gives some curious instances of the extremely low rate at which
the natives are glad to work. As to the ordinary wages in India
in the present century, see _Journal of Asiatic Society_, vol. i.
p. 255, vol. v. p. 171; _Rammohun Roy on the Judicial and Revenue
Systems_, pp. 105, 106; _Sykes's Statistics of the Deccan Reports
of the British Association_, vol. vi. p. 321; _Ward's View of the
Hindoos_, vol. iii. p. 207; _Colebrooke's Digest of Hindu Law_,
vol. ii. p. 184. On wages in the south of India, the fullest
information will be found in Buchanan's valuable work, _Journey
through the Mysore, Canara, and Malabar_, vol. i. pp. 124, 125,
133, 171, 175, 216, 217, 298, 390, 415, vol. ii. pp. 12, 19, 22,
37, 90, 108, 132, 217, 218, 315, 481, 523, 525, 562, vol. iii.
pp. 35, 181, 226, 298, 321, 349, 363, 398, 428, 555. I wish that
all travellers were equally minute in recording the wages of
labour; a subject of far greater importance than those with which
they usually fill their books.
On the other hand, the riches possessed by the upper classes
have, owing to this mal-distribution of wealth, been always
enormous, and sometimes incredible. See _Forbes's Oriental
Memoirs_, vol. ii. p. 297; _Bohlen_, _das alte Indien_, vol. ii.
p. 119; _Travels of Ibn Batuta_, p. 41; _Ward's Hindoos_, vol.
iii. p. 178. The autobiography of the Emperor Jehangueir contains
such extraordinary statements of his immense wealth, that the
Editor, Major Price, thinks that some error must have been made
by the copyist; but the reader will find in _Grote's History of
Greece_ (vol. xii. pp. 229, 245) evidence of the treasures which
it was possible for Asiatic rulers to collect in that state of
society. The working of this unequal distribution is thus stated
by Mr. Glyn (_Transac. of Asiatic Society_, vol. i. p. 482): 'The
nations of Europe have very little idea of the actual condition
of the inhabitants of Hindustan; they are more wretchedly poor
than we have any notion of. Europeans have hitherto been too apt
to draw their opinions of the wealth of Hindustan from the
gorgeous pomp of a few emperors, sultans, nawabs, and rajahs;
whereas a more intimate and accurate view of the real state of
society would have shown that these princes and nobles were
engrossing all the wealth of the country, whilst the great body
of the people were earning but a bare subsistence, groaning under
intolerable burdens, and hardly able to supply themselves with
the necessaries of life, much less with its luxuries.'
This was the first great consequence induced in India by the cheapness
and abundance of the national food.[114] But the evil by no means
stopped there. In India, as in every other country, poverty provokes
contempt, and wealth produces power. When other things are equal, it
must be with classes of men as with individuals, that the richer they
are, the greater the influence they will possess. It was therefore to be
expected, that the unequal distribution of wealth should cause an
unequal distribution of power; and as there is no instance on record of
any class possessing power without abusing it, we may easily understand
how it was that the people of India, condemned to poverty by the
physical laws of their climate, should have fallen into a degradation
from which they have never been able to escape. A few instances may be
given to illustrate, rather than to prove, a principle which the
preceding arguments have, I trust, placed beyond the possibility of
dispute.
[114] Turner, who travelled in 1783 through the north-east of Bengal,
says: 'Indeed, the extreme poverty and wretchedness of these
people will forcibly appear, when we recollect how little is
necessary for the subsistence of a peasant in these regions. The
value of this can seldom amount to more than one penny per day,
even allowing him to make his meal of two pounds of boiled rice,
with a due proportion of salt, oil, vegetables, fish, and chili.'
_Turner's Embassy to Tibet_, p. 11. Ibn Batuta, who travelled in
Hindostan in the fourteenth century, says: 'I never saw a country
in which provisions were so cheap.' _Travels of Ibn Batuta_, p.
194.
To the great body of the Indian people the name of Sudras is given;[115]
and the native laws respecting them contain some minute and curious
provisions. If a member of this despised class presumed to occupy the
same seat as his superiors, he was either to be exiled or to suffer a
painful and ignominious punishment.[116] If he spoke of them with
contempt, his mouth was to be burned;[117] if he actually insulted them,
his tongue was to be slit;[118] if he molested a Brahmin, he was to be
put to death;[119] if he sat on the same carpet with a Brahmin, he was
to be maimed for life;[120] if, moved by the desire of instruction, he
even listened to the reading of the sacred books, burning oil was to be
poured into his ears;[121] if, however, he committed them to memory, he
was to be killed;[122] if he were guilty of a crime, the punishment for
it was greater than that inflicted on his superiors;[123] but if he
himself were murdered, the penalty was the same as for killing a dog, a
cat, or a crow.[124] Should he marry his daughter to a Brahmin, no
retribution that could be exacted in this world was sufficient; it was
therefore announced that the Brahmin must go to hell, for having
suffered contamination from a woman immeasurably his inferior.[125]
Indeed, it was ordered that the mere name of a labourer should be
expressive of contempt, so that his proper standing might be immediately
known.[126] And lest this should not be enough to maintain the
subordination of society, a law was actually made forbidding any
labourer to accumulate wealth;[127] while another clause declared, that
even though his master should give him freedom, he would in reality
still be a slave; 'for,' says the lawgiver--'for of a state which is
natural to him, by whom can he be divested?'[128]
[115] The Sudras are estimated by Ward (_View of the Hindoos_, vol. iii.
p. 281) at 'three-fourths of the Hindoos.' At all events, they
comprise the whole of the working classes; the Vaisyas not being
husbandmen, as they are often called, but landlords, owners of
cattle, and traders. Compare _Institutes of Menu_, chap. ix. sec.
326-333, in _Works of Sir W. Jones_, vol. iii. pp. 380, 381, with
_Colebrooke's Digest_, vol. i. p. 15, from which it appears that
the Vaisyas were always the masters, and that the Sudra was to
'rely on agriculture for his subsistence.' The division,
therefore, between 'the industrious and the servile'
(_Elphinstone's History of India_, p. 12) is too broadly stated,
and we must, I think, take the definition of M. Rhode: 'Die Kaste
der Sudras umfasst die ganze arbeitende, oder um Lohn dienende
Classe des Volks.' _Relig. Bildung der Hindus_, vol. ii. p. 561.
[116] 'Either be banished with a mark on his hinder parts, or the king
shall cause a gash to be made on his buttock.' _Institutes of
Menu_, chap. viii. sec. 281, in _Works of Sir W. Jones_, vol.
iii. p. 315. See also _Ward's View of the Hindoos_, vol. iii. p.
67.
[117] _Menu_, chap. viii. sec. 271, in _Jones's Works_, vol. iii.
p. 314.
[118] _Menu_, chap. viii. sec. 270.
[119] 'If a Sudra gives much and frequent molestation to a Brahmin, the
magistrate shall put him to death.' _Halhed's Code of Gentoo
Laws_, p. 262.
[120] _Halhed's Code of Gentoo Laws_, p. 207. As to the case of striking
a Brahmin, see _Rammohun Roy on the Veds_, p. 227, 2nd edit. 1832.
[121] 'And if a Sooder listens to the Beids of the Shaster, then the
oil, heated as before, shall be poured into his ears; and arzeez
and wax shall be melted together, and the orifice of his ears
shall be stopped up therewith.' _Halhed_, p. 262. Compare the
prohibition in _Menu_, chap. iv. sec. 99, chap. x. sec. 109-111,
in _Jones's Works_, vol. iii. pp. 174, 398.
[122] _Halhed_, p. 262: 'the magistrate shall put him to death.' In
Mrichchakati, the judge says to a Sudra, 'If you expound the
Vedas, will not your tongue be cut out?' _Wilson's Theatre of the
Hindus_, vol. i. part ii. p. 170.
[123] _Ward's View of the Hindoos_, vol. iv. p. 308. To this the only
exception was in the case of theft. _Mill's History of India_,
vol. i. pp. 193, 260. A Brahmin could 'on no account be capitally
punished.' _Asiatic Researches_, vol. xv. p. 44.
[124] _Menu_, chap. xi. sec. 132, in _Works of Sir W. Jones_, vol. iii.
p. 422.
[125] 'A Brahmin, if he take a Sudra to his bed as his first wife, sinks
to the regions of torment.' _Institutes of Menu_, chap. iii. sec.
17, in _Jones_, vol. iii. p. 121. Compare the denial of funeral
rites, in _Colebrooke's Digest of Hindu Law_, vol. iii. p. 328.
And on the different hells invented by the Hindu clergy, see
_Vishnu Purana_, p. 207; _Ward's View of the Hindoos_, vol. ii.
pp. 182, 183; _Coleman's Mythology of the Hindus_, p. 113. The
curious details in _Rhode_, _die Religiöse Bildung der Hindus_,
vol. i. pp. 392, 393, rather refer to Buddhism, and should be
compared with _Journal Asiatique_, I. série, vol. viii. pp. 80,
81, Paris, 1826.
[126] _Menu_, chap. ii. sec. 31, in _Jones_, vol. iii. p. 87; also
noticed in _Rhode_, _Relig. Bildung_, vol. ii. p. 561: 'sein Name
soll schon Verachtung ausdrücken.' So, too, Mr. Elphinstone
(_History of India_, p. 17): 'the proper name of a Sudra is
directed to be expressive of contempt.' Compare _Origines du
Droit_, in _[OE]uvres de Michelet_, vol. ii. p. 387, Bruxelles,
1840.
[127] _Menu_, chap. x. sec. 129, in _Jones_, vol. iii. p. 401. This law
is pointed out by Mill (_History of India_, vol. i. p. 195) as an
evidence of the miserable state of the people, which, Mr. Wilson
(note in p. 213) vainly attempts to evade.
