Personal Narrative Of Travels To The Equinoctial Regions Of America During The Years 1799-1804 - Volume 1 - By Alexander Von Humboldt And Aime Bonpland.
- Page 326 of 407 - First - Home
I Believe We Must Stop At Two
Hundred, Or Two Hundred And Ten Thousand Hispano-Americans, In A
Total Population Of Nine Hundred Thousand Souls.
The number of
Europeans included in the white race (not comprehending the troops
sent from the mother-country) does not exceed twelve or fifteen
thousand.
It certainly is not greater at Mexico than sixty
thousand; and I find by several statements, that, if we estimate
the whole of the Spanish colonies at fourteen or fifteen millions
of inhabitants, there are in that number at most three millions of
Creole whites, and two hundred thousand Europeans.
When Tupac-Amaru, who believed himself to be the legitimate heir to
the empire of the Incas, made the conquest of several provinces of
Upper Peru, in 1781, at the head of forty thousand Indian
mountaineers, all the whites were filled with alarm. The
Hispano-Americans felt, like the Spaniards born in Europe, that the
contest was between the copper-coloured race and the whites;
between barbarism and civilization. Tupac-Amaru, who himself was
not destitute of intellectual cultivation, began with flattering
the creoles and the European clergy; but soon, impelled by events,
and by the spirit of vengeance that inspired his nephew, Andres
Condorcanqui, he changed his plan. A rising for independence became
a cruel war between the different castes; the whites were
victorious, and excited by a feeling of common interest, from that
period they kept watchful attention on the proportions existing in
the different provinces between their numbers and those of the
Indians. It was reserved for our times to see the whites direct
this attention towards themselves; and examine, from motives of
distrust, the elements of which their own caste is composed. Every
enterprise in favour of independence and liberty puts the national
or American party in opposition to the men of the mother-country.
When I arrived at Caracas, the latter had just escaped from the
danger with which they thought they were menaced by the
insurrection projected by Espana. The consequences of that bold
attempt were the more deplorable, because, instead of investigating
the real causes of the popular discontent, it was thought that the
mother-country would be saved by employing vigorous measures. At
present, the commotions which have arisen throughout the country,
from the banks of the Rio de la Plata to New Mexico, an extent of
fourteen hundred leagues, have divided men of a common origin.
The Indian population in the united provinces of Venezuela is not
considerable, and is but recently civilized. All the towns were
founded by the Spanish conquerors, who could not carry out, as in
Mexico and Peru, the old civilization of the natives. Caracas,
Maracaybo, Cumana, and Coro, have nothing Indian but their names.
Compared with the three capitals of equinoctial America,* (*
Mexico, Santa Fe de Bogota, and Quito. The elevation of the site of
the capital of Guatimala is still unknown. Judging from the
vegetation, we may infer that it is less than 500 toises.) situated
on the mountains, and enjoying a temperate climate, Caracas is the
least elevated.
Enter page number
PreviousNext
Page 326 of 407
Words from 169092 to 169605
of 211363