296 
INDEPENDENT TEIBES. 
denominations of ‘Christian,’ ‘reduced,’ and ‘civilized;’ and 
those ot ‘ pagan,’ ‘ savage,’ and ‘ independent.’ The reduced 
Indian is often as little of a Christian as the independent 
Indian is ot an idolater. Both, alike occupied by the wants 
of the moment, betray a marked indifference for religious 
sentiments, and a secret tendency to the worship of nature 
and her powers. This worship belongs to the earliest in- 
fancy of nations; it excludes idols, and recognises no other 
sacred places than grottoes, valleys, and woods. 
If the independent Indians have nearly disappeared for a 
century past northward of the Orinoco and the Apure, that 
is from the Snowy Mountains of Merida to the promontorv 
of Faria, it must not thence be concluded, that there arc 
fewer natives at present in those regions, than in the time 
ot t ie bishop of Chiapa, Bartolomeo de las Casas. In my 
woik on Mexico, 1 have shown that it is erroneous to regard 
as a general fact the destruction and diminution of the 
Indians in the Spanish colonies. There still exist more than 
six millions of the copper-coloured race, in both Americas- 
and, though numberless tribes and languages are cither ex- 
tinct, or confounded together, it is beyond a doubt that 
wd nn the tropics, in that part of the New World where 
civilization has penetrated only since the time of Columbus. 
I lie number of natives has considerably increased. Two of 
the Carib villages in the Missions of'Piritu or of Carony 
contain more families than four or five of the settlements on 
the Orinoco. I he state of society among the Caribbees who 
nave preserved their independence, at the sources of the Es- 
scquibo and to the south of the mountains of Paearaimo suf- 
ficiently proves how much, even among that fine race of men, 
i ne population of the Missions exceeds in number that of the 
free and confederate Caribbees. Besides, the state of the 
savages ot the torrid zone is not like that of the savages of 
the Missouri I he latter require a vast extent of country, 
because they live only by hunting; whilst the Indians of 
Spanish Guiana employ themselves in cultivating cassava and 
plantains. A very little ground suffices to supply them with 
food. 1 hoy do not dread the approach of the whites, like the 
saiages of the United States; who, being progressively driven 
back behind the Alleghany mountains, the Ohio, and the Mis- 
sissippi, lose their means of subsistence, in proportion as they 
bud themselves reduced within narrow limits. Under the 
