16 JOHN EEADE ON 



per cent, of the inhabitants remaining nuafFected by Indian or negro admixture. Thongh 

 in some Sonth American States, such as Chili and the Argentine Confederation, immigra- 

 tion tends to keep up the supply of European blood, in no case is it in the ascendant. 



Prof. Bryce, in the work already quoted, cites the opinion of Chateaubriand, that 

 of all Europeans the French have ever been most in sympathy' with the Indians, a fact due 

 to their liveliness, dashing bravery, love of the chase and even of savage life.' It was 

 doubtless to that sympathy of sentiment and tastes, joined with the forced or self-imposed 

 isolation of their careers, that their frequent intermarriage were due. The causes which 

 led to the growth of the extremely large half-breed populations of Mexico, and Central 

 and South America, were more complex than those which produced the smaller communi- 

 ties of the North. In Mexico and Peru, for instance, the circumstance that the inhabitants 

 were to so high a degree civilized would be deemed sufhcient justification for union on 

 equal terms with the aborigines and, the example having been thus set, it would be likely 

 to be followed as colonization extended from those centres. Some of the most distinguished 

 statesmen, soldiers and writers of Spanish America have been half-castes. Those whose 

 blood is pure are still, however, jealously proiid on the score of birth, and would deem it 

 an insult to be classed in the same category with mestizos or mulattoes. In some of the 

 West Indies, where the allophylian element is mostly African, the whites are still more 

 exclusive, the taint of color being a stigma of social inferiority. One large island forms, 

 however, a strange exception. Hispaniola, both French and Spanish, is ruled by blacks, 

 and there it is the mulattoes who lack the conscious dignity of pure superior blood. The 

 picture of the Haïtiens, given by Capt. Kennedy ("Sport, Travel and Adventure in New- 

 foundland and the West Indies "), is most deplorable. Voodooism, the rites of which are 

 associated with cannibalism, prevails almost openly, and though nominally Christians, 

 many of the inhabitants are still in practice savage heathen of the Congo. 



M. d'Omalius has reckoned the number of half-breeds in the world at 18,000,000, 

 his computation taking account only of the products of crossing of the European white 

 and coloured races. But if what has been said of the proportion of half-breeds to the entire 

 inhabitants of the New World alone be correct, it comes far short of the reality. De Quatre- 

 fages says that in Mexico and South America the half-breeds contribute at least one fifth 

 of the population, but other authorities generally accepted as reliable — the official accounts 

 in the " Statesman's Year Book," for instance — gaA'e a much higher ratio. For obvious 

 reasons, it would be difficult to obtain trustworthy statistics concerning the distribution 

 of pure and mixed blood in a community where mixture is a mark of inferiority. Half- 

 breeds, fair enough to pass for whites, would not be likely to volunteer the correction of 

 misconception as to their origin. The degree of dark admixture is, therefore, more likely 

 to be understated than overstated. 



While this continent offers to the inquirer the most interesting and numerous examples 

 of new ethnic varieties created by intercourse between different races, others to be found 

 elsewhere are well worthy of attention. In the Sandwich Islands, there is the offspring 

 of natives and foreigners of almost every nationality from English to Chinese. Some of 

 the Hawaiian-British half-castes are intelligent, well-conducted and industrious. The ruler 

 of the kingdom, who recently travelled through Europe, is an accomplished gentleman, 



' Manitoba, etc., pp. 199, 200. 



