326 



BANANA. 



uted to the existence of numerous rich mines ; but 

 Humboldt, on the contrary, maintains that the work- 

 ing- of these ores has been beneficial in causing many 

 places to be improved which would otherwise have 

 remained steril. When a vein is opened on the 

 barren ridge of the cordilleras, the new colonists can 

 only draw the means of subsistence from a great 

 distance. Want soon excites to industry, and farms 

 begin to be established in the neighbourhood. The 

 high price of provisions indemnifies the cultivator 

 for the hard life to which he is exposed, and the 

 ravines and valleys become gradually covered with 

 food. When the mineral treasures are exhausted, the 

 workmen no doubt emigrate, so that the population 

 is diminished ; but the settlers are retained by their 

 attachment to the spot in which they have passed 

 their childhood. The Indians, moreover, prefer liv- 

 ing in the solitudes of the mountains remote from 

 the whites, and this circumstance tends to increase 

 the number of inhabitants in such districts. 



In describing the vegetable productions of New- 

 Spain, our author begins with those which form the 

 principal support of the people, then treats of the 

 class which affords materials for manufacture, and 

 ends with such as constitute objects of commerce. 



The banana (Musa paradisiaca) is to the inhabitants 

 of the torrid zone what the cereal grasses — wheat, 

 barley, and rye — are to Western Asia and Europe, 

 and what the numerous varieties of rice are to the 

 natives of India and China. Forster and other 

 naturalists have maintained that it did not exist in 

 America previous to the arrival of the Spaniards, but 

 that it was imported from the Canary Islands in the 

 beginning of the 16th century ; and in support of 

 this opinion may be adduced the silence of Columbus, 

 Alonzo Negro, Pinzon, Vespucci, and Cortes, with 

 respect to it. This circumstance, however, only 

 proves the inattention of these travellers to the pro- 

 ductions of the soil ; and it is probable that the Musa 