[128] 'A Sudra, though emancipated by his master, is not released from a
state of servitude; for of a state which is natural to him, by
whom can he be divested?' _Institutes of Menu_, chap. viii. sec.
414, in _Works of Sir W. Jones_, vol. iii. p. 333.
By whom, indeed, could he be divested? I ween not where that power was
by which so vast a miracle could be worked. For in India, slavery,
abject, eternal slavery, was the natural state of the great body of the
people; it was the state to which they were doomed by physical laws
utterly impossible to resist. The energy of those laws is, in truth, so
invincible, that wherever they have come into play, they have kept the
productive classes in perpetual subjection. There is no instance on
record of any tropical country, in which wealth having been extensively
accumulated, the people have escaped their fate; no instance in which
the heat of the climate has not caused an abundance of food, and the
abundance of food caused an unequal distribution, first of wealth, and
then of political and social power. Among nations subjected to these
conditions, the people have counted for nothing; they have had no voice
in the management of the state, no control over the wealth their own
industry created. Their only business has been to labour; their only
duty to obey. Thus there has been generated among them, those habits of
tame and servile submission, by which, as we know from history, they
have always been characterized. For it is an undoubted fact, that their
annals furnish no instance of their having turned upon their rulers, no
war of classes, no popular insurrections, not even one great popular
conspiracy. In those rich and fertile countries there have been many
changes, but all of them have been from above, not from below. The
democratic element has been altogether wanting. There have been in
abundance, wars of kings, and wars of dynasties. There have been
revolutions in the government, revolutions in the palace, revolutions on
the throne; but no revolutions among the people;[129] no mitigation of
that hard lot which nature, rather than man, assigned to them. Nor was
it until civilization arose in Europe, that other physical laws came
into operation, and therefore other results were produced. In Europe,
for the first time, there was some approach to equality, some tendency
to correct that enormous disproportion of wealth and power, which formed
the essential weakness of the greatest of the more ancient countries.
As a natural consequence, it is in Europe that everything worthy of the
name of civilization has originated; because there alone have attempts
been made to preserve the balance of its relative parts. There alone has
society been organized according to a scheme, not indeed sufficiently
large, but still wide enough to include all the different classes of
which it is composed, and thus, by leaving room for the progress of
each, to secure the permanence and advancement of the whole.
[129] An intelligent observer says, 'It is also remarkable how little
the people of Asiatic countries have to do in the revolutions of
their governments. They are never guided by any great and common
impulse of feeling, and take no part in events the most
interesting and important to their country and their own
prosperity.' _M'Murdo on the Country of Sindh_, in _Journal of
Asiatic Society_, vol. i. p. 250. Compare similar remarks in
_Herder's Ideen zur Geschichte_, vol. iii. p. 114; and even in
_Alison's History of Europe_, vol. x. pp. 419, 420.
The way in which certain other physical peculiarities confined to
Europe, have also accelerated the progress of Man by diminishing his
superstition, will be indicated towards the end of this chapter; but as
that will involve an examination of some laws which I have not yet
noticed, it seems advisable, in the first place, to complete the inquiry
now before us; and I therefore purpose proving that the line of argument
which has been just applied to India, is likewise applicable to Egypt,
to Mexico, and to Peru. For by thus including in a single survey, the
most conspicuous civilizations of Asia, Africa, and America, we shall be
able to see how the preceding principles hold good of different and
distant countries; and we shall be possessed of evidence sufficiently
comprehensive to test the accuracy of those great laws which, without
such precaution, I might be supposed to have generalized from scanty and
imperfect materials.
The reasons why, of all the African nations, the Egyptians alone were
civilized, have been already stated, and have been shown to depend on
those physical peculiarities which distinguish them from the surrounding
countries, and which, by facilitating the acquisition of wealth, not
only supplied them with material resources that otherwise they could
never have obtained, but also secured to their intellectual classes the
leisure and the opportunity of extending the boundaries of knowledge. It
is, indeed, true that, notwithstanding these advantages, they effected
nothing of much moment; but this was owing to circumstances which will
be hereafter explained; and it must, at all events, be admitted that
they raised themselves far above every other people by whom Africa was
inhabited.
The civilization of Egypt being, like that of India, caused by the
fertility of the soil, and the climate being also very hot,[130] there
were in both countries brought into play the same laws; and there
naturally followed the same results. In both countries we find the
national food cheap and abundant: hence the labour-market over-supplied;
hence a very unequal division of wealth and power; and hence all the
consequences which such inequality will inevitably produce. How this
system worked in India, I have just attempted to examine; and although
the materials for studying the former condition of Egypt are much less
ample, they are still sufficiently numerous to prove the striking
analogy between the two civilizations, and the identity of those great
principles which regulated the order of their social and political
development.
[130] Volney (_Voyage en Egypte_, vol. i. pp. 58-63) has a good chapter
on the climate of Egypt.
If we inquire into the most important circumstances which concerned the
people of ancient Egypt, we shall see that they are exactly the
counterpart of those that have been noticed in India. For, in the first
place, as regards their ordinary food, what rice is to the most fertile
parts of Asia, that are dates to Africa. The palm-tree is found in every
country from the Tigris to the Atlantic;[131] and it supplies millions
of human beings with their daily food in Arabia,[132] and in nearly the
whole of Africa north of the equator.[133] In many parts of the great
African desert it is indeed unable to bear fruit; but naturally it is a
very hardy plant, and produces dates in such profusion, that towards the
north of the Sahara they are eaten not only by man, but also by domestic
animals.[134] And in Egypt, where the palm is said to be of spontaneous
growth,[135] dates, besides being the chief sustenance of the people,
are so plentiful, that from a very early period they have been given
commonly to camels, the only beasts of burden generally used in that
country.[136]
[131] It is, however, unknown in South Africa. See the account of the
Palmaceæ in _Lindley's Vegetable Kingdom_, 1847, p. 136, and
_Meyen's Geog. of Plants_, p. 337.
[132] 'Of all eatables used by the Arabs, dates are the most favourite.'
_Burckhardt's Travels in Arabia_, vol. i. p. 56. See also, for
proof of their abundance in the west of Arabia, vol. i. pp. 103,
157, 238, vol. ii. pp. 91, 100, 105, 118, 209, 210, 214, 253,
300, 331. And on the dates of Oman and the east of Arabia, see
_Wellsted's Travels in Arabia_, vol. i. pp. 188, 189, 236, 276,
290, 349. Compare _Niebuhr_, _Description de l'Arabie_, pp. 142,
296. Indeed, they are so important, that the Arabs have different
names for them according to the stages of their growth. Djewhari
says, 'La dénomination _balah_ précède le nom _bosr_; car la
datte se nomme d'abord _tala_, en suite _khalal_, puis _balah_,
puis _bosr_, puis _rotab_, et enfin _tamr_.' _De Sacy's note to
Abd-Allatif, Relation, de l'Egypte_, p. 74, and see p. 118. Other
notices of the dates of Arabia will be found in _Travels of Ibn
Batuta in Fourteenth Century_, p. 66; _Journal of Asiatic Soc._
vol. viii. p. 286; _Journal of Geograph. Soc._ vol. iv. p. 201,
vol. vi. pp. 53, 55, 58, 66, 68, 74, vol. vii. p. 32, vol. ix.
pp. 147, 151.
[133] Heeren (_Trade of the African Nations_, vol. i. p. 182) supposes
that in Africa, dates are comparatively little known south of 26°
north lat. But this learned writer is certainly mistaken; and a
reference to the following passages will show that they are
common as far down as the parallel of Lake Tchad, which is nearly
the southern limit of our knowledge of Central Africa; _Denham's
Central Africa_, p. 295; _Clapperton's Journal_, in _Appendix to
Denham_, pp. 34, 59; _Clapperton's Second Expedition_, p. 159.
Further east they are somewhat scarcer, but are found much more
to the south than is supposed by Heeren: see _Pallme's Kordofan_,
p. 220.
[134] 'Dates are not only the principal growth of the Fezzan oases, but
the main subsistence of their inhabitants. All live on dates;
men, women, and children, horses, asses, and camels, and sheep,
fowls, and dogs.' _Richardson's Travels in the Sahara_, vol. ii.
p. 323, and see vol. i. p. 343: as to those parts of the desert
where the palm will not bear, see vol. i. pp. 387, 405, vol. ii.
pp. 291, 363. Respecting the dates of western Africa, see
_Journal of Geograph. Society_, vol. xii. p. 204.
[135] 'It flourished spontaneously in the valley of the Nile.'
_Wilkinson's Ancient Egyptians_, vol. ii. p. 372. As further
illustration of the importance to Africa of this beautiful plant,
it may be mentioned, that from the high-palm there is prepared a
peculiar beverage, which in some parts is in great request. On
this, which is called palm-wine, see _M'William's Medical
Expedition to the Niger_, pp. 71, 116; _Meredith's Gold Coast of
Africa_, 1812, pp. 55, 56; _Laird and Oldfield's Expedition into
the Interior of Africa_, 1837, vol. ii. pp. 170, 213; _Bowdich_,
_Mission to Ashantee_, pp. 69, 100, 152, 293, 386, 392. But I
doubt if this is the same as the palm-wine mentioned in
_Balfour's Botany_, 1849, p. 532. Compare _Tuckey's Expedition to
the Zaire_, pp. 155, 216, 224, 356.
[136] _Wilkinson's Ancient Egyptians_, vol. ii. pp. 175-178. See also on
the abundance of dates, the extracts from an Arabian geographer
in _Quatremère_, _Recherches sur l'Egypte_, pp. 220, 221.
