16 



has at all times distinguished the Castilian 

 race. 



From these causes, the powerful influence of 

 which will often occupy us in the course of this 

 work, the land in the most populous regions of 

 equinoctial America still retains a savage as- 

 pect, which is destroyed in the temperate cli- 

 mates by the cultivation of corn. Between the 

 tropics the agricultural nations occupy less 

 ground : man has there less extended his em- 

 pire ; he may be said to appear, not as an ab- 

 solute master, who changes at his will the sur- 

 face of the soil, but as a transient guest, who 

 quietly enjoys the gifts of nature. There, in 

 the neighbourhood of the most populous cities, 

 the land remains studded with forests, or co- 

 vered with a thick mould, never torn up by the 

 plough. Spontaneous plants still predominate 

 by their quantity over cultivated plants, and 

 determine alone the appearance of the land- 

 scape. It is probable, that this state of things 

 will change very slowly. If in our temperate 

 climate the cultivation of corn contributes to 

 throw a dull uniformity upon the land we have 

 cleared, we cannot doubt, that, even with an 

 increasing population, the torrid zone will pre- 

 serve that majesty of vegetable forms, those 

 marks of an unsubdued, virgin nature, which 

 render it so attractive, and so picturesque. Thus 

 it is, that, by a remarkable concatenation of 



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