44 tN THE GUIANA FOREST. 



domestic animals for food as for his bread 

 (cassava), it could hardly support life without 

 meat. He is, therefore, almost as much a beast 

 ol prey as the jaguar. Every day fishing and 

 hunting excursions have to be made, and the 

 experiences of all past generations empower him 

 to track the deer, tapir, and labba in such a way 

 that he is nearly always successful. 



Like the wild animals the Indian retires before 

 the white man. He cannot accommodate himself 

 to a new environment, and therefore moves on. 

 Where, as in the West India Islands, he was 

 prevented from migrating, he became extinct. 

 Unlike the negro, who appears to accommodate 

 himself to even great changes, the Indian dies 

 when his environment is altered. The histories 

 of the Spanish conquest give most horrid details 

 of what was called by the new-comers obstinacy. 

 Rather than labour on plantations or in mines, 

 great numbers committed suicide, while others 

 were flogged to death or executed, because they 

 would not submit. To die rather than become 

 a slave shows perhaps greater nobility than does 

 abject submission, but it is not so conducive to 

 perpetuation of the race. Savage communities 

 generally consist of two classes, masters and slaves, 

 and every man, woman, and child must belong 