From these facts, it is evident that, taking Egypt as the highest type
of African civilization, and India as the highest type of Asiatic
civilization, it may be said that dates are to the first civilization
what rice is to the second. Now it is observable, that all the most
important physical peculiarities found in rice are also found in dates.
In regard to their chemistry, it is well known that the chief principle
of the nutriment they contain is the same in both; the starch of the
Indian vegetable being merely turned into the sugar of the Egyptian. In
regard to the laws of climate, their affinity is equally obvious; since
dates, like rice, belong to hot countries, and flourish most in or near
the tropics.[137] In regard to their increase, and the laws of their
connexion with the soil, the analogy is also exact; for dates, just the
same as rice, require little labour, and yield abundant returns, while
they occupy so small a space of land in comparison with the nutriment
they afford, that upwards of two hundred palm-trees are sometimes
planted on a single acre.[138]
[137] On their relation to the laws of climate, see the remarks
respecting the geographical limits of their power of ripening, in
_Jussieu's Botany_, edit. Wilson, 1849, p. 734.
[138] 'In the valley of the Nile, a feddan (1-3/4 acre) is sometimes
planted with 400 trees.' _Wilkinson's Ancient Egyptians_, vol.
ii. p. 178. At Moorzuk an entire date-palm is only worth about a
shilling. _Richardson's Central Africa_, vol. i. p. 111.
Thus striking are the similarities to which, in different countries, the
same physical conditions naturally give rise. At the same time, in
Egypt, as in India, the attainment of civilization was preceded by the
possession of a highly fertile soil; so that, while the exuberance of
the land regulated the speed with which wealth was created, the
abundance of the food regulated the proportions into which the wealth
was divided. The most fertile part of Egypt is the Said;[139] and it is
precisely there that we find the greatest display of skill and
knowledge, the splendid remains of Thebes, Carnac, Luxor, Dendera, and
Edfou.[140] It is also in the Said, or as it is often called the
Thebaid, that a food is used which multiplies itself even more rapidly
than either dates or rice. This is the dhourra, which until recently was
confined to Upper Egypt,[141] and of which the reproductive power is so
remarkable, that it yields to the labourer a return of two hundred and
forty for one.[142] In Lower Egypt the dhourra was formerly unknown;
but, in addition to dates, the people made a sort of bread from the
lotos, which sprang spontaneously out of the rich soil of the Nile.[143]
This must have been a very cheap and accessible food; while to it there
was joined a profusion of other plants and herbs, on which the Egyptians
chiefly lived.[144] Indeed so inexhaustible was the supply, that at the
time of the Mohammedan invasion there were, in the single city of
Alexandria, no less than four thousand persons occupied in selling
vegetables to the people.[145]
[139] On the remarkable fertility of the Said, see _Abd-Allatif_,
_Relation de l'Egypte_, p. 3.
[140] The superiority of the ruins in Southern Egypt over those in the
northern part is noticed by Heeren (_African Nations_, vol. ii.
p. 69), and must, indeed, be obvious to whoever has studied the
monuments. In the Said the Coptic was preserved longer than in
Lower Egypt, and is known to philologists by the name of Misr.
See _Quatremère_, _Recherches sur la Langue de l'Egypte_, pp. 20,
41, 42. See also on the Saidic, pp. 134-140, and some good
remarks by Dr. Prichard (_Physical Hist._ vol. ii. p. 202); who,
however, adopts the paradoxical opinion of Georgi respecting the
origin of the language of the Thebaid.
[141] Abd-Allatif (_Relation de l'Egypte_, p. 32) says, that in his time
it was only cultivated in the Said. This curious work by
Abd-Allatif was written in A.D. 1203. _Relation_, p. 423. Meiners
thinks that Herodotus and other ancient writers refer to the
dhourra without mentioning it: 'diese Durra muss daher im Herodot
wie in andern alten Schriftstellern vorzüglich verstanden werden,
wenn von hundert, zwey hundert, und mehrfältigen Früchten, welche
die Erde trage, die Rede ist.' _Meiners_, _Fruchtbarkeit der
Länder_, vol. i. p. 139. According to Volney, it is the Holcus
Arundinaceus of Linnæus, and appears to be similar to millet; and
though that accurate traveller distinguishes between them, I
observe that Captain Haines, in a recent memoir, speaks of them
as being the same. Compare Haines in _Journal of Geog. Soc._ vol.
xv. p. 118, with _Volney_, _Voyage en Egypte_, vol. i. p. 195.
[142] 'The return is in general not less than 240 for one; and the
average price is about 3_s._ 9_d._ the ardeb, which is scarcely
3_d._ per bushel.' _Hamilton's Æqyptiaca_, p. 420. In Upper
Egypt, 'the doura constitutes almost the whole subsistence of the
peasantry,' p. 419. At p. 96, Hamilton says, 'I have frequently
counted 3,000 grains in one ear of doura, and each stalk has in
general four or five ears.' For an account, of the dhourra bread,
see _Volney_, _Voyage en Egypte_, vol. i. p. 161.
[143] [Greek: Epean plêrês genêtai ho potamos, kai ta pedia pelagisê,
phuetai en tô hudati krinea polla, ta Aiguptioi kaleousi lôton;
tauta epean drepsôsi, auainousi pros hêlion; kai epeita to ek tou
mesou tou lôtou tê mêkôni eon empheres, ptisantes poieuntai ex
autou artous optous puri.] _Herodot._ ii. 92, vol. i. p. 688.
[144] _Wilkinson's Ancient Egyptians_, vol. ii. pp. 370-372, 400, vol.
iv. p. 59. Abd-Allatif gives a curious account of the different
vegetables grown in Egypt early in the thirteenth century.
_Relation_, pp. 16-36, and the notes of De Sacy, pp. 37-134. On
the [Greek: kyamos] of Herodotus there are some botanical remarks
worth reading in the _Correspondence of Sir J. E. Smith_, vol.
ii. pp. 224-232; but I doubt the assertion, p. 227, that
Herodotus 'knew nothing of any other kind of [Greek: kyamos] in
Egypt than that of the ordinary bean.'
[145] 'When Alexandria was taken by Amer, the lieutenant of the Caliph
Omer, no less than 4,000 persons were engaged in selling
vegetables in that city.' _Wilkinson's Ancient Egyptians_, vol.
ii. p. 372, and see vol. i. p. 277, vol. iv. p. 60. Niebuhr
(_Description de l'Arabie_, p. 136) says that the neighbourhood
of Alexandria is so fertile, that 'le froment y rend le
centuple.' See also on its rich vegetation, _Matter_, _Histoire
de l'Ecole d'Alexandrie_, vol. i. p. 52.
From this abundance of the national food, there resulted a train of
events strictly analogous to those which took place in India. In Africa
generally, the growth of population, though on the one hand stimulated
by the heat of the climate, was on the other hand checked by the poverty
of the soil. But on the banks of the Nile this restraint no longer
existed,[146] and therefore the laws already noticed came into
uncontrolled operation. By virtue of those laws, the Egyptians were not
only satisfied with a cheap food, but they required that food in
comparatively small quantities; thus by a double process, increasing the
limit to which their numbers could extend. At the same time the lower
orders were able to rear their offspring with the greater ease, because,
owing to the high rate of temperature, another considerable source of
expense was avoided; the heat being such that, even for adults, the
necessary clothes were few and slight, while the children of the working
classes were entirely naked; affording a striking contrast to those
colder countries where, to preserve ordinary health, a supply of warmer
and more costly covering is essential. Diodorus Siculus, who travelled
in Egypt nineteen centuries ago, says, that to bring up a child to
manhood did not cost more than twenty drachmas, scarcely thirteen
shillings English money; a circumstance which he justly notices as a
cause of the populousness of the country.[147]
[146] The encouragement given to the increase of population by the
fertility arising from the inundation of the Nile, is observed by
many writers, but by none so judiciously as Malthus; _Essay on
Population_, vol. i. pp. 161-163. This great work, the principles
of which have been grossly misrepresented, is still the best
which has been written on the important subject of population,
though the author, from a want of sufficient reading, often errs
in his illustrations; while he, unfortunately, had no
acquaintance with those branches of physical knowledge which are
intimately connected with economical inquiries.
[147] [Greek: Trephousi de ta paidia meta tinos euchereias adapanou, kai
pantelôs apistou ... anupodetôn de tôn pleistôn kai gymnôn
trephomenon dia tên eukrasian tôn topôn, tên pasan dapanên oi
goneis, achris an eis hêlikian elthê to teknon, ou pleiô poiousi
drachmôn eikusi, di as aitias malista tên Aigupton sumbainei
poluanthrôpia diapherein, kai dia touto pleistas echein megalôn
ergôn kataskeuas.] _Bibliothec. Hist._ book i. chap. lxxx. vol.
i. p. 238.
To compress into a single sentence the preceding remarks, it may be said
that in Egypt the people multiplied rapidly, because while the soil
increased their supplies, the climate lessened their wants. The result
was, that Egypt was not only far more thickly peopled than any other
country in Africa, but probably more so than any in the ancient world.
Our information upon this point is indeed somewhat scanty, but it is
derived from sources of unquestioned credibility. Herodotus, who the
more he is understood the more accurate he is found to be,[148] states
that in the reign of Amasis there were said to have been twenty thousand
inhabited cities.[149] This may, perhaps, be considered an exaggeration;
but what is very observable is, that Diodorus Siculus, who travelled in
Egypt four centuries after Herodotus, and whose jealousy of the
reputation of his great predecessor made him anxious to discredit his
statements,[150] does nevertheless, on this important point, confirm
them. For he not only remarks that Egypt was at that time as densely
inhabited as any existing country, but he adds, on the authority of
records which were then extant, that it was formerly the most populous
in the world, having contained, he says, upwards of eighteen thousand
cities.[151]
[148] Frederick Schlegel (_Philos. of Hist._ p. 247, London, 1846) truly
says, 'The deeper and more comprehensive the researches of the
moderns have been on ancient history, the more have their regard
and esteem for Herodotus increased.' His minute information
respecting Egypt and Asia Minor is now admitted by all competent
geographers; and I may add, that a recent and very able traveller
has given some curious proofs of his knowledge even of the
western parts of Siberia. See Erman's valuable work, _Travels in
Siberia_, vol. i. pp. 211, 297-301.
