missionaries, in the way already mentioned. The measures adopted by Spain, to secure the dependence of America, and hold the Indians in a kind of bonl, opposed to any attempt to regain their ancient state of free- dom, seem to have been concerted with a view not to thwart their inclinations, but to leave them in the entire possession of their prejudices and vices, as far as they did not avowedly clash with the exterior of religion. They were at first forbidden the use of all kinds of arms, and even of horses ; no Indian could be brought up in the house of an armourer ; and several other similar restrictions were enforced, tending to keep them from mixing with other tribes, or intermarrying ; but all these regulations have gradually died away, as the dread of commo tion, on their part, has subsided. The Spanish Council of the Indies, of whom we shall hereafter speak, have pushed their pro tection and measures for bettering the condition of the Indians, to a degree that was never before met with in a conquered nation, by the privi leges and exemptions w r ith which they have favoured them. A singular indulgence, not observable even in the white population of the Spanish dominions, was extended to the In dians, and this was, that in the first years, the Indian villages were authorized to elect their chiefs amongst themselves, and the choice generally fell on one of the descendants of their ancient rulers ; but now a Spanish al calde, and Indian cabildo, or municipal body, 57 have charge of the civil administration. The police of the Indians has, besides this, a corre- gidor, or person that is particularly charged with their protection, who can remonstrate in their favour with the local government ; but, if redress is not granted, he appeals to a su perior jurisdiction. He is always a Spaniard, and obliged to reside amongst them. This office has been found to be extremely neces sary, from the particular disposition the In dian chiefs have to domineer over their own fellow -beings, and their propensity to those vices they are enjoined to correct in their own clans, particularly drunkenness. It is this corregidor, who also receives, in the name of the king, the capitation tax, or tri bute exacted from the Indians, the mode by which the Spaniards establish their census of Indian population. Where there are mission aries, the duties of the corregidor are gener ally added to the pastoral functions. Crimes, amongst the Indians, are punished with greater seventy than when committed by whites. The attorneys general, are, by the rules of their office, their legal patrons, and in all the courts are obliged to plead their causes gratis, equally with those of the government for whom they act. One of their privileges is, 58 that they are considered minors in all civil transactions, and they are not bound to the execution of any contract that is not formally passed before a Spanish magistrate. They can dispose of no landed property but at public auction. The Indians are exempt from the duty of alcavala, which is imposed on every thing sold., as will be hereafter noticed. Their annual capitation tax is rated at two dollars per head on the males only, from the age of 18 to 5o ; but it is very often dispensed with by the cor- regidor, particularly if any great or public misfortune has happened amongst them ; and. many of them, when the time of the collection comes round, abscond into the woods. The Inquisition, by a particular and express dispensation, is deprived of all authority over the Indians; their heresies are only noticed by ,the bishops, and their magical spells and incantations come under the consideration of the secular and civil government, but persua sion only is used. Bj a particular act of the ecclesiastical council of Lima, the reprimands of the church do not reach them ; their igno rance acts as a paracensure. The greatest punishment that can be inflict ed on an Indian, is the depriving him of his 50 hair, which also forms the great pride of the Africans. la Hispafiola, to this day, the women descended from the mixture of these two classes, plat their w r oo! with hair ribbon, to make it appear in long tresses, and I once had the curiosity to measure what a sooty damsel was going to plat on her head, and found the united pieces made thirty two yards. To the end they add a small piece of lead, to make the locks appear straight and long. There is a decree extant in the archives of the Council of the Indies, under the date of 5th March, 1 58 1 , that bears the stamp of singular ity. It being said by St. Paul, 1st. of Corin thians, 1 ithand 14th verses, " Does not even nature itself teach you, that a man indeed if he nourish his fiair, It is a shams unto him," the missionaries required, that those persons who were admitted to baptism, should cut off their hair; and the king, informed that this practice operated as an obstacle against, the conversion of the Indians who would not pur chase Christianity bv this sacrifice, ammM it by a law enacted under the above ?e. la the restrictions and exactions put upon :hern, the church, there is a great laxity and r for all their rites and observances ap scribed, with exceptions and d iUs their favour. The missionaries have always considered them to belong to that classification thus defined by certain theologians. " Rus- tici nesciunt species morales aut numerum/ and the curates for the Indians, have a particu lar itinerarium, filled with traits of singularity ; nay, some of the Spanish theologians have gone . so far as to apologize for some of their most discordant and even inhuman practices, by the exemptions allowed them. It is therefore deducible from the preceding pages, that the ground-work of civilization, pre scribed for the Indians, is a combination of policy and religion, and that their situation is much better than that of conquered nations generally, and indeed more improved than we generally imagine, a corollary which, parodoxi- cal as it may appear, is nevertheless true. A great preservative of that quiet, that has generally prevailed in these regions since their conquest, and which will defend at least this part of their population from those horrors that may perhaps originate in any contest be tween the Creole and the European, is the peculiar apathy and indifference of the Indians ; for the mass of their population appear to have no ideas but of existing, and heed little what passes beyond their local 61 situation ; and, with the exception of their chiefs, who are often endowed with natural genius, and of those individuals, who have an opportunity of mixing with the population of the cities, this appears to be their general characteristic. Guided entirely by the opinions of their elders, whom it has been the policy of Spain, at least to retain in the shadow of their ancient consequence, they are not acces sible even to the broils that might arise in the provinces on which they confine ; and are sheltered from all revolutions except those slow but salutary changes which the progressive civilization of the adjoining countries, may, in the lapse of time, spread over their extend ed regions. Religion appears, however, to have done more for them than policy, and has been much more consulted by those who have had their direction. The