98 



PROGRESS OF THE MISSIONS. 



the Europeans, and still exists between the Orinoco 

 and the Amazons, in districts to which they have 

 never penetrated. The system 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 

 colonies 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 former 

 case a vast extent of country is required by the In- 

 dians, because they live by hunting ; but in the latter 

 a small piece of ground suffices to afford subsistence 

 for a family. 



In these provinces the Europeans advance slowly ; 

 and the religious orders have founded establishments 

 between the regions inhabited by them and those 

 possessed by the independent Indians. The mis- 

 sions have no doubt encroached on the liberty of the 

 natives, but they have generally been favourable to 

 the increase of the population. As the preachers 

 advance into the interior the planters invade their 

 territory, the whites and the castes of mixed breed 

 settle among the Indians, the missions become Span- 

 ish villages, and finally the old inhabitants lose their 

 original manners and language. In this way civili- 

 zation advances from the coasts towards the centre 

 of the continent. 



New-Andalusia and Barcelona contain more than 



