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flourishing empires. This circumstance, toge- 

 ther with the growth of the native mountain 

 population, the almost exclusive possession of 

 great metallic wealth, and the commercial re- 

 lations established from the beginning of the 

 sixteenth century with the Indian archipelago, 

 have given a peculiar character to the Spanish 

 possessions in equinoxial America. In the coun- 

 tries of the east, the people who fell into the 

 hands of the English and Portuguese planters 

 were wandering tribes, or hunters. Far from 

 forming a portion of the agricultural and labo- 

 rious population, as on the table land of Ana. 

 huac, at Guatimala, and in Upper Peru, they 

 generally withdrew at the approach of the whites. 

 The necessity of labour, the preference given to 

 the cultivation of the sugar-cane, indigo, and 

 cotton, the cupidity which often accompanies 

 and degrades industry, gave birth to that in- 

 famous trade in Negroes, the consequences of 

 which have been alike fatal to both worlds. 

 Happily, in the continental part of Spanish 

 America, the number of African slaves is so in- 

 considerable, that, compared with the servile 

 population of Brazil, or with that of the southern 

 part of the United States, it is found to be in the 

 proportion of one to fourteen. The whole of 

 the Spanish colonies, without excluding the 

 islands of Cuba and Portorico, have not, on a 

 surface which exceeds at least by a fifth that of 



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