[149] [Greek: 'Ep' Amasios de basileos legetai Aigyptos malis-a dê tote
eudaimonêsai, kai ta apo tou potamou tê chôrê ginomena, kai ta
apo tês chôrês toisi anthrôpoisi kai polis en autê genesthai tas
apasas tote dismurias tas oikeomenas.] _Herodot._ book ii. chap.
clxxvii. vol. i. pp. 881, 882.
[150] Diodorus, who, though an honest and painstaking man, was in every
respect inferior to Herodotus, says, impertinently enough,
[Greek: osa men oun 'Êrodotos kai tines tôn tas Aiguptiôn prazeis
sun-tazamenôn eschediakasin, ekousiôs prokrinantes tês alêtheias
to paradoxologein, kai muthous plattein psuchagôgias eneka,
parêsomen.] _Biblioth. Hist._ book i. chap. lxix. vol. i. p. 207.
In other places he alludes to Herodotus in the same tone, without
actually mentioning him.
[151] [Greek: Poluanthrôpia de to men palaion polu proesche pantôn tôn
gnôrizomenon topôn kata, tên oikoumenên, kai kath' êmas de
oudenos tôn allôn dokei leipesthai. epi men gar tôn archaion
chronôn esche kômas axiologous, kai poleis pleious tôn murion kai
oktakischiliôn, ôs en tais anagraphais dranx esti
katakechôrismenon.] _Diod. Sic. Biblioth. Hist._ book i. chap.
xxxi. vol. i. p. 89.
These were the only two ancient writers who, from personal knowledge,
were well acquainted with the state of Egypt;[152] and their testimony
is the more valuable because it was evidently drawn from different
sources; the information of Herodotus being chiefly collected at
Memphis, that of Diodorus at Thebes.[153] And whatever discrepancies
there may be between these two accounts, they are both agreed respecting
the rapid increase of the people, and the servile condition into which
they had fallen. Indeed, the mere appearance of those huge and costly
buildings, which are still standing, are a proof of the state of the
nation that erected them. To raise structures so stupendous,[154] and
yet so useless,[155] there must have been tyranny on the part of the
rulers, and slavery on the part of the people. No wealth, however
great, no expenditure, however lavish, could meet the expense which
would have been incurred, if they had been the work of free men, who
received for their labour a fair and honest reward.[156] But in Egypt,
as in India, such considerations were disregarded, because everything
tended to favour the upper ranks of society and depress the lower.
Between the two there was an immense and impassable gap.[157] If a
member of the industrious classes changed his usual employment, or was
known to pay attention to political matters, he was severely
punished;[158] and under no circumstances was the possession of land
allowed to an agricultural labourer, to a mechanic, or indeed to any one
except the king, the clergy, and the army.[159] The people at large were
little better than beasts of burden; and all that was expected from them
was an unremitting and unrequited labour. If they neglected their work,
they were flogged; and the same punishment was frequently inflicted upon
domestic servants, and even upon women.[160] These and similar
regulations were well conceived; they were admirably suited to that vast
social system, which, because it was based on despotism, could only be
upheld by cruelty. Hence it was that, the industry of the whole nation
being at the absolute command of a small part of it, there arose the
possibility of rearing those vast edifices, which inconsiderate
observers admire as a proof of civilization,[161] but which, in reality,
are evidence of a state of things altogether depraved and unhealthy; a
state in which the skill and the arts of an imperfect refinement injured
those whom they ought to have benefited; so that the very resources
which the people had created were turned against the people themselves.
[152] Notwithstanding the positive assertions of M. Matter (_Hist. de
l'Ecole d'Alexandrie_, vol. ii. p. 285; compare _Hist. du
Gnosticisme_, vol. i. p. 48), there is no good evidence for the
supposed travels in Egypt of the earlier Greeks, and it is even
questionable if Plato ever visited that country. ('Whether he
ever was in Egypt is doubtful.' _Bunsen's Egypt_, vol. i. p. 60.)
The Romans took little interest in the subject (_Bunsen_, vol. i.
pp. 152-158); and, says M. Bunsen, p. 152, 'with Diodorus all
systematic inquiry into the history of Egypt ceases, not only on
the part of the Greeks, but of the ancients in general.' Mr.
Leake, in an essay on the Quorra, arrives at the conclusion, that
after the time of Ptolemy, the ancients made no additions to
their knowledge of African geography. _Journal of Geographical
Society_, vol. ii. p. 9.
[153] See on this some good remarks in _Heeren's African Nations_, vol.
ii. pp. 202-207; and as to the difference between the traditions
of Thebes and Memphis, see _Matter_, _Histoire de l'Ecole
d'Alexandrie_, vol. i. p. 7. The power and importance of the two
cities fluctuated, both being at different periods the capital.
_Bunsen's Egypt_, vol. ii. pp. 54, 55, 244, 445, 446; _Vyse on
the Pyramids_, vol. iii. pp. 27, 100; _Sharpe's History of
Egypt_, vol. i. pp. 9, 19, 24, 34, 167, 185.
[154] Sir John Herschel (_Disc. on Natural Philosophy_, p. 60)
calculates that the great pyramid weighs twelve thousand seven
hundred and sixty million pounds. Compare _Lyell's Principles of
Geology_, p. 459, where the still larger estimate of six million
tons is given. But according to Perring, the present quantity of
masonry is 6,316,000 tons, or 82,110,000 cubic feet. See
_Bunsen's Egypt_, vol. ii. p. 155, London, 1854, and _Vyse on the
Pyramids_, 1840, vol. ii. p. 113.
[155] Many fanciful hypotheses have been put forward as to the purpose
for which the pyramids were built; but it is now admitted that
they were neither more nor less than tombs for the Egyptian
kings! See _Bunsen's Egypt_, vol. ii. pp. xvii. 88, 105, 372,
389; and _Sharpe's History of Egypt_, vol. i. p. 21.
[156] For an estimate of the expense at which, one of the pyramids could
be built in our time by European workmen, see _Vyse on the
Pyramids_, vol. ii. p. 268. On account, however, of the number of
disturbing causes, such calculations have little value.
[157] Those who complain that in Europe this interval is still too
great, may derive a species of satisfaction from studying the old
extra-European civilizations.
[158] _Wilkinson's Ancient Egyptians_, vol. ii. pp. 8, 9. 'Nor was any
one permitted to meddle with political affairs, or to hold any
civil office in the state.' ... 'If any artizan meddled with
political affairs, or engaged in any other employment than the
one to which he had been brought up, a severe punishment was
instantly inflicted upon him.' Compare _Diod. Sic. Bibliothec.
Hist._ book i. chap. lxxiv. vol. i. p. 223.
[159] _Wilkinson's Ancient Egyptians_, vol. i. p. 263, vol. ii. p. 2;
_Sharpe's History of Egypt_, vol. ii. p. 24.
[160] _Wilkinson's Ancient Egyptians_, vol. ii. pp. 41, 42, vol. iii. p.
69, vol. iv. p. 131. Compare Ammianus Marcellinus, in _Hamilton's
Ægyptiaca_, p. 309.
[161] _Vyse on the Pyramids_, vol. i. p. 61, vol. ii. p. 92.
That in such a society as this, much regard should be paid to human
suffering, it would indeed be idle to expect.[162] Still, we are
startled by the reckless prodigality with which, in Egypt, the upper
classes squandered away the labour and the lives of the people. In this
respect, as the monuments yet remaining abundantly prove, they stand
alone and without a rival. We may form some idea of the almost
incredible waste, when we hear that two thousand men were occupied for
three years in carrying a single stone from Elephantine to Sais;[163]
that the Canal of the Red Sea alone, cost the lives of a hundred and
twenty thousand Egyptians;[164] and that to build one of the pyramids
required the labour of three hundred and sixty thousand men for twenty
years.[165]
[162] 'Ein König ahmte den andern nach, oder suchte ihn zu übertreffen;
indess das gutmüthige Volk seine Lebenstage am Baue dieser
Monumente verzehren musste. So entstanden wahrscheinlich die
Pyramiden und Obelisken Aegyptens. Nur in den ältesten Zeiten
wurden sie gebauet: denn die spätere Zeit und jede Nation, die
ein nützliches Gewerbe treiben lernte, bauete keine Pyramiden
mehr. Weit gefehlt also, dass Pyramiden ein Kennzeichen von der
Glückseligkeit und Aufklärung des alten Aegyptens seyn sollten,
sind sie ein unwidersprechliches Denkmal von dem Aberglauben und
der Gedankenlosigkeit sowohl der Armen, die da baueten, als der
Ehrgeizigen, die den Bau befahlen.' _Herder's Ideen zur
Geschichte_, vol. iii. pp. 103, 104: see also p. 293, and some
admirable remarks in _Volney's Voyage en Egypte_, vol. i. pp.
240, 241. Even M. Bunsen, notwithstanding his admiration, says of
one of the pyramids, 'the misery of the people, already
grievously oppressed, was aggravated by the construction of this
gigantic building.... The bones of the oppressors of the people
who for two whole generations harassed hundreds of thousands from
day to day,' &c. _Bunsen's Egypt_, vol. ii. p. 176, a learned and
enthusiastic work.
