SOUTH AMERICA--MISSIONS IN THE INTERIOR. (FROM HUMBOLDT'S VOYAGE AUX REGIONS EQUINOXIALES DU NOUVEAU CONTINENT.)

It was at five o'clock in the morning on the 4th of September (says M. de Humboldt) that we commenced our journey to the Missions of the Chaymas Indians, and towards a group of high mountains which cross New Andalusia.

We soon met with cabins inhabited by Mestizos, in the Ravine of Los Frailes.

In Europe we judge of the number of inhabitants from the extent of cultivation: under the Tropics, on the contrary, in the hottest and most humid parts of South America, the most populous provinces appear to be deserted; because men, for the sake of nourishment alone, will only cultivate a small proportion of land.

Without neighbours, almost without intercourse with men, each family of these Colonists forms an isolated people.

It is said, that in the New World man appears not as an absolute master who changes the surface of the soil at his pleasure, but rather as a passing guest, who tranquilly enjoys the bounties of Nature.

In fact, in the neighbourhood of the most populous cities, the land retains the inheritance of its forests, or is covered with a thick underwood, which has never been touched with the axe.

The natural productions of the earth so exceed in magnitude and number those introduced by cultivation, as to characterise the aspect of the country.

It is to be presumed that this state of things cannot be changed but in a long process of time.

The forests of the New World present a singular appearance.

Every where the trunks of the trees are hidden under a species of verdant tapestry, and if due care were taken, in transplanting, to preserve the ligaments, a vast extent of ground might be covered.

The same climbers which at present spread rampantly over the soil, might be made to ascend the trees, passing from one to another to the height of 100 feet.

We travelled for some hours under the shade of these arbours, which hardly left an opening through which we could view the azure sky.

It appeared to me of an indigo colour, and remarkably dark, as the green of the equinoctial plants is generally deep, and verging towards a brown.

Near San Fernando, the evaporation caused by the action of the sun was so great, that being slightly clothed, we felt ourselves as damp as if coming from a shower bath.

A path bordered by bamboos brought us to the small village of San Fernando.

This was the first Mission we had seen in America.

The houses or rather huts of the Chaymas Indians, which are separated from all others, have no gardens round them. Every Indian family cultivates at some distance from the village, besides his private garden, the conuco of the commune.

It is in the latter of these that the adults of both sexes are accustomed to labour one hour each morning and evening.

In those Missions nearest the coast, the garden of the community is generally a sugar or indigo plantation under the superintendence of the Missionary, the produce of which can only be employed in the support of the Church and the purchase of sacerdotal ornaments.

The great square of San Fernando is situated in the middle of the village, inclosing the Church, the Missionary dwelling, and that unaspiring edifice which is called the King's House.

It is truly a Caravansary, appropriated to the shelter of travellers, and is infinitely precious in a country where even the word Inn is unknown.

These King's houses are to be met with in all the Spanish colonies, and one might believe that they are, in imitation of the Tambos of Peru, established by the laws of Manco-Capac.

The Mission of San Fernando was founded at the end of the 17th century, at the junction of the small rivers of Manzanares and Lucalparez.

The resident families have increased to about a hundred, and the Missionary here remarked that the custom of the young folks marrying at the ages of thirteen or fourteen had greatly contributed to the rapid growth of the population.

The government of these Indian Communes is, in other respects, most complicated; they have their governor, their alguazil major, their commandants of militia, all of whom carry their bows and arrows.

The company of the archers have flags, and, habited in white, exercise the bow and arrow.

These constitute the National Guards of the country.

I have already proved (says M. de Humboldt), in my work on Mexico, how very wrong it was to state, generally, the assumed fact of the destruction or diminution of the Indians in the Spanish Colonies.

There still exists in the two Americas a colored population of above six million of souls; and although a great number of the tribes and languages has been extinguished or confounded, the number of Indians has not greatly diminished since the discovery by Columbus.

The religious orders have formed their establishments between the territory of the Colonists and the Three Indians.

The Missions should be considered as a species of intermediate States; they have encroached, no doubt, upon the liberty of the natives, but almost everywhere they have been subservient to the increase of population, which is incompatible with the wandering life of the independent Indians.

In proportion as the religious orders approach the forests, and gain on the natives, the white colonists in their turn endeavour to invade on the opposite side the settlements of the Missionaries; after an unequal contest the Missionaries are gradually supplanted by the regular clergy.

The whites and the mulattoes, favored by the Corregidors, are establishing themselves in the midst of the Indians . The residences of the Missionaries become Spanish villages, and the natives lose even the recollection of their national idiom.

Such has been the progress of civilisation from the coasts to the interior.