obligation to work, and the incentives to habitual industry, seem not to have formed any part of the regimen ; and it has been aptly observed, that they have been treated as wild beasts which their masters wish ed to tame, rather than as children of whom useful men might be made. If on each family there were imposed, for example, the obligation of cultivating a tract 62 of ground proportioned to their number, and this were strictly attended to by the magistrate who superintends the district, the most benefi cial results might be effected. For example, in the province of Caracas, from which ana logies may be drawn of the others, the 72,800 Indians whom it is supposed to contain, con tributing to trade each one thousand pounds annually of coffee, which is only one third of what is computed to the share of a negro on a plantation, and on an equal scale with the other productions ; the country would then be benefited by the value of that amount; commerce would receive that addition to its circulation ; the consumption of goods would be increased ; the half-clad Indian would be taught the use of cloaths and of some luxuries almost unknown to him, and all would even tually redound to the advantage of the govern- ment that might adopt the measure. Coffee and cotton seem the best suited to their state, as being the most simple and easy to rear and collect, and in this kind of culture, their children are equally serviceable. In a country where climate may be said to influence the minds of the people, there is a degree of lively imagination that makes the society of the inhabitants agreeable to those 63 whom a knowledge of the language renders capable of enjoying it ; and were their minds only formed and their talents called forth by edu cation and aided by a more general introduction of the arts and sciences, they would even acquire the character of a sensible race. The Mestizos and other Indian mixtures, possess an inge nuity similar to that of the Chinese ; they manufacture glass, and in a different way from us ; they imitate many of our manufactures, and require only good artists to direct them. Lately when the war deprived the interior of the proper printed calicoes d grand ramage, shewy and high coloured, a speculator bought up all the white platillas and linens he could meet with in Vera Cruz, sent them to Mexico, collected Indian artists who work very cheap, and with the pencil instead of moulds they imitated the fashionable patterns in such way as to be preferred on account of the colours being faster and more glowing, by which means he quadrupled his capital. Their workmanship in gold, where the or namental part depends not on mechanism or moulds, cannot be excelled by the European ; it resembles the work of the Maltese. Their paintings have been noticed by several authors, and many originals of value might yet be collected in the convents ; an object which, if it does not interest the public societies in England, we hope may ezicite and reward the curiosity of the many individuals of liberality and science we have amongst us. The Quachinangos are the greatest adepts in this art, and are a peculiarly singular race, being all painters, rope-dancers, and buffoons, so that the-name of their tribe is now synony mous with that of a tumbler, conjuror, or merry-andrew. Their paintings are not blended with the greatest delicacy, but the colouring is good ; they have no system, and are not aided by models ; their figures and per spective are not correct; but trained in the European school, they would riot fail to excel. They seize a likeness in a singular way, and there have been instances of a viceroy being seen on the road by a Quachinango, whose portraits were selling in Lima before he him self entered the gates. To prove that my assertions respecting the natural genius and acquirements of the peo ple of Spanish America are not speculative, I will quote the words of a compiler of some merit, to whom w^e are indebted for a degree of insight into the regions he has undertaken 65 to describe, though many of his data are not correct. " Knowledge is general throughout Peru, as well on account of the natural quickness and penetration of its native inhabitants, as from their fondness for study. In whatever does not require a meditated combination of ideas, the fair sex has commonly the advan tage over ours. The royal -university of St. Mark at Lima, and proportionably the other universities of the kingdom, form a centre of literature which diffuses an abundant light to the whole , circumference. Under their auspices, the moral and philosophical sciences have latterly made an incredible progress, having found their way into all the schools, and thence diffused themselves rapidly through every order of the state,. It is our earnest wish that this philosophic light may, by its permanence and efficacy, influence and ame liorate the common system of education. It Is on that score alone, in the acceptation of the term which comprehends the whole extent of the kingdom, that Peru is in some measure defective. A good taste, urbanity, and a social disposition, are the hereditary qualities of every Peruvian." VOL. II. F 66 It may also be worth remarking, that Spanish America has boasted within these few years of several good periodical works. El Mercurio Peruviano, published by a society of literati in Lima, treated on literature, philosophy, history, botany, and the fine arts, and displayed a pro found knowledge of ancient and modern learn ing. The system of vaccination has prevailed over the opposition of the clergy, and some local treatises have been written upon it. That inherent desire in man to escape the destroying scythe of time, and to transmit his memory beyond the limit of inevitable and confined destiny, has ever been a spur to human ambition ; and to this principle we are in debted for history, whether traditional or ex pressed by symbols, as well as for poetry, sculpture, and many of the fine arts that adorned the Grecian school. To their medals, obelisks, busts, &c. we owe part of our his tory of the Romans ; and though we have re marked that not a trace of Indian antiquity or remains are now met with in Hispanola, to carry us beyond the date of its conquest, many remnants are to be found on the main, particu larly in Mexico and Peru, which afford inter esting data for the history of the emperors of the former, and the Incas of the latter, and 67 well deserve the notice and contemplation of the scientific traveller and the archaiologist. Garcilaso is amongst the most elegant wri ters on Peru, who have touched upon the sub ject ; and as the language in which he wrote becomes more prevalent, his labours will be appreciated. The best archives were how ever lost at the time of conquest ; the fragile quipos are reduced to dust, and nothing an tique is left to the observer but fragments and ruins, to give an imperfect picture of such an interesting kingdom. The monuments how ever of the Incas, are proved by the traditions yet handed down amongst the Indians to have been erected as memorials of glory and power, and they still serve to give some idea of the state of that monarchy, before the devasta tion of conquest. The obelisks and statues of Tiahuanacu, and the mausolea of Chahapoyas, defy