Personal Narrative Of Travels To The Equinoctial Regions Of America During The Years 1799-1804 - Volume 1 - By Alexander Von Humboldt And Aime Bonpland.
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Yet The
Spaniards Were At That Period, And Long After, One Of The Most
Polished Nations Of Europe.
The light which art and literature then
shed over Italy, was reflected on every nation whose language
emanated from the same source as that of Dante and Petrarch.
It
might have been expected that a general improvement of manners
would be the natural consequence of this noble awakening of the
mind, this sublime soaring of the imagination. But in distant
regions, wherever the thirst of wealth has introduced the abuse of
power, the nations of Europe, at every period of their history,
have displayed the same character. The illustrious era of Leo X was
signalized in the New World by acts of cruelty that seemed to
belong to the most barbarous ages. We are less surprised, however,
at the horrible picture presented by the conquest of America when
we think of the acts that are still perpetrated on the western
coast of Africa, notwithstanding the benefits of a more humane
legislation.
The principles adopted by Charles V had abolished the slave trade
on the New Continent. But the Conquistadores, by the continuation
of their incursions, prolonged the system of petty warfare which
diminished the American population, perpetuated national
animosities, and during a long period crushed the seeds of rising
civilization. At length the missionaries, under the protection of
the secular arm, spoke words of peace. It was the privilege of
religion to console humanity for a part of the evils committed in
its name; to plead the cause of the natives before kings, to resist
the violence of the commendatories, and to assemble wandering
tribes into small communities called Missions.
But these institutions, useful at first in stopping the effusion of
blood, and in laying the first basis of society, have become in
their result hostile to its progress. The effects of this insulated
system have been such that the Indians have remained in a state
little different from that in which they existed whilst yet their
scattered dwellings were not collected round the habitation of a
missionary. Their number has considerably augmented, but the sphere
of their ideas is not enlarged. They have progressively lost that
vigour of character and that natural vivacity which in every state
of society are the noble fruits of independence. By subjecting to
invariable rules even the slightest actions of their domestic life,
they have been rendered stupid by the effort to render them
obedient. Their subsistence is in general more certain, and their
habits more pacific, but subject to the constraint and the dull
monotony of the government of the Missions, they show by their
gloomy and reserved looks that they have not sacrificed their
liberty to their repose without regret.
On the 4th of September, at five in the morning, we began our
journey to the Missions of the Chayma Indians and the group of
lofty mountains which traverse New Andalusia. On account of the
extreme difficulties of the road, we had been advised to reduce our
baggage to a very small bulk.
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