MUTUAL DISTRUST. 375 



proximity, has converted into an often hostile, and always 

 rival power. 



If two nations adjacent to each other in Europe, the 

 Spaniards and the Portuguese, have alike become neigh- 

 bours in the New Continent, they are indebted for that 

 circumstance to the spirit of enterprise and active courage 

 which both displayed at the period of their military glory 

 and political greatness. The Castilian language is now 

 spoken in North and South America throughout an extent 

 of more than one thousand nine hundred leagues in length ; 

 if, however, we consider South America apart, we there find 

 the Portuguese language spread over a larger space of 

 ground, and spoken by a smaller number of individuals than 

 the Castilian. It would seem as if the bond that so 

 closely connects the fine languages of Camoens and Lope de 

 Vega, had served only to separate two nations, who have 

 become neighbours against their will. National hatred is 

 not modified solely by a diversity of origin, of manners, and 

 of progress in civilization ; whenever it is powerful, it must 

 be considered as the effect of geographical situation, and 

 the conflicting interests thence resulting. Nations detest 

 each other the less, in proportion as they are distant ; and 

 when, their languages being radically different, they do not 

 even attempt to combine together. Travellers who have 

 passed through New California, the interior provinces of 

 Mexico, and the northern frontiers of Brazil, have been 

 struck by these shades in the moral dispositions of border- 

 ing nations. 



When I was in the Spanish Bio Negro, the divergent 

 politics of the courts of Lisbon and Madrid had augmented 

 that system of mistrust which, even in calmer times, the 

 commanders of petty neighbouring forts love to encourage. 

 Boats went up from Barcelos as far as the Spanish missions, 

 but the communications were of rare occurrence. A com- 

 mandant with sixteen or eighteen soldiers wearied 'the 

 garrison' by measures of safety, which were dictated ' by the 

 important stale of affairs;' if he were attacked, he hoped 

 to * surround the enemy.' When we spoke of the indif- 

 ference with which the Portuguese government doubtless 

 regarded the four little villages founded by the monks of 

 Saint Francisco, on the Upper Guainia, the inhabitant 



