74 



STATE OF CULTIVATION. 



covered by a quartzy sandstone, — a circumstance 

 which probably depends not so much on the nature 

 of the soil as on its greater humidity ; the thin layers 

 of slate-clay, which the latter contains, preventing 

 the water from filtering- into the crevices of the 

 former. In those moist places they always dis- 

 covered appearances of cultivation, huts inhabited 

 by mestizoes, and placed in the centre of small en- 

 closures, containing papaws, plantains, sugar-canes, 

 and maize. In Europe, the wheat, barley, and other 

 kinds of grain cover vast spaces of ground, and, in 

 general, wherever the inhabitants live upon corn, the 

 cultivated lands are not separated from each other 

 by the intervention of large wastes ; but in the tor- 

 rid zone, where the fertility of the soil is propor- 

 tionate to the heat and humidity of the air, and where 

 man has appropriated plants that yield earlier and 

 more abundant crops, an immense population finds 

 ample subsistence on a narrow space. The scat- 

 tered disposition of the huts in the midst of the forest 

 indicates to the traveller the fecundity of nature. 



In so mild and uniform a climate the only urgent 

 want of man is that of food ; and in the midst of 

 abundance his intellectual faculties receive less im- 

 provement than in colder regions, where his neces- 

 sities are numerous and diversified. While in Eu- 

 rope we judge of the inhabitants of a country by the 

 extent of laboured ground ; in the warmest parts of 

 South America populous provinces seem to the 

 traveller almost deserted, because a very small ex- 

 tent of soil is sufficient for the maintenance of a 

 family. The insulated state in which the natives 

 thus live prevents any rapid progress of civilization, 

 although it develops the sentiments of independence 

 and liberty. 



As the travellers penetrated into the forests the 

 barometer indicated the progressive elevation of the 

 land. About three in the afternoon they halted on 

 a small flat, where a few houses had been erected 