[163] [Greek: Kai touto ekomizon men ep' etea tria dischilioi de oi
prosetetachato andres agôgees.] _Herodot._ book ii. chap. clxxv.
vol. i. p. 897. On the enormous weight of the stones which the
Egyptians sometimes carried, see _Bunsen's Egypt_, vol. i. p.
379; and as to the machines employed, and the use of inclined
roads for the transit, see _Vyse on the Pyramids_, vol. i. p.
197, vol. iii. pp. 14, 38.
[164] _Wilkinson's Ancient Egyptians_, vol. i. p. 70: but this learned
writer is unwilling to believe a statement so adverse to his
favourite Egyptians. It is likely enough that there is some
exaggeration; still no one can dispute the fact of an enormous
and unprincipled waste of human life.
[165] [Greek: Triakonta men yar kai ex muriades andrôn, ôs phasi, tais
tôn ergôn leitourgais prosêdreusan, to de pan kataskeuasma telos
esche mogis etôn eikosi dielthontôn.] _Diod. Sic. Bibliothec.
Hist._ book i. ch. lxiii. vol. i. p. 188.
If, passing from the history of Asia and Africa, we now turn to the New
World, we shall meet with fresh proof of the accuracy of the preceding
views. The only parts of America which before the arrival of the
Europeans were in some degree civilized, were Mexico and Peru;[166] to
which may probably be added that long and narrow tract which stretches
from the south of Mexico to the Isthmus of Panama. In this latter
country, which is now known as Central America, the inhabitants, aided
by the fertility of the soil,[167] seem to have worked out for
themselves a certain amount of knowledge; since the ruins still extant,
prove the possession of a mechanical and architectural skill too
considerable to be acquired by any nation entirely barbarous.[168]
Beyond this, nothing is known of their history; but the accounts we
have of such buildings as Copan, Palenque, and Uxmal, make it highly
probable that Central America was the ancient seat of a civilization, in
all essential points similar to those of India and Egypt; that is to
say, similar to them in respect to the unequal distribution of wealth
and power, and the thraldom in which the great body of the people
consequently remained.[169]
[166] 'When compared with other parts of the New World, Mexico and Peru
may be considered as polished states.' _History of America_, book
vii. in _Robertson's Works_, p. 904. See, to the same effect,
_Journal of Geograph. Society_, vol. v. p. 355.
[167] Compare _Squier's Central America_, vol. i. pp. 34, 244, 358, 421,
vol. ii. p. 307, with _Journal of Geograph. Society_, vol. iii.
p. 59, vol. viii. pp. 319, 323.
[168] Mr. Squier (_Central America_, vol. ii. p. 68); who explored
Nicaragua, says of the statues, 'the material, in every case, is
a black basalt, of great hardness, which, with the best of modern
tools, can only be cut with difficulty.' Mr. Stephens (_Central
America_, vol. ii. p. 355) found at Palenque 'elegant specimens
of art and models for study.' See also vol. iii. pp. 276, 389,
406, vol. iv. p. 293. Of the paintings at Chichen he says (vol.
iv. p. 311), 'they exhibit a freedom of touch which could only be
the result of discipline and training under masters.' At Copan
(vol. i. p. 151), 'it would be impossible, with the best
instruments of modern times, to cut stones more perfectly.' And
at Uxmal (vol. ii. p. 431), 'throughout, the laying and polishing
of the stones are as perfect as under the rules of the best
modern masonry.' Our knowledge of Central America is almost
entirely derived from these two writers; and although the work of
Mr. Stephens is much the more minute, Mr. Squier says (vol. ii.
p. 306), what I believe is quite true, that until the appearance
of his own book in 1853, the monuments in Nicaragua were entirely
unknown. Short descriptions of the remains in Guatemala and
Yucatan will be found in _Larenaudière's Mexique et Guatemala_,
pp. 308-327, and in _Journal of Geograph. Society_, vol. iii. pp.
60-63.
[169] See the remarks on Yucatan in _Prichard's Physical History of
Mankind_, vol. v. p. 348: 'a great and industrious, though
perhaps, as the writer above cited (Gallatin) observes, an
enslaved population. Splendid temples and palaces attest the
power of the priests and nobles, while as usual no trace remains
of the huts in which dwelt the mass of the nation.'
But although the evidence from which we might estimate the former
condition of Central America is almost entirely lost,[170] we are more
fortunate in regard to the histories of Mexico and Peru. There are
still existing considerable and authentic materials, from which we may
form an opinion on the ancient state of those two countries, and on the
nature and extent of their civilization. Before, however, entering upon
this subject, it will be convenient to point out what those physical
laws were which determined the localities of American civilization; or,
in other words, why it was that in these countries alone, society should
have been organized into a fixed and settled system, while the rest of
the New World was peopled by wild and ignorant barbarians. Such an
inquiry will be found highly interesting, as affording further proof of
the extraordinary, and indeed irresistible, force with which the powers
of nature have controlled the fortunes of man.
[170] Dr. M'Culloh (_Researches concerning the Aboriginal History of
America_, pp. 272-340) has collected from the Spanish writers
some meagre statements respecting the early condition of Central
America; but of its social state and history, properly so called,
nothing is known; nor is it even certain to what family of
nations the inhabitants belonged, though a recent author can find
'la civilisation guatemalienne ou misteco-zapotèque et mayaquiche
vivante pour nous encore dans les ruines de Mitla et de
Palenque.' _Mexique et Guatemala, par Larenaudière_, p. 8, Paris,
1843. Dr. Prichard, too, refers the ruins in Central America to
'the Mayan race:' see _Prichard on Ethnology_, in _Report of
British Association for 1847_, p. 252. But the evidence for these
and similar statements is very unsatisfactory.
The first circumstance by which we must be struck, is that in America,
as in Asia and Africa, all the original civilizations were seated in hot
countries; the whole of Peru proper being within the southern tropic,
the whole of Central America and Mexico within the northern tropic. How
the heat of the climate operated on the social and political
arrangements of India and Egypt, I have attempted to examine; and it
has, I trust, been proved that the result was brought about by
diminishing the wants and requirements of the people, and thus producing
a very unequal distribution of wealth and power. But, besides this,
there is another way in which the average temperature of a country
affects its civilization, and the discussion of which I have reserved
for the present moment, because it may be more clearly illustrated in
America than elsewhere. Indeed, in the New World, the scale on which
Nature works, being much larger than in the Old, and her forces being
more overpowering, it is evident that her operations on mankind may be
studied with greater advantage than in countries where she is weaker,
and where, therefore, the consequences of her movements are less
conspicuous.
If the reader will bear in mind the immense influence which an abundant
national food has been shown to exercise, he will easily understand how,
owing to the pressure of physical phenomena, the civilization of
America was, of necessity, confined to those parts where alone it was
found by the discoverers of the New World. For, setting aside the
chemical and geognostic varieties of soil, it may be said that the two
causes which regulate the fertility of every country are heat and
moisture.[171] Where these are abundant, the land will be exuberant;
where they are deficient, it will be sterile. This rule is, of course,
in its application subject to exceptions, arising from physical
conditions which are independent of it; but if other things are equal,
the rule is invariable. And the vast additions which, since the
construction of isothermal lines, have been made to our knowledge of
geographical botany, enable us to lay this down as a law of nature,
proved not only by arguments drawn from vegetable physiology, but also
by a careful study of the proportions in which plants are actually
distributed in different countries.[172]
[171] Respecting the connection between the vegetable productions of a
country and its geognostic peculiarities, little is yet known;
but the reader may compare _Meyen's Geography of Plants_, p. 64,
with _Reports on Botany by the Ray Society_, 1846, pp. 70, 71.
The chemical laws of soil are much better understood, and have a
direct practical bearing on the use of manures. See _Turner's
Chemistry_, vol. ii. pp. 1310-1314; _Brande's Chemistry_, vol. i.
p. 691, vol. ii. pp. 1867-1869; _Balfour's Botany_, pp. 116-122;
_Liebig and Kopp's Reports_, vol. ii. pp. 315, 328, vol. iii. p.
463, vol. iv. pp. 438, 442, 446.
[172] As to the influence of heat and moisture on the geographical
distribution of plants, see _Henslow's Botany_, pp. 295-300, and
_Balfour's Botany_, pp. 560-563. Meyen (_Geog. of Plants_, p.
263) says, 'I, therefore, after allowing for local circumstances,
bring the vegetation of islands also under the law of nature,
according to which the number of species constantly increases
with increasing heat and corresponding humidity.' On the effect
of temperature alone, compare a note in _Erman's Siberia_, vol.
i. pp. 64, 65, with _Reports on Botany by the Ray Society_, pp.
339, 340. In the latter work, it is supposed that heat is the
most important of all single agents; and though this is probably
true, still the influence of humidity is immense. I may mention
as an instance of this, that it has been recently ascertained
that the oxygen used by seeds during germination, is not always
taken from the air, but is obtained by decomposing water. See the
curious experiments of Edwards and Colin in _Lindley's Botany_,
vol. ii. pp. 261, 262, London, 1848; and on the direct
nourishment which water supplies to vegetables, see Burdache's
great work, _Traité de Physiologie_, vol. ix. pp. 254, 398.
A general survey of the continent of America will illustrate the
connexion between this law and the subject now before us. In the first
place, as regards moisture, all the great rivers in the New World are on
the eastern coast, none of them on the western. The causes of this
remarkable fact are unknown;[173] but it is certain that neither in
North, nor in South America, does one considerable river empty itself
into the Pacific; while on the opposite side there are numerous rivers,
some of enormous magnitude, all of great importance, as the Negro, the
La Plata, the San Francisco, the Amazon, the Orinoco, the Mississippi,
the Alabama, the Saint John, the Potomac, the Susquehannah, the
Delaware, the Hudson, and the Saint Lawrence. By this vast water-system
the soil is towards the east constantly irrigated:[174] but towards the
west there is in North America only one river of value, the Oregon;[175]
while in South America, from the Isthmus of Panama to the Straits of
Magellan, there is no great river at all.