the edge of time. This province contains build ings of stone of a conical figure that support large unweildy busts, and are situated on the declivities of mountains. Mummies dug out, and catacombs dscoi- vered in a variety of places ; the former are in good preservation. There prevails an idea OS that the mummies found in the Sierras, owe their duration to a previous exposure to frost. The edifices of Cusco and Quito, the roads cut through the Cordilleras, canals, causeways, &c. attest the skill of the ancient Indians in civil and military architecture, and may be compared with the Appian, ^Emilian, and Fla- minian causeways still extant in Italy. Remains of their aqueducts are found near Lucanas, Condesuyos, and many other places, erected to conduct waters from valleys to the sum mits of the highest hills. Many sepulchres have been found containing paintings and a variety of utensils and valuables, which ge nerally accompanied the interment of their great men ; and many yet remain to be ex plored. Of their music and poetry, many records exist ; and the shepherds still calcu late the increase of their flocks by means of quipos. Pillars are found indicating the equi noctials and solstices, which shew that astrono my was a favourite study of the Incas, as was also medicine. To enter fully however on these subjects, were only to ransack authors who have preceded us ; and would be an an ticipation of what has been announced to the public from writers through other channels. CHAPTER XVIIL CHARACTERISTIC SKETCHES OF THE AMERICAN SPANIARDS. SWINBURNE, in his travels through Spain > has given us a separate characteristical outline of the inhabitants of each province, by which he has established a scale of contrast to enable us, in judging of the individual peculiarities accurately, to estimate all, or at least to fix their general and prominent features. The Spa niards of America possess few of the compo nent traits of their European countrymen ; but if any, it is of the Andalusian, with whom also they most assimilate. The Creole has imbibed against the natives of the other provinces of Spain peculiar prejudices, derived from their leading occupations and manners. A native mo ther of the country opposes the marriage of her daughter with a rich Catalan, because he has made his fortune by drawing wine, selling butter and cheese, and is filthy in his person ; with the Gallician, because he is a plodding, hard-working person, roaming in search of 70 a hardly earned subsistence; and the appel lation of Gal lego is almost synonymous with that of a porter in every province in Spain ; with the Biscayan, because he is boisterous and tyrannic, partaking x>f the peculiar tinge of his province, fiery, impatient, and jealous ; with the Castillian, because he is sullen, re served, opposed to shew and parade ; in short, with all the preceding from their peculiar jargon of provincial dialect : but in the Anda- lusian, she finds a gaiety, sprightliness, anima tion, softer modulations of language and ex pression, more congenial manners, and an elevation of character not descending to the calls of porters and pedlars : hence though less rich, she prefers him. Should her daugh ter marry one of the former provincials, w r hen the nuptial compliments are over, the officious mother will always predispose the relations by telling them that his fortune was the induce ment, but that she hopes he will soon give up his store, wear a long coat and turn gentle man, for she is sure her daughter will never endure living among the flies that crowd the boxes of sugar, or amidst the perfumes of codfish. Marriages either in Spain or Spanish Ame rica, were never generally exhibited as models 71 of conjugal felicity, and though there are many happy exceptions to this remark, they too often serve as examples of irregularity to the children. That warmth of passions, that effervescence and impetuosity of feeling, fre quently the result of romance, and delusive anti cipations of hope, but not founded on conge niality, or matured by reason, too often bring a couple together. The parents having little hold on the actions of their progeny, cannot control their choice ; they marry at an early age, but unlike our own quakers, who think this custom the greatest guardian to the morals of the rising generation, satiety and disgust too generally ensue ; appearance and considera tions of propriety make their home indeed mutual, but fidelity is a clog they both hasten to throw off. A cortejo, like the cisisbeo of the Italians, becomes the right of the wife ; he leads her to the tertulias and public walks, dances with her, orders her carriage, and is entirely and exclusively attendant on her call ; whilst the husband consoles himself in the arms of a mistress, and heeds little nor inter feres with what passes in his family. The lover who had, previous to marriage, passed entire nights under the window of his in tended, muffled in a cloak to discover if she 72 had more suitors than himself, scarcely trust ing to her own professions, after the mar riage-ceremony is over becomes indifferent., and lays aside that jealousy we in our novels ascribe to the Spanish husband instead of the lover. Certainly Montesquieu, when he as serted that the fewer marriages the less fide lity in them, must have made this people a wide exception. \ We have already remarked that they marry at an early age, and I cannot here resist the temptation of citing the testimony of a late foreign author little known to us, on the charac teristics of the Spanish Americans. " The females in the Spanish dominions, are marriageable at the age of twelve years, and the boys at fourteen, so that we often see the united ages of a wedded pair fall short of thirty, and the latter considers himself only a man when he is a husband. The study or ac cordance of disposition seldom precedes matri mony ; the sympathy of humour is often aiistaken for that of feeling, and passion ; an eternal attachment is anticipated where no thing but a slight and passing fancy in reality exists. They enter the bonds of wedlock as if its duration had an optional limit. In all civilized nations, the parents have an 73 absolute authority over their children till a certain age, prescribed by a positive law. In Holland it formerly continued to the age of twenty for the female, and twenty-five for the male. In England both have arrived at the legal age of puberty, at twenty-one years. In France the minority is limited at twenty- five for the women, and thirty for the men ; though by a late law, they have the free ad ministration and disposal of property at twen ty-one. Till that time they are considered under the tutelage of their parents, and every engagement previously contracted of this na ture is held null and void. This custom ap pears to have been wisely established as a check on the morals and passions of youth, and to frustrate and counteract the snares frequently set for its inexperience. It is not uncommon in Spain for a daughter who has been refused alliance to her choice, and whose connexion is opposed by the parents, to take refuge in the house of the curate, or some other respectable secular, where she places herself out of the reach of her natural guar dians ; the banns ate then