SECT. II.] BODILY STRENGTH. 119 



the Indian population. Under the oppression of the con- 

 querors, the native population rapidly perished, chiefly in 

 South America, where they were forced to work in mines. It 

 became then necessary to import Negroes, who could endure 

 the labour, and hence it was concluded that the American 

 Indian is, compared with the Negro, a weakling. Just the con- 

 tntry is asserted by Frezier 1 and Helms, 2 that only the Indians, 

 not the Negroes, can support the heavy labour in the mines. 

 Both are correct under proper limitation. Negroes cannot stand 

 heavy work in mountainous regions ; their skin becomes dis- 

 coloured, the complexion assumes an ash-grey tint, they sicken 

 and die. 3 Wilson, 4 by no means an unprejudiced writer, asserts 

 that the sugar planters in the hot regions of the interior of Mexico 

 had found it impossible to have their plantations cultivated by 

 Negroes or Zamboes, as neither of these races were viable in 

 these parts. The power of endurance of the Negro under a 

 tropical sun, without injury to his prolificacy, is a known fact ; 

 but it has not been taken into consideration that the Negro 

 ' easily becomes reconciled to a state of slavery, for which the 

 Indian seems unfit; depressed by it, the latter sinks into a 

 state of melancholy, and thus perishes rather from psychical 

 than physical causes. This opinion has been confirmed by 

 Von Sack. 5 A number of facts proves that y the Indian is not 

 deficient in physical power for heavy labour. The South 

 American tribes, especially, exhibit all the characters of physical 

 strength; some of them are of athletic structure (D^Orbigny). 

 Even the natives of Tierra del Fuego have proved to be 

 so physically strong, that one of them is sometimes a match 

 for two English sailors. 6 The Hapiris working in the mines of 

 Chili, who, according to some, are not Indians of pure descent, 

 but are considered as such by Tschudi, 7 possess extraordinary 



1 " Neueste E. nach der Sudzee," p. 353, 1718. 



2 " Trav. from B. Ayres to Lima," pp. 16, 37, 2nd edit., 1807. 

 :l Skinner, " Voy. au Perou," Paris, 1809. 



4 " Mexico," p. 311, N. York, 1855. 



"' " Beschr. einer E. nach Surinam," i, p. 87, 1821. 



G King and ITitzroy, " Narr. of the Survey, voy. of the Adv. and Beagle," 



p. 415, 1839. 



7 Chap, ii, p. 117. 





