477 



i 



whose blood has not been contaminated by the 

 African race. 



Moreover, the countries of which the inhabi- 

 tants, even without a representative government, 

 or any institution of peerage, annex so much 

 importance to genealogy, and the advantages of 

 birth, are not always those where the aristo- 

 cracy of families is the most offensive. We 

 should seek in vain among the natives of Spa- 

 nish origin that cold and assuming air, which 

 the character of modern civilization seems to 

 have rendered more common in the rest of 

 Europe. Conviviality, candour, and a great 

 simplicity of manners, unite the different classes 

 of society in the colonies, as well as in the mother 

 country. We might even venture to say, that 

 the expressions of vanity and self-love are less 

 offensive, when they retain something of simpli- 

 city and frankness. 



I found in several families at Caraccas a taste 

 for instruction, a knowledge of the master-pieces 

 of French and Italian literature, and a particu- 

 lar predilection for music, which is cultivated 

 with success, and which, as it always happens 

 in the pursuit of the fine arts, serves to bring 

 the different classes of society nearer to each 

 other. The mathematical sciences, drawing, 

 painting, cannot here boast of any of those es- 

 tablishments, with which royal munificence, 

 and the patriotic zeal of the inhabitants, have 