published three suc cessive Sundays, and though the parents of neither party concur, the ceremony is per- 74 formed unless any degradation to either family be proved. To suppress emigration to South America, and hinder persons of bad character from being introduced there, it became necessary even for Spaniards to obtain passports in Eu rope and grants of residence; and by the Tarifa de gracias, drawn up in 1801, the Council of the Indies had the right of disposing of this grant to foreign persons, previously naturalized according to law in Spain ; in that case the naturalization act cost 45o dollars, and the passport or certificate of residence, 4oo; but this was granted under some stipu lations, particularly as to a similarity of reli gion. The Spaniards, who once get esta blished there, seldom return home though even married before their emigration ; they form new alliances, often leaving their former wife and family in poverty in their native vil lages. Their little ventures they carry out prosper and increase in a country where every necessary in life is cheap, and they acquire a consistency and importance they would lose by revisiting their mother country. The Ca talans and Biscayans form the greatest body of emigrants. 75 few Creoles visit Europe, against which, both distance and prejudice operate, and they acquire little more than a local education, which some, however, accomplish by the ener gy of their own minds, The attachment that might arise from schooling her colonial youth in the mother country, Spain, seems to have considered as undeserving her notice ; but the French thought it of material consequence. They suppressed all colleges abroad, in order to monopolize the education of male and female children in Europe, that they might there form connections ; and civil and military promotions were to be obtained there only. This created al liances and connections, which lasted through life, and contributed to a union of interests. Even the spurious descendants of planters in Saint Domingo, received this mode of educa- cation. The traveller through Spain and Portugal, has at all times, been astonished at the super abundant quantity of friars and clergy that are met with, and has considered them the great est tax possible, upon the working poor com munities, from whom they derive their prin cipal support This remark holds equally good on South America, for the numbers seem to vie with those of the mother country, so 76 much so, that the higher ranks are filled with little else than friars, seculars, nuns, lawyers,, and nominal officers ; and it is the best cri terion of the size and consequence of a town, to sum up the quantity of convents it has within its precincts. The clergyman, w r ho assists at the dying moments of the sick, and the notary called to draw up his last wishes, equally remind him of the church ; and if he be considered rich, not to leave it a legacy or prebend, were an act of irreligion that would shock the good pastor and his flock, so that if this practice continues in successive ages, they will, exclusively, become the principal owners of property in the country ; and are, indeed, amongst the first now. The Creoles are particularly attached to their own country, which they think the best of any in the world, from its having been in every war, a point of attack to England ; the great object of French intrigue, the subject of envy and enterprise to their free neighbours on the north, and in short a bone of contention *for them all. When they contrast it with European Spain, they see nothing but poor adventurers, who come amongst them with a view to get riches, by filling the most menial offices ; and as ease and affluence are their chief good, they judge of all by the species that come amongst them. They feel pride and consequence from being born in a new he misphere, and conceive that to Creolism is attached a degree of dignity and honour. It will n<Dt, therefore, appear singular that a nation which has no emigrations, but receives those from her mother country, is drained by no wars, and is blest with a genial climate and prolific people, should have risen, from the time of its discovery, to an inconceivable degree of population, the more difficult accu rately to calculate, as it is scattered over im mense regions, and its census is attended with the incorrections we have alluded to, in speaking of that of Hispanola. To prove how far the want of intercourse tends to the formation of false notions, and how much the French have studied to engraft a good opinion of themselves on other nations, to the prejudice of their rivals, I will mention the peculiarities remarked in a young Creole Spaniard, who accompanied me lately to Eng land, as it may be considered a faithful out line of the general bias in their way of think ing, and will evince what erroneous predis positions exist, afid with what subtlety and design the malignant misrepresentations of the 78 French have been spread. His maitres d agre- mens, had been all of the Gallic tribe, and had generally led him to think, that England was the very tomb of existence, her cities scenes of want, and plodding enterprise, her public buildings devoid of design, and confined to ranges of galleries and halls for the purposes of manufacture ; the people, in short, distant, dull, inhospitable, and egotists. With such a schooling, one may judge of the feelings of a native youth, set down in the midst of London ; gazing at its curiosities and buildings, and enjoying every delight or lux ury it affords. He could scarcely believe that the music and representations at Covent Gar den, were by English performers, or that dancing so exquisite, could be produced by such drones as they had been represented to him ; that the delicious viands of which he partook, and the great display of pastry in the shops, could be prepared by any but an eleve at Paris. When he saw a beautiful, well-formed, well- dressed, and elegant female trip by him, " is she not French ?" was the first and spontaneous question, for English ladies had always been delineated to him as resembling Dutch house wives, and devoid of taste, grace, and anima- 70 tion. Science could not be cultivated amongst us, since all works of that nature which the Spanish language boasted, were borrowed from the French ; even the novels of Richard son, which so much delight the Spanish rea der, with difficulty would he place to the credit of the nation to whom they belonged, because the editions he had read in his own language, were preceded by a " translated from the French." He had, indeed, heard of such a building as St. Paul s, and of some others that equally filled him with astonish ment, but had never met with any printed de scription to enable him to form a correct idea of their magnificence, or of the talents and exhibitions of English painters and statuaries. The acquirements of the English in the arts, had been limited to their manufactures ; to the moulding of buttons, the grinding of ra zors, and such like handicraft; what he at first, only allowed them to possess was, a good breed of horses, and well-trained sailors. A small intercourse with the nation, however, soon obliterated the prejudices he had received from French influence and tutoring ; and, as his