[173] There is a difference between the watersheds of the eastern and
western ranges, which explains this in part, but not entirely;
and even if the explanation were more satisfactory than it is, it
is too proximate to the phenomenon to have much scientific value,
and must itself be referred to higher geological considerations.
[174] Of this irrigation some idea may be formed from an estimate that
the Amazon drains an area of 2,500,000 square miles; that its
mouth is 96 miles wide; and that it is navigable 2,200 miles from
its mouth. _Somerville's Physical Geography_, vol. i. p. 423.
Indeed, it is said in an essay on the Hydrography of South
America (_Journal of Geograph. Society_, vol. ii. p. 250), that
'with the exception of one short portage of three miles, water
flows, and is for the most part navigable, between Buenos Ayres,
in 35° south latitude, to the mouth of the Orinoco, in nearly 9°
north.' See also on this river-system, vol. v. p. 93, vol. x. p.
267. In regard to North America, Mr. Rogers (_Geology of North
America_, p. 8, _Brit. Assoc. for 1834_) says, 'the area drained
by the Mississippi and all its tributaries is computed at
1,099,000 square miles.' Compare _Richardson's Arctic
Expedition_, vol. ii. p. 164.
[175] The Oregon, or Columbia as it is sometimes called, forms a
remarkable botanical line, which is the boundary of the
Californian flora. See _Reports on Botany by the Ray Society_, p.
113.
But as to the other main cause of fertility, namely heat, we find in
North America a state of things precisely the reverse. There we find
that while the irrigation is on the east, the heat is on the west.[176]
This difference of temperature between the two coasts is probably
connected with some great meteorological law; for in the whole of the
northern hemisphere, the eastern part of continents and of islands is
colder than the western.[177] Whether, however, this is owing to some
large and comprehensive cause, or whether each instance has a cause
peculiar to itself, is an alternative, in the present state of
knowledge, impossible to decide; but the fact is unquestionable, and its
influence upon the early history of America is extremely curious. In
consequence of it, the two great conditions of fertility have not been
united in any part of the continent north of Mexico. The countries on
the one side have wanted heat; those on the other side have wanted
irrigation. The accumulation of wealth being thus impeded, the progress
of society was stopped; and until, in the sixteenth century, the
knowledge of Europe was brought to bear upon America, there is no
instance of any people north of the twentieth parallel, reaching even
that imperfect civilization to which the inhabitants of India and of
Egypt easily attained.[178] On the other hand, south of the twentieth
parallel, the continent suddenly changes its form, and, rapidly
contracting, becomes a small strip of land, until it reaches the Isthmus
of Panama. This narrow tract was the centre of Mexican civilization; and
a comparison of the preceding arguments will easily show why such was
the case; for the peculiar configuration of the land secured a very
large amount of coast, and thus gave to the southern part of North
America the character of an island. Hence there arose one of the
characteristics of an insular climate, namely, an increase of moisture
caused by the watery vapour which springs from the sea.[179] While,
therefore, the position of Mexico near the equator gave it heat, the
shape of the land gave it humidity; and this being the only part of
North America in which these two conditions were united, it was likewise
the only part which was at all civilized. There can be no doubt that if
the sandy plains of California and southern Columbia, instead of being
scorched into sterility, had been irrigated by the rivers of the east,
or if the rivers of the east had been accompanied by the heat of the
west, the result of either combination would have been that exuberance
of soil by which, as the history of the world decisively proves, every
early civilization was preceded. But inasmuch as, of the two elements of
fertility, one was deficient in every part of America north of the
twentieth parallel, it followed that, until that line was passed,
civilization could gain no resting-place; and there never has been
found, and we may confidently assert never will be found, any evidence
that even a single ancient nation, in the whole of that enormous
continent, was able to make much progress in the arts of life, or
organize itself into a fixed and permanent society.
[176] For proof that the mean temperature of the western coast of North
America is higher than that of the eastern coast, see _Journal of
Geograph. Society_, vol. ix. p. 380, vol. xi. pp. 168, 216;
_Humboldt_, _la Nouvelle Espagne_, vol. i. pp. 42, 336;
_Richardson's Arctic Expedition_, vol. ii. pp. 214, 218, 219,
259, 260. This is well illustrated by the botanical fact, that on
the west coast the Coniferæ grow as high as 68° or 70° north
latitude; while on the east their northern limit is 60°. See an
Essay on the Morphology of the Coniferæ, in _Reports on Botany by
the Ray Society_, p. 8, which should be compared with _Forry on
the Climate of the United States and its Endemic Influences_, New
York, 1842, p. 89.
[177] 'Writers on climate have remarked that the eastern coasts of
continents in the northern hemisphere have a lower mean
temperature than the western coasts.' _Richardson on North
American Zoology_, p. 129, _Brit. Assoc. for_ 1836: see also
_Report for_ 1841, _Sections_, p. 28; _Davis's China_, vol. iii.
pp. 140, 141; _Journal of Geograph. Society_, vol. xxii. p. 176.
[178] The little that is known of the early state of the North-American
tribes has been brought together by Dr. M'Culloh in his learned
work, _Researches concerning America_, pp. 119-146. He says, p.
121, that they 'lived together without laws and civil
regulations.' In that part of the world, the population has
probably never been fixed; and we now know that the inhabitants
of the north-east of Asia have at different times passed over to
the north-west of America, as in the case of the Tschuktschi, who
are found in both continents. Indeed, Dobell was so struck by the
similarity between the North-American tribes and some he met with
nearly as far west as Tomsk, that he believed their origin to be
the same. See _Dobell's Travels in Kamtschatka and Siberia_,
1830, vol. ii. p. 112. And on this question of intercourse
between the two continents, compare _Crantz's History of
Greenland_, vol. i. pp. 259, 260, with _Richardson's Arctic
Expedition_, vol. i. pp. 362, 363, and _Prichard's Physical
History of Mankind_, vol. iv. pp. 458, 463, vol. v. pp. 371, 378.
[179] From general physical considerations, we should suppose a relation
between amount of rain and extent of coast; and in Europe, where
alone we have extensive meteorological records, the connexion has
been proved statistically. 'If the quantity of rain that falls in
different parts of Europe is measured, it is found to be less,
other things being equal, as we recede from the sea-shore.'
_Kaemtz's Meteorology_, 1845, p. 139. Compare pp. 91, 94. Hence,
no doubt, the greater rarity of rain as we advance north from
Mexico. 'Au nord du 20°, surtout depuis les 22° au 30° de
latitude, les pluies, que ne durent que pendant les mois de juin,
de juillet, d'août et de septembre, sont peu fréquentes dans
l'intérieur du pays.' _Humboldt_, _la Nouvelle Espagne_, vol. i.
p. 46.
Thus far as to the physical agents which controlled the early destinies
of North America. But in reference to South America, a different train
of circumstances came into play; for the law by virtue of which the
eastern coasts are colder than the western, is not only inapplicable to
the southern hemisphere, but is replaced by another law precisely the
reverse. North of the equator, the east is colder than the west; south
of the equator, the east is hotter than the west.[180] If now, we
connect this fact with what has been noticed respecting the vast
river-system which distinguishes the east of America from the west, it
becomes evident that in South America there exists that coöperation of
heat and humidity in which North America is deficient. The result is,
that the soil in the eastern part of South America is remarkable for its
exuberance, not only within the tropic, but considerably beyond it; the
south of Brazil, and even part of Uruguay, possessing a fertility not to
be found in any country of North America situated under a corresponding
latitude.
[180] 'The difference between the climates of the east and west coasts
of continents and islands, has also been observed in the southern
hemisphere but here the west coasts are colder than the east,
while in the northern hemisphere the east coasts are the colder.'
_Meyen's Geography of Plants_, 1846, p. 24.
On a hasty view of the preceding generalizations, it might be expected
that the eastern side of South America, being thus richly endowed by
nature,[181] would have been the seat of one of those civilizations,
which, in other parts of the world, similar causes produced. But if we
look a little further, we shall find that what has just been pointed
out, by no means exhausts even the physical bearings of this subject,
and that we must take into consideration a third great agent, which has
sufficed to neutralize the natural results of the other two, and to
retain in barbarism the inhabitants of what otherwise would have been
the most flourishing of all the countries of the New World.
[181] Mr. Darwin, who has written one of the most valuable works ever
published on South America, was struck by this superiority of the
eastern coast; and he mentions that 'fruits which ripen well and
are very abundant, such as the grape and fig, in latitude 41° on
the east coast, succeed very poorly in a lower latitude on the
opposite side of the continent.' _Darwin's Journal of
Researches_, Lond. 1840, p. 268. Compare _Meyen's Geog. of
Plants_, pp. 25, 188. So that the proposition of Daniell
(_Meteorological Essays_, p. 104, sec. xiv.) is expressed too
generally, and should be confined to continents north of the
equator.
The agent to which I allude is the trade-wind; a striking phenomenon, by
which, as we shall hereafter see, all the civilizations anterior to
those of Europe were greatly and injuriously influenced. This wind
covers no less than 56° of latitude; 28° north of the equator, and 28°
south of it.[182] In this large tract, which comprises some of the most
fertile countries in the world, the trade-wind blows, during the whole
year, either from the north-east or from the south-east.[183] The causes
of this regularity are now well understood, and are known to depend
partly on the displacement of air at the equator, and partly on the
motion of the earth; for the cold air from the poles is constantly
flowing towards the equator, and thus producing northerly winds in the
northern hemisphere, and southerly winds in the southern. These winds
are, however, deflected from their natural course by the movement of the
earth, as it revolves on its axis from west to east. And as the rotation
of the earth is, of course, more rapid at the equator than elsewhere, it
happens that in the neighbourhood of the equator the speed is so great
as to outstrip the movements of the atmosphere from the poles, and
forcing them into another direction, gives rise to those easterly
currents which are called trade-winds.[184] What, however, we are now
rather concerned with, is not so much an explanation of the trade-winds,
as an account of the way in which this great physical phenomenon is
connected with the history of South America.
