514 EXCURSIONS BEYOND EGA 



to the spiritual sterility of half-savage existence, even if 

 it were passed in the garden of Eden. What has struck 

 me powerfully is the immeasurably greater diversity and 

 interest of human character and social conditions in a 

 single civilized nation, than in equatorial South America 

 where three distinct races of man live together. The 

 superiority of the bleak north to tropical regions however 

 is only in their social aspect, for I hold to the opinion 

 that although humanity can reach an advanced state of 

 culture only by battling with the inclemencies of nature 

 in high latitudes, it is under the equator alone that the 

 perfect race of the future will attain to complete fruition 

 of man*s beautiful heritage, the earth. 



The following day, having no wind, we drifted out of 

 the mouth of the Para with the current of fresh water 

 that is poured from the mouth of the river, and in twenty- 

 four hours advanced in this way seventy miles on our 

 road. On the 6th of June, when in 7° 55' N. lat. and 

 52° 30' W. long., and therefore about 400 miles from the 

 mouth of the main Amazons, we passed numerous patches 

 of floating grass mingled with tree- trunks and withered 

 foliage. Amongst these masses I espied many fruits of 

 that pecuharly Amazonian tree the Ubussu palm ; and 

 this was the last I saw of the Great River. 



t 



