271 



Caura and the Padamo every thing bears the 

 stamp of disunion and weakness. Men avoid 

 because they do not understand each other ; they 

 mutually hate, because they mutually fear. 



When we examine attentively this wild part of 

 America, we fancy ourselves transported to those 

 primitive times, when the Earth was peopled by 

 degrees ; and seem to be present at the birth of 

 human societies. In the ancient world we see 

 pastoral life prepare the hunting nations for agri- 

 culture. In the new we seek in vain these pro- 

 gressive developments of civilization, these mo- 

 ments of repose, these stages in the life of nations. 

 The luxury of vegetation embarrasses the Indians 

 in the chace ; and their rivers resembling arms of 

 the sea, the depth of the waters prevents fishing 

 during whole months. Those species of rumi- 

 nating animals, that constitute the wealth of the 

 nations of the ancient world, are wanting in the 

 new. The bison and the musk ox have never 

 been reduced to a domestic state ; the breeding of 

 llamas and guanacoes has not given birth to the 

 habits of pastoral life. In the temperate zone, 

 on the banks of the Missouri, as well as on the 

 table-land of New Mexico, the American is a 

 hunter; but in the torrid zone, in the forests of 

 Guyana, he cultivates cassava, plantains, and 

 sometimes maize. Such is the admirable fer- 

 tility of nature, that the field of the native is a 

 little spot of land \ to clear which requires only 



