Despotism was unknown,
and even the chieftain, in the proper sense of the word, had no
existence. In times of war an elder was chosen, it is true, but with the
laying down of the weapons he became again one of the people, and was
lost in their ranks. Such crude organization as existed was left to the
hands of a Council of Elders. There is no doubt that witch-doctors
attained to a certain degree of power, but even this was utterly
insignificant as compared with that which was wont to be enjoyed by the
savage priests of Central Africa.
Taken as a whole, the Indians of Southern America represented some of
the most simple children who ever lived in the lap of Nature.
Unsophisticated, credulous, and strangely wanting in reasoning powers
and organized self-defence, they fell ready victims to the onslaughts of
the Spaniards, who burst with such dramatic unexpectedness on their
north-eastern shores.
CHAPTER II
COLUMBUS
Columbus was admittedly a visionary. It was to the benefit of his fellow
Europeans and to the detriment of the South American tribes that to his
dreams he joined the practical side of his nature. Certainly the value
of imagination in a human being has never been more strikingly proved
than by the triumph of Columbus.
Pages:
10
11
12
13
14
15
16
17
18
19
20
21
22
23
24
25
26
27
28
29
30
31
32
33
34