362 To the River Plate and Back 



Rivadavia, the first President of the Argentine Repub- 

 lic, was a mulatto; but he was a man of great mental 

 capacity and high moral power, a far-seeing statesman, 

 and a true patriot. Measured in every way he was 

 truly a great man, of whom his nation may well be 

 proud. Santa-Cruz, the great caudillo, who for twenty 

 years shaped the destinies of the infant republic of 

 Bolivia, was the son of an Indian princess, the Cacica 

 of Guarina. No student of his career can call in 

 question the fact that he was a man of signal ability. 

 Many other cases might be cited which tend to show 

 that the union of the bloods of the different races is 

 not necessarily followed by retrogression in physical 

 and mental power. Nevertheless these cases are 

 unusual and sporadic. The general result of such 

 unions has been to level downward rather than upward. 

 To-day in South America social standing is determined, 

 as it was in the time of Humboldt, by the degree of 

 the whiteness of the skin. 



From a broad survey of the human conditions which 

 exist in South America there is a great deal to create 

 hopefulness as to the future of these nascent nations. 

 There is in them enough genuine virility to create 

 peoples capable of performing their part with distinc- 

 tion upon the arena of the world. There is intellec- 

 tual capacity, there is no lack of high ideals and pure 

 purposes, there is physical energy. These lands of the 

 Southern Cross, the story of which in the past has had 

 in it so much of the painful and the tragic, are certainly 

 destined in the process of the years to be the scene of 

 much which shall glorify humanity. 



Since my return I have been frequently asked what 

 is the attitude of these peoples toward the people of 

 the United States of North America. To answer such 



