248 HISTORICAL SKETCH. 



In South America the case is widely dif- 

 ferent. Agriculture, in the sense in which 

 it is understood in Europe, is there, in 

 many quarters, little known : by means of 

 a little cultivation, a small portion of land 

 can be made to produce sufficient for the 

 subsistence of a population almost incalcu- 

 lably greater than could be sustained by 

 a similar surface of soil in Europe. Thus 

 the Indians and the mixed races may in- 

 crease to an extent which it is at present 

 difficult to imagine. The effect of such an 

 augmentation of population in that direction 

 time alone can develope ; but it appears 

 that Spanish America must, at some future 

 period, be looked to for the solution of the 

 great problem, whether Indians and Ne- 

 groes, and mixed races deriving their de- 

 scent from both, can be amalgamated with 

 the descendants of Europeans in civilized 

 society, under one description of govern- 

 ment, or one form of constitution. 



