CONTENTS. JOURNEY TO THE EQUINOCTIAL REGIONS OF THE NEW CONTINENT. BOOK III. CHAPTER VI. Mountains of New Andalusia.-Valley of Cumanacoa.-Summit of the Cocollar.-Missions of the Chayma Indians. Our first visit to the peninsula of Araya was soon succeeded by a longer and more instructive excursion to the interior of the mountains of the missions of the Chayma Indians, where a variety of interesting objects claimed our attention. We entered on a country studded with forests; and visited a convent surrounded by palm trees and arborescent fern, situate in a narrow valley, where we felt the enjoyment of a cool and delicious climate, in the centre of the torrid zone. The surrounding mountains contain caverns haunted by thousands of nocturnal birds; and, what affects the imagination more than all the wonders of the physical world, we find beyond these mountains a people so lately nomade, and still nearly in a state of nature, savage without being barbarous, and stupid rather from ignorance than long rudeness. This interesting meditation was blended involuntarily with historical remembrances. It was in the promontory of Paria that Columbus first recognized the continent: there terminate these valleys, alternately devastated by the warlike anthropophagical Carib, and by the commercial and polished nations of Europe. At the beginning of the sixteenth century, the unhappy Indians of the coasts of Carupano, of Macarapan, and of Caraccas, were treated in the same manner as the inhabitants of the coast of Guinea in our days. The soil of the islands was cultivated, the vegetables of the ancient continent were transplanted thither; but the regular system of colonization remained long unknown on the continent. If the Spaniards visited it's shores, it was only to procure, either by violence or exchange, slaves, pearls, grains of gold, and dye-woods. The motives of this insatiable avarice seemed to be ennobled by the pretence of an enthusiastic zeal for religion; and every age has its peculiar tint, and a character appropriate to itself. The trade in the copper-coloured Indians was accompanied by the same acts of inhumanity as that in the African negroes; and bad also the same result, in rendering both the conquerors and the conquered more ferocious. Thence wars became more frequent among the natives; prisoners were dragged from the inland countries to the coast, in order to be sold to the whites, who loaded them with chains in their ships. Yet the Spaniards were at this epocha, and long after, one of the most polished nations of Europe. The resplendent light, which arts and literature then shed over Italy, has been reflected on every country, of which the language emanated from the same source as that of Dante and Petrarch. It might have been thought, that a general melioration of manners would be the natural consequence of this noble awakening of the mind, this sublime soaring of the imagination. But in distant cli mates, wherever the thirst of wealth has introduced the abuse of power, the nations of Eu rope, 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 with which the conquest of America presents us, when we recollect what still takes place on the western coasts of Africa, notwithstanding the benefits of a more humane legislation. The principles adopted by Charles V had long abolished the slave-trade on the continent. But the Conquistadores, by the continuation of their incursions, prolonged this system of ravaging, which has 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, spake 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 commendataries, and to assemble wandering tribes into small communities, which are called Missions; and the existence of which favours the improvement of agriculture. Thus were insensibly founded, though by a uniform and premeditated progress, those vast monastic establishments, that singular system, which continually tends to insulate itself, and places countries four or five times more extensive than France under the control of religious orders. Institutions, thus useful in stopping the effusion of blood, and in laying the first basis of society, have become in their result hostile to it's progress. The effects of this insulated system have been such, that the Indians have re |