[182] The trade-winds sometimes reach the thirtieth parallel. See
_Daniell's Meteorological Essays_, p. 469. Dr. Traill (_Physical
Geography_, Edin. 1838, p. 200), says, 'they extend to about 30°
on each side of the equator:' but I believe they are rarely found
so high; though Robertson is certainly wrong in supposing that
they are peculiar to the tropics; _History of America_, book iv.
in _Robertson's Works_, p. 781.
[183] 'In the northern hemisphere the trade-wind blows from the
north-east, and in the southern from the south-east.' _Meyen's
Geog. of Plants_, p. 42. Compare _Walsh's Brazil_, vol. i. p.
112, vol. ii. p. 494; and on the 'tropical east-wind' of the Gulf
of Mexico, see _Forry's Climate of the United States_, p. 206.
Dr. Forry says that it has given to the growth of the trees 'an
inclination from the sea.'
[184] Respecting the causes of the trade-winds, see _Somerville's
Connexion of the Physical Sciences_, pp. 136, 137; _Leslie's
Natural Philosophy_, p. 518; _Daniell's Meteorological Essays_,
pp. 44, 102, 476-481; _Kaemtz's Meteorology_, pp. 37-39; _Prout's
Bridgewater Treatise_, pp. 254-256. The discovery of the true
theory is often ascribed to Mr. Daniell; but Hadley was the real
discoverer. _Note in Prout_, p. 257. The monsoons, which popular
writers frequently confuse with the trade-winds, are said to be
caused by the predominance of land, and by the difference between
its temperature and that of the sea: see _Kaemtz_, pp. 42-45. On
what may be called the conversion of the trades into monsoons,
according to the laws very recently promulgated by M. Dove, see
_Report of British Association for_ 1847 (_Transac. of Sections_,
p. 30) and _Report for_ 1848, p. 94. The monsoons are noticed in
_Humboldt's Cosmos_, vol. ii. p. 485; _Asiatic Researches_, vol.
xviii. part i. p. 261; _Thirlwall's History of Greece_, vol. vii.
pp. 13, 55; _Journal of Geograph. Society_, vol. ii. p. 90, vol.
iv. pp. 8, 9, 148, 149, 169, vol. xi. p. 162, vol. xv. pp.
146-149, vol. xvi. p. 185, vol. xviii. pp. 67, 68, vol. xxiii. p.
112; _Low's Sarawak_, p. 30.
The trade-wind, blowing on the eastern coast of South America, and
proceeding from the east, crosses the Atlantic Ocean, and therefore
reaches the land surcharged with the vapours accumulated in its passage.
These vapours, on touching the shore, are, at periodical intervals,
condensed into rain; and as their progress westward is checked by that
gigantic chain of the Andes, which they are unable to pass,[185] they
pour the whole of their moisture on Brazil, which, in consequence, is
often deluged by the most destructive torrents.[186] This abundant
supply, being aided by that vast river-system peculiar to the eastern
part of America, and being also accompanied by heat, has stimulated the
soil into an activity unequalled in any other part of the world.[187]
Brazil, which is nearly as large as the whole of Europe, is covered with
a vegetation of incredible profusion. Indeed, so rank and luxuriant is
the growth, that Nature seems to riot in the very wantonness of power. A
great part of this immense country is filled with dense and tangled
forests, whose noble trees, blossoming in unrivalled beauty, and
exquisite with a thousand hues, throw out their produce in endless
prodigality. On their summit are perched birds of gorgeous plumage,
which nestle in their dark and lofty recesses. Below, their base and
trunks are crowded with brushwood, creeping plants, innumerable
parasites, all swarming with life. There, too, are myriads of insects of
every variety; reptiles of strange and singular form; serpents and
lizards, spotted with deadly beauty: all of which find means of
existence in this vast workshop and repository of Nature. And that
nothing may be wanting to this land of marvels, the forests are skirted
by enormous meadows, which, reeking with heat and moisture, supply
nourishment to countless herds of wild cattle, that browse and fatten on
their herbage; while the adjoining plains, rich in another form of life,
are the chosen abode of the subtlest and most ferocious animals, which
prey on each other, but which it might almost seem no human power can
hope to extirpate.[188]
[185] _Lyell's Principles of Geology_, pp. 201, 714, 715; see also
_Somerville's Physical Geography_, vol. ii. p. 71. And on this
confining power of the Cordillera of the Andes, see _Azara_,
_Voyages dans l'Amérique Méridionale_, vol. i. p. 33. According
to Dr. Tschudi, the eastern chain is properly the Andes, and the
western the Cordillera; but this distinction is rarely made.
_Tschudi's Travels in Peru_, p. 290.
[186] On the rain of Brazil, see _Daniell's Meteorological Essays_,
p. 335; _Darwin's Journal_, pp. 11, 33; _Spix and Martius's
Travels in Brazil_, vol. ii. p. 113; _Gardner's Travels in
Brazil_, pp. 53, 99, 114, 175, 233, 394.
[187] Dr. Gardner, who looked at these things with the eye of a
botanist, says that near Rio de Janeiro the heat and moisture are
sufficient to compensate even the poorest soil; so that 'rocks,
on which scarcely a trace of earth is to be observed, are covered
with vellozias, tillandsias, melastomaceæ, cacti, orchideæ, and
ferns, and all in the vigour of life.' _Gardner's Travels in
Brazil_, p. 9. See also on this combination, _Walsh's Brazil_,
vol. ii. pp. 297, 298, a curious description of the rainy season:
'For eight or nine hours a day, during some weeks, I never had a
dry shirt on me; and the clothes I divested myself of at night, I
put on quite wet in the morning. When it did not rain, which was
very rare, there shone out in some places a burning sun; and we
went smoking along, the wet exhaling by the heat, as if we were
dissolving into vapour.'
[188] On the natural history of Brazil, I have compared a few notices in
_Swainson's Geography of Animals_, pp. 75-87, with _Cuvier_,
_Règne Animal_, vol. i. p. 460, vol. ii. pp. 28, 65, 66, 89, vol.
iv. pp. 51, 75, 258, 320, 394, 485, 561, vol. v. pp. 40, 195,
272, 334, 553; _Azara_, _Amérique Méridionale_, vol. i. pp.
244-388, and the greater part of vols. iii. and iv.; _Winckler_,
_Geschichte der Botanik_, pp. 378, 576-578; _Southey's History of
Brazil_, vol. i. p. 27, vol. iii. pp. 315, 823; _Gardner's
Brazil_, pp. 18, 32-34, 41-44, 131, 330; _Spix and Martius's
Brazil_, vol. i. pp. 207-209, 238-248, vol. ii. pp. 131, 160-163.
And as to the forests, which are among the wonders of the world,
_Somerville's Physical Geog._ vol. ii. pp. 204-206; _Prichard's
Physical History_, vol. v. p. 497; _Darwin's Journal_, pp. 11,
24; _Walsh's Brazil_, vol. i. p. 145, vol. ii. pp. 29, 30, 253.
Such is the flow and abundance of life by which Brazil is marked above
all the other countries of the earth.[189] But, amid this pomp and
splendour of Nature, no place is left for Man. He is reduced to
insignificance by the majesty with which he is surrounded. The forces
that oppose him are so formidable that he has never been able to make
head against them, never able to rally against their accumulated
pressure. The whole of Brazil, notwithstanding its immense apparent
advantages, has always remained entirely uncivilized; its inhabitants
wandering savages, incompetent to resist those obstacles which the very
bounty of Nature had put in their way. For the natives, like every
people in the infancy of society, are averse to enterprise; and being
unacquainted with the arts by which physical impediments are removed,
they have never attempted to grapple with the difficulties that stopped
their social progress. Indeed, those difficulties are so serious, that
during more than three hundred years the resources of European knowledge
have been vainly employed in endeavouring to get rid of them. Along the
coast of Brazil, there has been introduced from Europe a certain amount
of that civilization, which the natives by their own efforts could never
have reached. But such civilization, in itself very imperfect, has never
penetrated the recesses of the country; and in the interior there is
still found a state of things similar to that which has always existed.
The people, ignorant, and therefore brutal, practising no restraint, and
recognizing no law, continue to live on in their old and inveterate
barbarism.[190] In their country, the physical causes are so active,
and do their work on a scale of such unrivalled magnitude, that it has
hitherto been found impossible to escape from the effects of their
united action. The progress of agriculture is stopped by impassable
forests, and the harvests are destroyed by innumerable insects.[191] The
mountains are too high to scale, the rivers are too wide to bridge;
every thing is contrived to keep back the human mind, and repress its
rising ambition. It is thus that the energies of Nature have hampered
the spirit of Man. Nowhere else is there so painful a contrast between
the grandeur of the external world and the littleness of the internal.
And the mind, cowed by this unequal struggle, has not only been unable
to advance, but without foreign aid it would undoubtedly have receded.
For even at present, with all the improvements constantly introduced
from Europe, there are no signs of real progress; while, notwithstanding
the frequency of colonial settlements, less than one-fiftieth of the
land is cultivated.[192] The habits of the people are as barbarous as
ever; and as to their numbers, it is well worthy of remark, that Brazil,
the country where, of all others, physical resources are most powerful,
where both vegetables and animals are most abundant, where the soil is
watered by the noblest rivers, and the coast studded by the finest
harbours--this immense territory, which is more than twelve times the
size of France, contains a population not exceeding six millions of
people.[193]
[189] This extraordinary richness has excited the astonishment of all
who have seen it. Mr. Walsh, who had travelled in some very
fertile countries, mentions 'the exceeding fecundity of nature
which characterizes Brazil.' _Walsh's Brazil_, vol. ii. p. 19.
