[Illustration: AN ISLAND PASSAGE OF THE RIVER AMAZON.
_From the "Narrative of a Journey from Lima to Para, 1836."_]
There is something in the transportation of the European to tropical
climates and the control of an inferior race which, in certain
circumstances, appears to loose and to intensify all the most cruel
instincts and desires of which humanity is capable. In reckoning up the
racial contests in New Granada, reader and historian alike must give the
aboriginal his due. He was by no means the gentle savage such as he is
frequently depicted. Indeed, many of his native customs were completely
brutal. Nevertheless, it is necessary to debit against the invader
numerous excesses and deeds of cruelty directed against the inferior or
subject race. And since popular feeling, which ranges on the side of the
oppressed to-day, was undoubtedly on the side of the oppressor during
the earlier centuries, there can be little doubt that the ferocity of
the Indians of New Granada, and their hesitating acceptance of the
missionary's doctrine, were not without excuse.
Although the soil of New Granada offered endless possibilities to the
colonists, the cost of transport and the difficulties attendant on this
necessary commercial operation rendered agriculture in the interior of
little importance as an industry.
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