24 



New World, or rather when the first inva- 

 sion of the Spaniards took place, the Ame- 

 ricans, who had made the greatest pro- 

 gress in civilization, were the inhabitants 

 of the mountains. Men, born in the plains 

 under temperate climates, had followed 

 the ridges of the Cordilleras, which rise 

 in proportion as they approach the Equa- 

 tor. In these elevated regions they found 

 the temperature and the plants, which 

 were congenial with those of their native 

 soil. 



The faculties unfold themselves with 

 more facility, wherever man, chained to a 

 barren soil, compelled to struggle with the 

 parsimony of nature, rises victorious from 

 the lengthened contest. The arid moun- 

 tains of Caucasus and central Asia are the 

 refuges of free and barbarous nations. In 

 the equinoxial parts of America, where 

 savannahs, clothed in perpetual verdure, 

 are suspended above the region of the 

 clouds, no civilized nations exist but those 

 embosomed in the Cordilleras. Their first 



