254 The Monroe Doctrine 



their comments, many of them showed a dislike 

 for Americans which almost rose to hatred. The 

 feeling they displayed for the Canadians was not one 

 of dislike. It was one of contempt. 



Under the best of circumstances, therefore, a col- 

 ony is in a false position. But if the colony is in a 

 region where the colonizing race has to do its work 

 by means of other inferior races the condition is 

 much worse. From the standpoint of the race little 

 or nothing has been gained by the English conquest 

 and colonization of Jamaica. It has merely been 

 turned into a negro island, with a future, seemingly, 

 much like that of San Domingo. British Guiana, 

 however well administered, is nothing but a colony 

 where a few hundred or few thousand white men 

 hold the superior positions, while the bulk of the 

 population is composed of Indians, Negroes, and 

 Asiatics. Looked at through the vista of the centu- 

 ries, such a colony contains less promise of true 

 growth than does a State like Venezuela or Ecua- 

 dor. The history of most of the South American 

 republics has been both mean and bloody; but there 

 is at least a chance that they may develop, after 

 infinite tribulations and suffering, into a civiliza- 

 tion quite as high and stable as that of such a Eu- 

 ropean power as Portugal. But there is no such 

 chance for any tropical American colony owned by 

 a Northern European race. It is distinctly in the 

 interest of civilization that the present States in 

 the two Americas should develop along their own 

 lines, and however desirable it is that many of them 



