PROGRESS OF THE MISSIONS. 09 



Europeans, and still exists between the Orinoco and the cHAP. ix. 

 Amazons, in districts to whicli they have never pene- p 7^^ <■ 

 trated. The system of the missions has produced an agncuituia 

 attacliment to landed property, a fixed residence, and a 

 taste for quiet life ; but the baptized Indian is often as 

 little a Christian as his heathen brother is an idolater, — 

 both discovering a marked indifference for religious 

 opinions, and a tendency to w^orship nature. 



There is no reason to believe, that in the Spanish increase of 

 colonies the number of Indians has diminished since the ti^e nativef. 

 conquest. There are still more than six millions of the 

 copper-coloured race in both Americas ; and although 

 tribes and languages have been destroyed or blended in 

 those colonies, the natives have in fact continued to in- 

 crease. In the temperate zone the contact of Europeans 

 with the indigenous population becomes fatal to the 

 latter ; but in South America the result is different, ana 

 there they do not dread the approach of the whites. In 

 the former case a vast extent of country is required by 

 the Indians, because they live by hunting ; but in the 

 latter a small piece of ground suffices to afford subsistence 

 for a family. 



In these provinces the Europeans advance slowly ; Relipinns 

 and the religious orders have founded establishments estcbUsU- 

 between the regions inhabited by them and those pos- 

 sessed by the independent Indians, The missions have 

 no doubt encroached on the liberty of the natives, but 

 they have generally been favourable to the increase of 

 the population. As the preachers advance into the in- 

 terior the planters invade their territory ; the whites 

 and the castes of mixed breed settle among the Indians ; 

 the missions become Spanish villages ; and finally, the 

 old inhabitants lose their original manners and language. 

 In this way civilisation advances from the coasts towards 

 the centre of the continent. 



New Andalusia and Barcelona contain more than Indian tribes 

 fourteen tribes of Indians. Those of the former are the 

 Chaymas, Guayquerias, Pariagotos, Quaquas, Aruacas, 

 Caribs, and Guaraunos ; and those of the latter, the 