ideas enlarged, he discovered that his early notions had been founded on misrepresenta tions, and rival envy ; and in his letters home, 80 he lamented the delusion of so many of his countrymen, to whom a simplicity of manners had been represented as boorish coldness and apathy ; the disuse of insincere and gesticu lated expressions of forced friendship, a want of polish and civility, and in short, that the portrait generally held out to them, was mere ly a blending of dark shades. A French author, speaking of the dress and appearance of Spanish youths, says, " they have gained the acme of perfection as soon as they have acquired our style of dress, manners, and accomplishments, and can act and carry themselves a la Francoise." The Creoles have certainly an aptitude for the sciences and general learning, but not for the deep researches of the plodding Dutch com mentator. Their minds are active, their ima ginations lively and penetrating, they easily receive an impression, though they do not so long retain it as the European, owing to the flexibility of their corporeal structure, which produces a correspondent volatility of ipind. The greatest part of their artists and handi craftsmen, are Creoles of colour, descendants of Indians, sometimes mixed with white and black blood. Oviedo himself, was born in South America, and is the best and most cor- 81 rect author that has ever written on that country ; but many other men of equal merit might be named. From their most trust worthy records we find, that thirty years after the conquest, there were Indians in the col leges of Mexico, who were preceptors of Greek and Latin, professors of painting, and to their ingenuity and address, the mission aries owed a good comprehension of their lan guage and history, derived from symbols, cha racters, and figures. In jurisprudence and civil law, we find ma ny illustrious characters ; hence, we may easily infer, that if their minds received right bias, and their education were properly formed, their national prejudices would subside, and they would no longer look with scornful dis regard on the acquirements of other nations. They begin, however, to pierce with a steady eye the mist of fanaticism and prejudice, with which they have been clouded and obscured ; they assume a more modified state of social existence ; they gradually discover, that there is something in other nations worthy their adoption and imitation ; they shake off that lethargy which serves but to debilitate and emasculate the human frame, and it may be expected there will be a happy change in their TOL. II. G 82 systems, and that the generation now on its decli e, will be succeeded by one possessing features of moral amelioration, harmonized and illuminated by the useful principles of other nations. Their youth no longer think with their fa thers, that geography is a useless science ; that the history of the world and of man, in tracing the occurrences of the past, casts no light en the future, and, that a good acquaint ance with Feyjoo, ought to be the summit of their ambition. They begin to study living languages to prepare them for general inter course ; even English becomes an enviable ac quirement, French loses ground, and they regret, that in the many communications and diplomatic relations they have had with the court of St. James s, and its armies in their countries, the language of their enemies has been used, which, like its nation, is less sincere, and not suited to the character and pure pro fessions of the one who adopted it. Even their families who thought trade a degradation, find in it a theory worthy of their study, and that the putting their sons to be ap prentices in foreign houses, is no longer a dis grace to them ; a greater and more novel degree of energy prevails ; the planter antici- 83 pates sales for his produce, and the trader ac tivity to his capital and exertions, which jointly contribute to invite a more extensive and profitable intercourse with this country. From the above statement, we may easily perceive, that there were many parents who had sufficient discernment to judge of the defects of their own local system of education, and who felt anxious to have their children brought up abroad. As early as 1804, many were sent to the neighbouring United States for schooling, and particularly flocked to the college of the French emigrant clergy of the Order of St, Sulpice, established in Maryland ; there they made a progress highly creditable to the good regulations and science of the preceptors. This gave great umbrage, how ever, to many of their own clergy, who were bigoted to the ancient system of things ; com plaints and remonstrances were made to the goverment in Europe ; it was represented dan gerous to educate youths in a country, where the principles of freedom and free-thinking prevailed ; by a public decree, it became cri minal to school them out of their own coun try, all such, were declared incapable of holding offices, civil and military, and the corvette Desempeno was actually sent from G 2 84 the Havannah, to demand them from their mas* ters, in the name of the government. It is therefore easily deducible, that the progressive state of melioration and advance ment, is on a general scale, more elevated in these distant regions than even in Spain, but both would yet admit of great further* ance. In the agriculture of the latter, for instance, we remark the same mis-shapen and uncouth plough as that described by Virgil, in his Georgics, without any improvement, though so many have been made by other na tions ; let us visit their academies, and examine the theses there proposed, and we shall find them guided by the musty and obsolete philo sophy of the old schools ; their logic is but the jargon of syllogistic disputation, to prove su pernatural causes, and this they call ethics ; the improvements of the last age have not yet dispersed the clouds of mental error ; hy pothetical categories hold the place of moral and practical knowledge ; the efforts of inves tigation are unknown ; principles are admitted on false induction, or inverted phenomena, and entirely unconnected with experiment or analysis. The whole of this system is con- lined to the cloisters of a convent ; the results are in no wise applicable to the purposes of 85 life, or to the discharge of public or social duty. That a want of proper regulation also exists throughout all Spanish America, in the in struction and forming of the minds of youth, is a melancholy fact, which cannot have escaped the notice of the most superficial observer ; and this, added to the natural indulgence of the parent, and the languor of the climate, would make the effects doubly deplorable, were it not for the natural genius and talent the youth possess, tending to make up for this great and essential defect ; and added to their greater facility of acquiring books, ren dering their education still comparatively better than what is generally obtained in Spain. As we have already remarked, the people seem to possess more perception, less vulgar errors, a greater tendency to progressive im provement ; nay, w r e often meet persons, who, without ever having quitted their own conti nent, would deserve a seat in any of our learned institutions in Europe, having