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themselves. If any of them have no food, canoe, or 

 weapons, they beg or borrow without scruple of those 

 who are better provided, and it is the custom not to refuse 

 the gift or the loan. There is no inducement, therefore, 

 for one family to strive or attempt to raise itself above 

 the others. There is always a number of lazy people who 

 prefer to live at the cost of their too good-natured neigh- 

 bours. The other cause is, the entire dependence of the 

 settlers on the precarious yields of hunting and fishing for 

 their supply of animal food ; which is here, as already 

 mentioned, as indispensable an article of diet as in cold 

 climates. The young and strong who are able and willing 

 to hunt and fish, are few. Raimundo, like all other 

 hard-working men in these parts, had to neglect his 

 regular labour every four or five days, and devote a day 

 and a night to hunting and fishing. It does not seem to 

 occur to these people, that they could secure a constant 

 supply of meat by keeping cattle, sheep, or hogs, and 

 feeding them with the produce of their plantations. This 

 touches, however, on a fundamental defect of character 

 which has been inherited from their Indian ancestors. 

 The Brazilia^n aborigines had no notion of domesticating 

 animals for use ; and such is the inflexibility of organiza- 

 tion in the red man, and by inheritance from Indians also 

 in half-breeds, that the habit seems impossible to be ac- 

 quired by them, although they show great aptitude in 

 other respects for civilized life. Is this attributable 

 fundamentally to the absence in South America of in- 

 digenous animals suitable for domestication ? It would 

 appear so ; and this is a great deficiency in a land other- 

 wise so richly endowed by nature. This, however, is a 

 difiicult question, and involves many other considerations. 

 The presence or absence of domesticable animals in a 

 country, no doubt, has a very great influence on th^ 

 character and culture of races. The North American 

 Indians, especially those of Florida, offered many points 

 of similarity in character and social condition to the 

 Indians of the Amazons region ; and they were, like 

 them, condemned, probably from the same cause, to 

 depend for existence chiefly on the produce of the chase 

 or fishing. On the other hand, the Indians of Peru, 

 whose more favoured home contained the Llama, were 

 enabled to reach a high degree of civilization, a great 

 help thereto being this priceless animal, which, served 



