Degeneration of the Indians ed: 
point that strikes the observer is, that not only the descendants 
of the Spaniards and the Mestizos are sunk far below the 
level of the old Indians, but that the nearly pure Indians, of 
whom there are many large communities, have so degenerated 
that it is hard to believe that they are the very same people 
that, four hundred years ago, had advanced so far in their 
peculiar civilisation. They are not so sunk in sloth as the 
half-breeds. They still till the ground, grow maize, cacao, 
and many fruits; they still make the earthenware dishes of 
the country, though far inferior to those of their ancestors; 
but they have lost their tribal instincts, they do not support 
each other; they acknowledge no chiefs; each one is absorbed 
in his own affairs, and they are only a little less slothful than 
the half-breeds. Will these Indians ever again attain to 
that pitch of civilisation at which they had arrived before the 
conquestP—I fear not. The whip that kept them to the 
mark in the old days was the continual warfare between the 
different tribes, and this has ceased for ever. War is not 
always a curse. ‘‘ There is some soul of goodness in things 
evil.” Before the Spanish conquest no small isolated com- 
munities could exist. Those in which the tribal instinct 
was strongest, who stood shoulder to shoulder with their 
fellows, reverenced and obeyed their chiefs, and excelled in 
feats of strength and agility, would annihilate or subjugate 
the weaker and less warlike races. It was this constant 
struggle between the different tribes that weeded out the 
weak and indolent, and preserved the strong and enterprising ; 
just as amongst many of the lower animals the stronger kill 
off the weaker, and the result is the improvement of the race, 
or at any rate the maintenance of the point of excellence at 
which it had arrived in former times. 
Since the Spanish conquest there has been no such process 
of selection in operation amongst the Indians. The most 
indolent can obtain enough food, whilst the climate makes 
clothing almost a superfluity. The idle and improvident live 
their natural terms of years, and increase their kind even 
faster than the provident and industrious. The tribal 
feeling is destroyed; the selfish and sensual instincts are 
developed, and year by year the Indian degenerates. 
Mr. Bates, at the end of his admirable work on the natural 
history of the Amazon, speculates on the future of the human 
