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it, conducting it to quiet lakes, and preserving it for the service of 

 man, never allowing it to become his master, much less his oppressor 

 and destroyer. Thus the works of the old Incas follow them, and 

 testify that not unto themselves only but unto us they ministered of 

 things belonging unto peace. In those early times, certainly as much 

 as five centuries ago, cotton was cultivated in Portobello, and spun 

 in Guanachani, in Cuba, and Jamaica. The Indians of Uraba were 

 clothed in cotton. Yucatan, Guatemala, Santa Marta, Venezuela, 

 and the Sierra Nevadas — Quito and Cundinamarca, were famous for 

 their cotton plantations and cotton fabrics. Indeed, as far as the 

 old kingdoms of Moxos and the Gran Chaco, even unto Tlaxeala, 

 this raw material was largely cultivated, though it chiefly grew spon- 

 taneously. That is, from 16deg. N. to 36 deg. S. latitude, cotton 

 trees supplied clothing to a hundred millions of our race. No doubt 

 to the cotton tree which yields a splendid yearly harvest for twenty 

 years, together with the remarkable rainless climate peculiar to the 

 Peruvian coast, so suitable to the cultivation of this delicate fibre, 

 are to be attributed the extent and excellence of those once cele- 

 brated cotton fields. But though no devastating rain there ever 

 sweeps away the crops, or fierce hurricanes destroy the fruits of the 

 field, although along the whole coast of Peru the atmosphere is 

 almost uniformly in a state of repose, yet the mildness of the ele- 

 ments above-ground is frightfully counterbalanced by their subter- 

 ranean fury, therefore it must not be supposed that the Peruvian 

 planter had no enemy to encounter, no exertion to put forth, if he 

 would reap a profitable harvest. The effects of earthquakes on the 

 fertility of the soil are so great, that in many cases after very violent 

 shocks the most luxuriant lands have become barren wastes, and for 

 several years afterwards yielded no thriving vegetation. All kinds 

 of grain appear to be susceptible to the changes produced by earth- 

 quakes, and if any great commotion takes place beneath a field in 

 full bloom the whole crop will wither in a few days. And with 

 respect to the plantations of the interior, as well as those on the 

 coast of the Caribbean Sea, difficulties and dangers had to be over- 

 come of even greater magnitude than prevailed on the Pacific shores. 

 So that hard work, perseverance, skill, and foresight, were required 

 to keep those sources of wealth from destruction. But now those 

 once mighty fields of floretted snow are either burnt up or become 

 lairs of the jaguar. We have heard of a cotton famine at home pro- 

 ducing disease, pestilence, and death. Men have been made to feel 

 that the insanity begotten of greed in depending on one source alone 

 for the supply of a material involving life or death to millions was 

 to have its reward, and that the iniquity of enslaving men in order 

 to make that supply a more exact or accurate commercial transaction 

 was to be overtaken by a terrible avenging Nemesis. We still hear 

 of Lancashire distress, and the protracted strife in America. As yet 

 we do not know whether cotton is again to be king, and his throne 

 to be again planted on the necks of" millions of men, women, and 



