291 
AMOUNT OF NATIVE POPULATION. 
pulsory misery, forced migration, or rigour of climate, obli- 
terate even the traces of civilization P If everything con- 
nected with the primitive state of man, and the first popu- 
.ation of a continent, could from its nature belong to the 
domain of history, wo might appeal to the traditions of 
India. According to the opinion frequently expressed in 
the laws of Menou and in the Kamajan, savages were re- 
garded as tribes banished from civilized society, and driven 
into the forests. The word barbarian, which we have bor- 
rowed from the Greeks and Homans, was possibly merely 
the proper name of one of those rude hordes. 
In the New World, at the begining of the conquest, the 
natives were collected into large societies only on the ridge 
ot the Cordilleras and the coasts opposite to Asia. The 
plains, covered with forests, and intersected by rivers ; 
the immense savannahs, extending eastward, and bound- 
ing the horizon ; were inhabited by wandering hordes, sepa- 
rated by differences of language and manners, and scattered 
like the xemnants of a vast wreck. In the ubsenee of all 
other monuments, we may endeavour, from the analogy of 
languages, and the study of the physical constitution of man, 
to group the different tribes, to follow the traces of then- 
distant emigrations, and to discover some of those family 
features by which the ancient unity of our species is mani- 
fested. 
In the mountainous regions which we have just tra- 
versed, — in the two provinces of Cumana and New Bar- 
celona, the natives, or primitive inhabitants, still consti- 
tute about one-half of the scanty population. Their number 
may bo reckoned at sixty thousand ; of which twenty-four 
thousand inhabit New Andalusia. This number is very 
considerable, when compared with that of the hunting 
nations of North America ; but it appears small, when we 
consider those parts of New Spain in which agriculture has 
existed more than eight centuries : for instance, the Intend- 
encia of Oaxaca, which includes the Mixteca and the Tzapo- 
teca of the old Mexican empire. This Intendeneia is one- 
third smaller than the two provinces of Cumana and Barce- 
lona; yet it contains more than four hundred thousand 
natives of pure copper-coloured race. The Indians of Cu- 
mana do not all live within the Missions. Some are dis- 
persed in the neighbourhood of the towns, along the coasts, 
