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Be 8 Ce eal esr a2: 
Colombia: detincen tha Years 1820-and 1830. il 
Climate is one of the first agents which operates upon the pro- 
pagation of the human race over the face of the globe, presenting 
itself sometimes as a benignant conductor, at other times raising a 
hostile barrier which science and industry slowly overcome. The 
Spaniards who people that part of South America now under con- 
sideration, as soon as they had formed on the coast the establish- 
ments necessary to preserve their connection with the mother 
country, seem to have traversed hastily the fertile but insalubri- 
ous lowlands to meet on the Cordillera a temperature adapted to 
their habits and constitutions. The dominion of the Incas had, 
upon similar principles, extended itself along the immense ridge; 
and the descendants of the conquerors and conquered are, to this 
day, found united on the same elevations, from whence the popu- 
lation has descended gradually into the plains; and would have 
done so much more slowly, but for the importation of the African 
race, who find on the sandy coast and sultry savanna a climate 
congenial to their constitution. It may be a matter of curiosity 
to inquire, why that portion of the bronzed race which constitu- 
ted the empire of the Incas and of the Lipas has constantly exhi- 
bited a constitutional type so different from the tribes of the same — 
race now thinly scattered through the plains and valleys. The 
dominion of the Incas could scarcely be said to have established 
itself in the lowlands. With the exception of the dry narrow 
track of the Peruvian coast, their empire was exclusively of the 
mountains ; and Indians who speak the Quichua, or general lan- 
guage of the Incas, still manifest the same preference for cold and 
elevated situations ; sleeping in the open air rather than under a 
roof, and exhibideis an insurmountable repugnance to descend 
into the hot country, where they fall victims more rapidly than 
even the Europeans. The latter, although commercial interests 
have led them to form establishments on the coasts, and more par- 
tially on the great rivers, may be said to live in a state of perpet- 
ual hostility with the climate. ‘Their- complexions become sal- 
low, their frames feeble ; and although, where heat is uncombined 
with great moisture, as in Cumana, Coro and Maracaybo, they 
are subject to few diseases of a violent character, the strength is 
gradually undermined, and the species may be rather said to veg- 
etate than to increase. The individuals of African race, who 
complain of cold when the yearly mean is 75°, alone develope all 
the physical strength and energy- of their character in the hot 
