266 CRUISE OF THE BARRERA 



number of hohios of the natives, who attend the 

 crops. 



The complete isolation of the finca, planted in 

 this wild region amid towering peaks and heavy 

 forest, has reacted badly upon its residents who 

 live so very close to nature. Knowing almost 

 nothing of the outside world, they are primitive to 

 an astonishing degree. The effect of isolation in 

 a wilderness has either a degenerating or an im- 

 proving effect, according to personality. The 

 pioneers of our own country, who left their eastern 

 homes to found an empire in the forests and prairies, 

 expanded and grew. Whatever of roughness or 

 even eccentricity of manner or speech they may 

 have acquired, when long removed from the level- 

 ing influences of civilization, they did not, in any 

 sense, become degenerate. They were adven- 

 turesome spirits to whom the idea of conquering 

 the wilderness made strong appeal, and they found 

 in the wilds the very elements best suited and 

 adapted to their well-being and they developed 

 into a strong and virile people. Those, however, 

 who through force of circumstances and with no 

 love of the wilderness itself, find themselves exiled 

 away from communities of their own kind, tend 



