54 SOUTH AMERICA— THE ANDES EEGIONS. 



Central America, already far outnumber those of the mother country. The 

 Brazilians also are three times more numerous than the Portuguese, and with every 

 year these discrepancies are widened to the advantage of the Ibero-Americans. 



At present there are in Europe, in the Philippines, in Africa and America 

 altoo-ether about 62,000,000 who speak Spanish, or, at least, for whom Spanish 

 is the language of culture. If the present rate of increase be maintained, if 

 all the peoples placed under the control of the Hispano-Lusitanians accept this 

 language, the communities of Spanish speech will be doubled by the year 1920 ; 

 that is, in a century from the emancipation of the Hispano- American colonies, 

 Spanish and Portuguese, which are near enough to be regarded as mere varieties 

 of the same language, will be spoken by 180,000,000 human beings.* 



The important part reserved in the near future for the language of Cervantes 

 will also be justified, for the Hispano- Americans are continually, contributing 

 books of merit, occasionally even works of permanent value, to the common trea- 

 sure of their literature. They have, moreover, the consciousness of their high 

 destinies. Years have passed since the Argentine poet, Marmol, sang the future 

 glory of his fellow-countrymen : "Ah ! that I might be born again in those days 

 of golden dreams ! That it might be given to me to listen with softened spirit to 

 the delightful symphony of thy future poets ! But I hear them already ! Poor 

 exile that I now am, begging a country and freedom, I already see thy future 

 glory, my mother ! " 



* Gabriel Carrasco, Boletln de la Sociedad de Geograjia de Madrid, 1891. 



