WILD AND CIVILIZED INDIANS. 113 
with regret, because it implies a difference of culti- 
vation which does not always exist between the 
reduced or civilized Indian, living in the missions, 
and the free or independent Indian. In the fo-. 
rests of South America there are tribes which dwell 
in villages, rear plantains, cassava, and cotton, 
and are scarcely more barbarous than those in the 
religious establishments, who have been taught to 
make the sign of the cross. It is an error to consi- 
der all the free natives as wandering hunters; for 
agriculture existed on the continent long before 
the arrival of the Europeans, and still exists be- 
tween the Orinoco and the Amazons, in districts 
to which they have never penetrated. The sys. © 
tem of the missions has produced an attachment 
to landed property, a fixed residence, and a taste 
for quiet life; but the baptized Indian is often 
as little a Christian as his heathen brother is an 
idolater,—both discovering a marked indifference 
for religious opinions, and a tendency to worship 
nature. 
There is no reason to believe, that in the Spanish 
eolonies the number of Indians has diminished since 
the conquest. There are still more than six mil- 
lions of the copper-coloured race in both Americas ; 
and although tribes and languages have been de- 
stroyed or blended in those colonies, the natives have 
in fact continued to increase. In the temperate 
zone the contact of Europeans with the indigenous 
population becomes fatal to the latter; but in South 
America the result is different, and there they do 
not dread the approach of the whites. In the form- 
er case a vast extent of country is required by the 
Indians, because they live by hunting; but in the 
G 
