22 G. G. Hubbard—Geographic Progress of Civilization. 
The most favored places in the world for climate, fertility of 
soil, and ease of access are, first, the West Indies; next the 
islands of Oceanica. Surpassing these in fertility and equaling 
them in salubrity of climate is the valley of the Amazon. These 
regions are now inhabited by the Negro, the Polynesian, and 
the Indian. The Negro in the equatorial regions, unless held 
as a slave, supplants the white man; the Polynesian and Indian 
both fade before the civilization of the white man. In the valley 
of the Amazon a mixed race of whites and Indians seems per- 
sistent, and the white element by a kind of natural selection 
predominates. 
A late writer says that these regions must be given up to in- 
ferior races; to this conclusion we cannot agree. In the progress 
of civilization man with his inventions and discoveries, by the 
applied power of steam and electricity, has practically annihi- 
lated time and space. In the early history of man he was con- 
trolled by and subject to his environment, which shaped his life 
and formed his character ; now he in turn controls his environ- 
ment. In our homes we temper the summer heat and make 
an equatorial climate in winter; we daily provide our tables 
with all the products of each season of the year and every clime ; 
we have begun even to understand and combat the microbes of 
the tropical regions that have brought sickness and death in 
their train. 
We have followed the progress of civilization from the rising 
to the setting sun; we have witnessed its decay in one country, 
followed by the rise of a higher civilization in another ; we have 
seen it cross the Atlantic to the New World where it has spread, 
ever widening and deepening its scope, until it has leavened the 
whole mass of humanity. 
We began with the proposition that in all the ages of the past 
civilization has been confined to the favored regions lying in the 
temperate zone; but with ever increasing knowledge there seems 
to be no reason to doubt that man will eventually bring under 
subjection all the adverse conditions of physical life and become 
the master of his environment, until the whole earth, even those 
regions heretofore supposed to be entirely unfit for habitation, 
shall own his power and become the abode of the highest intel- 
ligence and greatest civilization, 
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