356 To the River Plate and Back 



time of their first settlement were highly malarious. 

 I can remember as a child hearing the remark made 

 that in the valley of the Tuscarawas in Ohio the cost 

 of the quinine needed to keep the family in health 

 exceeded the cost of the flour which was consumed. 

 The remark was intended to be a somewhat playful 

 exaggeration, but sixty years ago it had foundation 

 in truth. It would not be made to-day. Just as the 

 reclamation of the swampy lands in the Middle West 

 of our own country has led to the disappearance of 

 malarial fevers in places which half a century ago were 

 haunted by them, so also will it be in South America. 

 The city of Santos is a notable example of this (see 

 p. 80). 



But something more is needed to constitute a state 

 than the existence of large material resources and 

 favorable climatic conditions. The human element is 

 the most important. If Greece in the days of Socrates 

 had been inhabited by Maoris, and Rome at the time 

 of the Caesars had been populated by Berbers, the story 

 of those days would have been very different. Man is 

 the highest of the animals, but, being an animal, a 

 good deal depends upon the breed. From the stand- 

 point of ethics we justly claim that all men, so far as 

 their rights are concerned, are born free and equal; but 

 they are not born equal in the matter of their talents 

 and capacities. In physical, mental, and moral respects 

 there are great and obvious differences between indi- 

 viduals of the same race, and between races themselves. 

 In studying the present condition of the states of the 

 south the student is naturally impressed by the fact 

 that there has occurred in these lands a great inter- 

 mingling of racial elements. In fact the commence- 

 ment of the amalgamation of races began upon the 