risen to a great degree of proficiency in many of the arts and sciences, such as chemistry, botany, experimental philosophy, astronomy, &c. Labouring under every disadvantage from want 86 of preceptors, instruments, and the latest im provements in the different branches of science, they have overcome them all by dint of labour, perseverance, and intellectual research, which neither the difficulties nor the arduousness of attainment could quench. Even the untu tored Indians reason with an astonishing de gree of accuracy from external things ; their minds, distinguished by strong originality, are capable and retentive of the most extended impressions ; and if it be true, that every mind must start in its progress to intelligence, from the goal of absolute ignorance, it is better to have no ideas than wrong ones. To point out the still existing defects, which, in other words, is to prescribe the amendment of the national system of training youth, and fitting them for the world, cannot be offensive to the feelings of the Spaniard of either region ; for, besides its being prompted by an impulse, and a wish for the bettering of intellectual and fellow beings, it is of national consequence, as being one step to that grounded reform, which every feeling and patriotic breast hopes will be their lot, as the best means to secure their independence, and again raise them to that a; elevation they once held in Europe. Surely, at least, in quoting one of their native Creoles, and most sensible writers on .this subject, I cannot be accused of prejudice, or distorted representation, Dr. Miguel Joze Sanz, born and educated in the province of Venezuela, was employed to draw up a form of municipal laws, and civil regulations for the city of Caracas, and certainly the choice was justified in the wis dom and soundness of the measures he pre scribed. Caracas has al way s v been called the Cadiz of the western world ; the comparison will therefore afford a scale for the general application of the strictures of this author, and his code, which is found printed, and in force in that province, might serve, with certain modifications, for many other dis tricts of Spanish America. Speaking on the public and prevailing edu cation, he says, " As soon as the boy is put to school, he is taught to read in books of improbable stories and wonderful miracles, or in those of a devotion without principles, reduced only to certain exterior practices, which form him rather into a hypocrite than the man of sound sense. The parent thinks he has fulfilled his duty, if his child can 88 repeat his prayers by heart, or gabble over his catechism, which, though good in itself, does not suffice to make him an upright man, teach him the duties of a good moral Christian, or those which he owes to society at large. He is taught certain punctilios of vanity and pre eminence, which make him abuse the preroga tives of his birth, the objects of which he does not know, so that he often boasts with an ill- placed pride in speaking of his progenitors, that his grandfather was a king s officer, his uncle an alcalde, his brother a friar, or his cousin a prebendary ; and thinks their merit equally reflects on him, with all the distinctions. These defects, which owe their origin to wrong principles of education, engender and nourish hereditary enmities in families, and breed in the citizen habits of internal deceit. It is incompatible with the love and confidence, that ought to be grounded on mutuality and the social tie in every country, when each one is ambitious of being distinguished by heredi tary pre-eminence and distinction. Instead of teaching them emulation for the virtues of the good patriot, the father seldom does more than impress on his children, that Peter is less noble than James ; such a family has got such a stain, and that when such a branch of nobility married with a plebeian, the rest of the family went into mourning.* " Thus are divisions in families kept alive and transmitted to posterity ; the embers o* distrust continually fanned, and the bonds of charity rent asunder. " They are then taught Latin before they know the principles of their own language, or are capable of accentuating or correctly writing a letter. Numerical combinations and rules of arithmetic are excluded; they are taught Aristotle s Philosophy, the Insti tutes of Justinian, Gonet s and Laraga s Theo logy ; all aspire to be doctors, but the useful and mechanic arts lie neglected. All are des tined for the tonsure, the epaulette, or for the rancorous gall-fraught quill of the lawyer. " It is the want of ideas and information that retains citizens in errors opposed to their felicity. Were they once convinced that the work most agreeable to the divinity is the cultivation of sound morality, the ground work of all good religion, and of the duties which as Christians we owe each other, such immense sums would not then be squandered * A peculiar mode, by which is publicly testified the dislike er disapprobation of an unequal alliance, as an act beneath th dignity of the family. in pomp, parade, and feasts, in maintaining useless and burthensome societies, that are of no moral or national good, and that would be better appropriated to the founding of public schools, the instructing of youth in Christian and political virtue, and the training them in the arts that stimulate industry, and give pro sperity to a nation. By this means prudent and disinterested magistrates would be pro duced, an enlightened clergy, and virtuous citizens would be formed ; the first rendered incapable of abusing their authority ; the second, of calling in religion to hide their own ignorance under the veil of hypocrisy and su perstition ; and the latter from flattering their own passions, stooping to inherited enmities, or using their power and influence to oppress the poor ; each then would mutually become the ornament of his country, establish a new basis of national honour, and all would co operate for the public good." 1 have thought myself the more justifiable in the length of this extract, as it comes direct from one acquainted with the state of his own country, intimately and nearly interested in its prosperity, who has dedicated his recent la bours to its melioration, and who has many claims to the sincere acknowledgments of his 91 compatriots. It lays open to us the root and cause of many of the national evils we have ourselves had to deplore in them ; but con vinces us ~at the same time, that though wrong systems of education exist, which may be called the parents of so much national vice, and groveling prejudice ; the most enlightened and disinterested are sensible that they are wrong, and that even in those distant climes ? there are men amongst them ready and capa ble of laying the axe to the root, who have at heart the improvement of their moral and political relations, and who are desirous that the corner-stone should be laid of that desired reform, without convulsion, on which they hope to raise the superstructure of their future greatness and prosperity. Philosophers have laid it down as a maxim, that the voluntary and efficient actions of men originate in their opinions ; if so, it is equally deducible, that these must be the result of pre cepts; for