NATIVE RACES. 97 



CHAPTER IX. 



Indians of New Andalusia. 



Physical Constitution and JSIanners of the Chaymas — Their Lan- 

 guages — American Races. 



It is the custom of Humboldt, in liis " Journey to tlie chap. ix. 

 Equinoctial Regions," to stand still after an excursion, — 

 i-eflect, and present to his readers the result of his in- wi-itmg. 

 quiries on any subject that has fixed his attention. For 

 example, on concluding the narrative of his visit to the 

 Chayma missions, he gives a general account of the 

 aborigines of New Andalusia, of which an abridgment is 

 here offered. 



The north-eastern part of Equinoctial America, Terra Aborigines 

 Firma, and the shores of the Orinoco, resemble, in the of New 

 multiplicity of the tribes by which they are inhabited, 

 the defiles of Caucasus, the mountains of Hindoo-kho, 

 and the northern extremity of Asia, beyond the Tun- 

 gooses and the Tartars of the mouth of the Lena. The 

 barbarism which prevails in these various regions is 

 perhaps less owing to an original absence of civilisation 

 than to the effects of a long debasement ; and if every 

 thing connected with the first population of a continent 

 were known, we should probably find that savages are 

 merely tribes banished from society and driven into the 

 forests. At the commencement of the conquest of 

 America, the natives were collected into large bodies 

 only on the ridge of the Cordilleras and the coast opposite 

 to Asia, where the vast savannahs, and the great plains 



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