MASKERS OJf ME NATIVES. 
293 
affected in the evening by the smallest decline in the inten- 
sity of the sun’s rays; so that for vegetation, night begins 
there, as with us, before the total disappearance of the solar 
disk. But why, in a zone where there is scarcely any twilight, 
do not the first rays of the sun stimulate the leaves with the 
more strength, as the absence of light must have rendered 
them more susceptible? Does the humiditv deposited on 
the parenchyma by the cooling of the leaves, which is the 
effect of the nocturnal radiation, prevent the action of the 
first rays of the sun? In our climates, the leguminous 
plants with irritable leaves awake during the twilight of the 
morning, before the sun appears. 
Chapter IX. 
Physical Constitution and Manners of the Chaymas.— Their Language. 
Filiation of the Nations which inhabit New Andalusia. — Pariaaoto* 
seen by Columbus. 
I did not wish to mingle with the narrative of our 
journey to the Missions of Caripe any general considerations 
on the different tribes of the indigenous inhabitants of New 
Andalusia ; their manners, their languages, and their com- 
mon origin. Having returned to the spot whence we set 
out, I shall now bring into one point of view these consider- 
ations which are so nearly connected with the history of the 
human race. As we advance into the interior of the country, 
these subjects will become even more interesting than the 
phenomena of the physical world. The north-east part of 
equinoctial America, Terra-Firma, and the hanks of the 
Orinoco, resemble in respect to the numerous races of people 
who inhabit them, the defiles of the Caucasus, the mountains 
of Hindookho, at the northern extremity of Asia, beyond the 
Tungouses, and the Tartars settled at the mouth of the Lena. 
.The barbarism which, prevails throughout these different 
regions is perhaps less owing to a primitive absence of all kind 
of civilization, than to the effects ot long degradation; for most 
of the hordes which we designate under the name of savages, 
are probably the descendants of nations highly advanced in 
cultivation. How can we distinguish the prolonged infancy 
of the human race (if, indeed, it anywhere exists), from 
that state of moral degradation in which solitude, want, com- 