the morals and way of thinking of a people, are engrafted on the schooling they receive, as well from the parent and preceptor, as from the spirit and character of the laws, establishments, and government, under which they live. To the abject state of all these in Spain, 92 and the confined extension of knowledge amongst the mass of the people, most of their present degrading evils may be attributed; for if the mind of man may be called an in animate embryo till it becomes formed by in struction, and expanded by the influence of intelligence, the responsive beat of energy and the patriotic zeal of a cause cannot be felt till the understanding be cleared of its mid night gloom, again directed into its proper channel and bias, and its aberrations checked and countaracted. Spain had no middle class of citizens ; they were divided into high and low, rich and poor, and the system of precluding the latter from any acquirement of knowledge or idea of the state of their own country, seems tena ciously to have been upheld by the late go vernment. All means of distributing informa tion were stifled. La gazeta de Madrid, a ministerial paper, and in control of the French, was almost the only medium for dif fusing ideas on the state of Europe, or the oc currences that have convulsed her regions, and laid her at the feet of a tyrant ; and its circu lation was extremely confined. From the date of her alliance, France has been preparing this last momentous attempt ; her emissaries have 93 been at work every where to weave and fit traces to yoke Spain in common with the other subju gated nations of Europe, to the car of the con queror, and to degrade her to that state in which she now gasps for a national existence. This general ignorance of every character istic trait in the transactions of their faithless, inconstant, and oppressive neighbours, did not raise in them the sigh of indignation ; they saw not that their laws, liberties, and destinies depended on their own energy ; they looked on the trampled rights of other nations with an eye of indifference ; they never thought their own fate was at hand ; they forgot the apposite allusion of their own proverb, " Quien hizo un cesto hara ciento ;" and they slumbered in fatal security whilst the fabric of other states more powerful, crumbled in ruins around them. They never calculated consequences from the calamities of others; the treachery, violence, and dominion of the great enemy of mankind excited not in them that gra dual and everlasting odium, the offspring of rea soning and conviction, which ought to have strung them to energy when roused by a sense of their own wrongs, but which like an elec tric shock, first struck upon their frame, producing indeed a fitful and transitory blaze. 94 but not the materials of a strong and steady flame. It may also be said, that our own plans of operation were more fitted for the Spaniards of former ages than for those of the present ; for though their national character be perhaps the most congenial to our own, and though they be constant, secret, patient of fatigue, implaca ble, and fiery in their animosities, yet if their national virtues, of which they have many, are not brought into a proper focus, and then well directed, it is difficult and indeed unsafe to rely on the energy or united efforts of the nation at large ; and our experience has well convinced us they rather wanted headp to plan and combine, than hands and hearts ta execute. To their own patriots, who stood at the helm of affairs, of w r hom many possessed a fortitude truly Roman, and who were better qualified to judge of the state of their own country, this consideration might have been apparent from pre-existing causes, and they might have counteracted it by more energetic measures in collecting, forming, uniting, rous-^ ing, but at the same time instructing their people; to a conviction of their o*vn injuries they ought to have added those of other na tions , they ought to have overlooked prece- 95 dencies and distinctions ; merit and patriot ism ought to have been the steps to pre-emi nence in the army and in the state. The heads of government, mistook their own ebul litions of patriotic zeal, for those of the people en masse, and they who co-operated with them were unfortunately led into the same error. Not that there existed a coldness or indifference on the part of the people gene rally; the want of mutual explanation and difference of manners, appeared to us indeed a want of unanimity ; but the feelings of the Spaniard are generous, firm, and in the pre sent cause sincere, yet in the choice of per sons to send amongst them, it may be re gretted we did not look for men capable of conciliating their eccentricities, of conform ing to their peculiar habits ; in short, for men possessing a better knowledge of the country, and of the genius, customs, and character of the people, and of course more capable of call ing forth their energies and resources. These indeed are not qualifications to be acquired in our own local schools. Few Englishmen travel amongst them, but for the purposes of trade ; they then collect in parties in the maritime towns, penetrate not into the in- terior, study not the moral habits and genius of the nation, and too often deride those prac tices which clash with their own, and of which they cannot fathom the sources. There may be a day when men of foreign science may be more appreciated, and those who have dedicated their labours and fortunes in re searches abroad for our own information at home, may meet some notice and reward from the government that benefits by their collec tive efforts ; but at present, France surpasses us in this policy, and best knows how to ap ply it in furtherance of her extended views. The efforts of Spain to assert her indepen dence will ever form a memorable epoch in the annals of her history ; and the exertions of England in her cause, will ever be remem bered with gratitude, and form an indissolu ble bond of alliance between them. It would however be deviating from our plan to pur sue this subject, which appears confined to the occurrences of the peninsula in Europe ; and as it is pleasing to support one s re marks by those of others equally informed> I shall quote a paragraph from the first num ber of a periodical work called El Espanol, published in London under date of the 30th of April, 1810, and the well-known senti ments of the author, may warrant my appli cation. " No porque la situacion de Espana sea mui triste al presente se han de cerrar los ojos a la esperanza. La Espana renacera mas gloriosa si no se dexa apagar el fuego de patriotismo, que aunque sin direccion y espa- cido, penetra todas sus venas. Luces necesita la Espana ; que valor nace con sus naturales, y deseo de venganza lo suministraran sin in- termision los Franceses. " Pero hay otra Espana libre> que debe llamar la atehcion de todos los enemigos de la tirania Francesa. Los Espanoles de America necesitan nuestros consejos, hijos de una amar- ga experiencia. Es justo que les pintemos lo que sufrimos, es justo que conozcan a los malvados astutos, qu despues de haberse ce- bado con la sangre de sus hermanos de Es pana, estan queriendo enganar a los del Nuevo Mundo para disfrutar exclusivamente sus ri- quezas. Los