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while the Indians of Spanish Guiana plant cas- 

 sava and plantains. A little ground suffices 

 these, to supply them with food. They do not 

 dread the approach of the whites, like the sa- 

 vages of the United States ; who, progressively 

 pushed behind the Alleghany mountains, the 

 Ohio, and the Missisippi, lose their means of sub- 

 sistence, in proportion as they find themselves 

 reduced within narrower limits. Under the 

 temperate zone, whether in the provincias 'inter- 

 nets of Mexico, or in Kentucky, the contact of 

 the European planters is become fatal to the 

 natives, because that contact is immediate. 



These causes have no existence in the greater 

 part of South America. Agriculture, under the 

 tropics, does not require great extent of ground. 

 The whites advance slowly. The religious or- 

 ders have founded their establishments between 

 the domain of the planters, and the territory 

 of the free Indians. The Missions may be con- 

 sidered as intermediary states. They have en- 

 croached on the liberty of the natives no doubt ; 

 but they have almost every where been advan- 

 tageous to the increase of population, which 

 is incompatible with the unquiet life of the 

 independent Indians. As the Missionaries ad- 

 vance toward the forests, and gain on the na- 

 tives, the white planters in their turn seek to 

 invade from the opposite side the territory of 

 the Missions. In this protracted struggle, the 



