B0BIL1TV OP COMPLEXION. 
415 
every white man is noble ’ (todo bianco es cabiillerd ) , must 
singularly ■wound the pretensions of many ancient and illus- 
trious European families. But it may be further observed, 
that the truth of this axiom has long since been acknow- 
ledged in Spain, among a people justly celebrated for 
probity, industry, and national spirit. Every Biscayan calls 
himself noble; and there being a greater number of Bis- 
cayans in America and the Philippine Islands, than in the 
Peninsula, the whites of that race have contributed, in no 
small degree, to propagate in the colonies the system of 
equality among all men whose blood has not been mixed 
with that of the African race. 
Moreover, the countries of which the inhabitants, even 
without a representative government, or any institution of 
peerage, annex so much importance to genealogy and the 
advantages of birth, are not always those in which family 
aristocracy is most offensive. We do not find among the 
natives ol Spanish origio, that cold and assuming air which 
the character of modern civilization seems to have rendered 
less common in Spain than in the rest of Europe. Con- 
viviality, candour, and great simplicity of manner, unite the 
different classes of society in the colonies, as well as in the 
mother-country. It may even be said, that the expression 
of vanity and self-love becomes less ofifensive, when it retains 
something of simplicity and frankness. 
I found in several families at Caracas a love of infor- 
mation, an acquaintance with the- masterpieces of Erench 
and Italian literature, and a marked predilection for music, 
which is greatly cultivated, and which (as always results 
from a taste for the fine arts) brings the different classes 
of society nearer to each other. The mathematical sciences, 
drawing, and painting, cannot here boast of any of those 
establishments with which royal munificence and tbe patri- 
otic zeal of tbe inhabitants have enriched Mexico. In the 
midst of the marvels of nature, so rich in interesting pro- 
ductions, it is strange that we found no person on this coast 
devoted to the study of plants and minerals. In a Fran- 
ciscan convent I met, it is true, with an old monk who drew 
up the almanac for all the provinces of Venezuela, and who 
possessed some accurate knowledge of astronomy. Our 
instruments interested him deeply, and one day our house 