mares no los ponen a cubierto de la intriga Francesa, y aun quando no pue- dan intentar alii una conquista, intentaran que prenda el fuego de la discordia en las vastas regiones adonde no alcanzan sus armas." We must not close our eyes to hope be- VOL, ii. H a* cause the condition of Spain is calamitous Spain will one day revive, unless the fire of patriotism which, although scattered and un directed, penetrates every vein, be suffered to die away. She requires only to be enlighten- ed, for valour is the birthright of her natives ; and the French themselves will supply an un remitting desire of revenge. "There is however another and a free Spain which ought to engage the attention of every foe to French tyranny. The Spaniards of America require our counsels, the offspring of a better experience. It is just to describe to them wiiat we have suffered ; what we now suffer : it is just to depict to them the true portrait of those who, satiated with the blood of their brethren in Spain, are aiming to se duce and deceive those of the new world, in order to obtain exclusive possession of their riches. The seas afford their country no bar rier to the intrigues of the French ; for though they cannot extend/ their conquests thither, they will endeavour to spread the flames of discord through regions beyond the reach of their arms/* gg CHAPTER XIX. CLIMATE OF SPANISH AMERICA. ANIMAL AND VEGETABLE KINGDOM. J-O convey an adequate idea of that im mense and almost untravelled tract of country, which forms the north and south divisions of Spanish America, would be as impossible as to take a statistical view of it ; since in manners and productions, each pro vince varies, as do most of the aboriginal tribes; and each would require a separate work. Of its general situation, appearance, local advantages, &c. the remarks of an able writer on Peru, regarding its formation from chaotic matter, is perhaps the best descrip tion that can be given. " Nature now appears wrapped up in mys terious silence. Her powerful hand is about to give the last perfection to the globe, and to support its equilibrium by forming two dis tinct worlds, in one continent. It would appear that after she had exercised herself on the burning sands of Africa, on the leafy and fragrant groves of Asia, #nd on the tem- H 2 100 perate and colder climes of Europe, she* aimed at assembling together in Peru, all the productions she had denied to the other three quarters, and to repose there, majestically surrounded by each of them." These regions are equally productive, in teresting and majestic. Bouguer in his work, Sur la Figure de la Terre, alluding to the Cordilleras says, " In ascending the rude and terrific mountains which look to the South Sea, it cannot possibly occur to the human mind, that on their shoulders, others of equal magnitude should rise, and that all of them should serve, in their common bosom to shel ter, temperate, and fertilize that happy coun try, where nature in her most bountiful mood, or rather in her prodigality, has painted the image of the terrestial paradise," That the climate of Spanish America is in general healthy cannot be denied, or that most of the distempers incidental to Europeans are owing to fortuitous causes, and a neglect in adapting their system of living to the atmos phere and country in which they reside. To receive the chill of rains on a body heated by fatigue, and an oppressive sun, as well as to load the stomach with crude fruits and liquors, in a state of fermentation, cannot but produce the 101 most fatal consequences ; but in these cases imprudence, and not the insalubrity of the air is the cause of disease. Elevated and airy situ ations are, however, the most healthy, as in a country, where vegetation is so great and quick, the miasmata of stagnated waters must be proportionably inimicable to population. The vomito prieto, or black vomit, is an endemic disease, unknown before the arrival of Euro peans. The system, indeed, becomes debilita ted from the effects of a torrid zone, to which one is not, perhaps, accustomed, and the foods being less nutritive, and the tone of the sto mach being soon lost, a degree of hardness is occasioned in the biliary ducts, which causes inflammable and bilious fevers ; but these arc natural ailments of the human frame, and not owing to any thing pestilential in the locality of the country. But that these occur more frequently in some places, than in others, is equally a fact, deducible from physical causes. It is observable in Vera Cruz, from example, and arises from the situation and moist vicinity of that city ; hence it ceases when we get into the interior. In Mexico, natives are found of a very advanced age, and history records in stances of several. Calnuchua, a Tlascalan cap tain, who assisted the Spaniards in the con- 102 quest of Mexico, died at the age of 1 30 years ; Pedro Nieto, a Spanish Jesuit, at 132, and Diego Ordonez, a Franciscan, at 117, and he preached till the last month of his life, when he took leave of his flock in the words of St. Paul, bonum certamen certaui, cursum co/z- sumavi, &c. Indeed, a long catalogue might be made of those who have exceeded one hun dred years ; nor is there observable in the teeth, muscles of the body, hair, &c. any symptoms of decay, as in the aged of Europe. A learned writer, Clavigero, describing the climate, says, this country, as it is extremely extensive, and divided into so many provinces, different in their situation, is necessarily subjected to a va riety of temperature and climate. Some of its lands, such as the maritime, are hot, and in general, moist, and unhealthy ; others are like all inland places, temperate, dry, and salubri ous. In some the south wind, in others the east, and in others the north wind prevails, according to their situation, and the formation of their mountains. The greatest cold of any of the inhabited places, is not equal to that of France, or Castile ; nor can the greatest heat be comparable with that of Africa, or the dbg days even of England. The difference between winter and summer is so little in any part, 103 \ hat, the most delicate persons wear the same cloaths in August as in January. This is a representation so palpable and no torious, that it would even do aw^ay with the assertions of the philosophizing Mr. Pauw, in his Recherches Philosophiques, where he says, " the surface of the earth is infected by putre faction, is over-run with lizards, serpents, reptiles, and insects of a monstrous size, de riving the activity of their poison from the copious juices of this uncultivated soil, \vhich being corrupted and abandoned to itself, the nutritive juice became sharp like the milk in the breasts of animals which do not exercise the functions of propagation. Caterpillars, crabs, butterflies, beetles, spiders, frogs, and toads, were for the most part of an enormous corpulence in their species, and multiplied beyond what can be imagined. Panama is infested with serpents, Carthagena with clouds of bats, Puerto Bello with toads, Surinam with cucarachas or cochroaches, Guadaloupe, and the other colonies of the islands, with beetles, Quito with niguas or ticks, and Lima with lice and bugs. The ancient kings of Mexico, and Emperors of Peru, found no other means o