180 PHYSICAL INVESTIGATION. [PART I. 



tension, and possess a lively imagination ; those, however, 

 sprung from white mothers are said to be more vicious than 

 the children of the Indian women. 1 They excel the Euro- 

 pean in agriculture, cattle breeding, and mining labour. 2 The 

 Mestizo in Peru is, according to Poppig, not so robust as the 

 Mulatto, and often indolent. Tschudi justly draws attention to 

 the fact, that talents among the Indians and mongrels have no 

 field for display, oppressed as they are by the White. Accord- 

 ing to Poppig, 3 the mongrel population, with its innate vices, 

 and their hatred against the pure races from which they have 

 sprung, is an everlasting canker of society and political life in 

 South America, as all the shades of the mongrels are hostile to 

 each other and to the pure race. Like the Mulatto, the Mes- 

 tizo is considered as having inherited all the vices of his 

 parents, without any of their virtues ; with the pride of the 

 White, which he carries to excess, he combines the laziness, 

 apathy, thoughtlessness, and inconstancy of the Indian ; he is 

 dissipated, ambitious, and cowardly, very tyrannical to the 

 Indian, as the Mulatto is to the Negro ; he possesses, however, 

 great imitative talent. 4 The coloured population in British 

 Guiana at present frequently rival the Europeans as mechanics 

 and artists. 5 A very favourable description is given of the 

 capacities and the character of the Mestizoes in Paraguay. 6 

 The half-breds in Oregon resemble the father in their mental 

 activity, but frequently exhibit something of the wild pas- 

 sionateness of their mother. Quick to learn, well-spoken, and 

 of courteous manners, they are, nevertheless, without any edu- 

 cation, and have, moreover, constantly before them the evil 

 example of their parents. They are given to swearing, drink- 

 ing, and other excesses ; excellent hunters, skilful navigators, 

 brave and courageous in battle, open and generous of cha- 

 racter, without cunning and hypocrisy; they submit to no 



1 Muehlenpfordt, i, p. 260. 



2 Sartorius, " Mexico," p. 156, 1859. 



3 Loc. cit., i, p. 193. 



4 Ibid., ii, p. 146. 



5 E. Schoniburgk, i, p. 47. 



6 Gumprecht, " Zeitschr. f. Erdk./' ii, p. 29. 