And a very eminent naturalist, Mr. Darwin, says (_Journal_, p.
29), 'In England, any person fond of natural history enjoys in
his walks a great advantage, by always having something to
attract his attention; but in these fertile climates, teeming
with life, the attractions are so numerous that he is scarcely
able to walk at all.'
[190] Azara (_Amérique Méridionale_, vol. ii. pp. 1-168) gives a
curious, but occasionally a disgusting account of the savage
natives in that part of Brazil south of 16°, to which his
observations were limited. And as to the inhabitants of other
parts, see _Henderson's History of Brazil_, pp. 28, 29, 107, 173,
248, 315, 473; _M'Culloh's Researches concerning America_, p. 77;
and the more recent account of Dr. Martius, in _Journal of
Geograph. Society_, vol. ii. pp. 191-199. Even in 1817, it was
rare to see a native in Rio de Janeiro (_Spix and Martius's
Travels in Brazil_, vol. i. p. 142); and Dr. Gardner (_Travels in
Brazil_, pp. 61, 62) says, that 'more than one nation of Indians
in Brazil' have returned to that savage life from which they had
apparently been reclaimed.
[191] Sir C. Lyell (_Principles of Geology_, p. 682) notices 'the
incredible number of insects which lay waste the crops in
Brazil;' and Mr. Swainson, who had travelled in that country,
says 'The red ants of Brazil are so destructive, and at the same
time so prolific, that they frequently dispute possession of the
ground with the husbandman, defy all his skill to extirpate their
colonies, and fairly compel him to leave his fields
uncultivated.' _Swainson on the Geography and Classification of
Animals_, p. 87. See more about these insects in _Darwin's
Journal_, pp. 37-43; _Southey's History of Brazil_, vol. i. pp.
144, 256, 333-335, 343, vol. ii. pp. 365, 642, vol. iii. p. 876;
_Spix and Martius's Travels in Brazil_, vol. i. p. 259, vol. ii.
p. 117; _Cuvier_, _Règne Animal_, vol. iv. p. 320.
[192] The cultivated land is estimated at from 1-1/2 to 2 per cent. See
_M'Culloch's Geog. Dict._ 1849, vol. i. p. 430.
[193] During the present century, the population of Brazil has been
differently stated at different times; the highest computation
being 7,000,000, and the lowest 4,000,000. Comp. _Humboldt_,
_Nouv. Espagne_, vol. ii. p. 855; _Gardner's Brazil_, p. 12;
_M'Culloch's Geog. Dict._ 1849, vol. i. pp. 430, 434. Mr. Walsh
describes Brazil as 'abounding in lands of the most exuberant
fertility, but nearly destitute of inhabitants.' _Walsh's
Brazil_, vol. i. p. 248. This was in 1828 and 1829, since which
the European population has increased; but, on the whole,
6,000,000 seems to be a fair estimate of what can only be known
approximatively. In _Alison's History_, vol. x. p. 229, the
number given is 5,000,000; but the area also is rather
understated.
These considerations sufficiently explain why it is, that in the whole
of Brazil there are no monuments even of the most imperfect
civilization; no evidence that the people had, at any period, raised
themselves above the state in which they were found when their country
was first discovered. But immediately opposite to Brazil there is
another country, which, though situated in the same continent, and lying
under the same latitude, is subjected to different physical conditions,
and therefore was the scene of different social results. This is the
celebrated kingdom of Peru, which included the whole of the southern
tropic, and which, from the circumstances just stated, was naturally the
only part of South America where any thing approaching to civilization
could be attained. In Brazil, the heat of the climate was accompanied by
a twofold irrigation, arising first from the immense river-system
incidental to the eastern coast; and secondly, from the abundant
moisture deposited by the trade-winds. From this combination there
resulted that unequalled fertility, which, so far as Man was concerned,
defeated its own ends, stopping his progress by an exuberance, which,
had it been less excessive, it would have aided. For, as we have clearly
seen, when the productive powers of Nature are carried beyond a certain
point, the imperfect knowledge of uncivilized men is unable to cope with
them, or in any way turn them to their own advantage. If, however, those
powers, being very active, are nevertheless confined within manageable
limits, there arises a state of things similar to that noticed in Asia
and Africa; where the profusion of Nature, instead of hindering social
progress, favoured it, by encouraging that accumulation of wealth,
without some share of which progress is impossible.
In estimating, therefore, the physical conditions by which civilization
was originally determined, we have to look, not merely at the
exuberance, but also at what may be called the manageability of Nature;
that is, we have to consider the ease with which the resources may be
used, as well as the number of the resources themselves. Applying this
to Mexico and Peru, we find that they were the countries of America
where this combination most happily occurred. For though their resources
were much less numerous than those of Brazil, they were far more easy to
control; while at the same time the heat of the climate brought into
play those other laws by which, as I have attempted to show, all the
early civilizations were greatly influenced. It is a very remarkable
fact, which, I believe, has never been observed, that even in reference
to latitude, the present limit of Peru to the south corresponds with the
ancient limit of Mexico to the north; while, by a striking, but to me
perfectly natural coincidence, both these boundaries are reached before
the tropical line is passed; the boundary of Mexico being 21° N. lat.,
that of Peru 21-1/2° S. lat.[194]
[194] Vidaca being the most southerly point of the present Peruvian
coast; though the conquests of Peru, incorporated with the
empire, extended far into Chili, and within a few degrees of
Patagonia. In regard to Mexico, the northern limit of the empire
was 21°, on the Atlantic coast, and 19° on the Pacific.
_Prescott's History of Mexico_, vol. i. p. 2.
Such is the wonderful regularity which history, when comprehensively
studied, presents to our view. And if we compare Mexico and Peru with
those countries of the Old World which have been already noticed, we
shall find, as in all the civilizations anterior to those of Europe,
that their social phenomena were subordinate to their physical laws. In
the first place, the characteristics of their national food were
precisely those met with in the most flourishing parts of Asia and
Africa. For although few of the nutritious vegetables belonging to the
Old World were found in the New, their place was supplied by others
exactly analogous to rice and dates; that is to say, marked by the same
abundance, by the same facility of growth, and by the same exuberant
returns; therefore, followed by the same social results. In Mexico and
Peru, one of the most important articles of food has always been maize,
which, we have every reason to believe, was peculiar to the American
continent.[195] This, like rice and dates, is eminently the product of a
hot climate; and although it is said to grow at an elevation of upwards
of 7,000 feet,[196] it is rarely seen beyond the fortieth parallel,[197]
and its exuberance rapidly diminishes with the diminution of
temperature. Thus, for example, in New California, its average yield is
seventy or eighty fold;[198] but in Mexico Proper the same grain yields
three or four hundred fold, and, under very favourable circumstances,
even eight hundred fold.[199]
[195] A question has been raised as to the Asiatic origin of maize:
_Reynier_, _Economie des Arabes_, pp. 94, 95. But later and more
careful researches seem to have ascertained beyond much doubt
that it was unknown before America was discovered. Compare
_Meyen's Geography of Plants_, pp. 44, 303, 304; _Walckenaer's
note in Azara, Amérique Méridionale_, vol. i. p. 149; _Cuvier_,
_Progrès des Sciences Naturelles_, vol. ii. p. 354; _Cuvier_,
_Eloges Historiques_, vol. ii. p. 178; _Loudon's Encyclopædia of
Agriculture_, p. 829; _M'Culloch's Dict. of Commerce_, 1849, p.
831. The casual notices of maize by Ixtlilxochitl, the native
Mexican historian, show its general use as an article of food
before the arrival of the Spaniards: see _Ixtlilxochitl_,
_Histoire des Chichimèques_, vol. i. pp. 53, 64, 240, vol. ii.
p. 19.
[196] 'Maize, indeed, grows to the height of 7,200 feet above the level
of the sea, but only predominates between 3,000 and 6,000 of
elevation.' _Lindley's Vegetable Kingdom_, 1847, p. 112. This
refers to the tropical parts of South America; but the Zea Mais
is said to have been raised on the slopes of the Pyrenees 'at an
elevation of 3,000 to 4,000 feet.' See _Austen on the Forty Days'
Maize_, in _Report of Brit. Assoc. for_ 1849, _Trans. of Sec._
p. 68.
[197] M. Meyen (_Geog. of Plants_, p. 302) and Mr. Balfour (_Botany_, p.
567) suppose that in America 40° is about its limit; and this is
the case in regard to its extensive cultivation; but it is grown
certainly as high as 52°, perhaps as high as 54°, north latitude:
see _Richardson's Arctic Expedition_, 1851, vol. ii. pp. 49, 234.
[198] 'Sous la zone tempérée, entre les 33 et 38 degrés de latitude, par
exemple dans la Nouvelle Californie, le maïs ne produit, en
général, année commune, que 70 à 80 grains pour un.' _Humboldt_,
_la Nouvelle Espagne_, vol. ii. p. 375.
[199] 'La fécondité du Tlaolli, ou maïs mexicain, est au-delà de tout ce
que l'on peut imaginer en Europe. La plante, favorisée par de
fortes chaleurs et par beaucoup d'humidité, acquiert une hauteur
de deux à trois mètres. Dans les belles plaines qui s'étendent
depuis San Juan del Rio à Queretaro, par exemple dans les terres
de la grande métairie de l'Esperanza, une fanègue de maïs en
produit quelquefois huit cents. Des terrains fertiles en donnent,
année commune, trois à quatre cents.' _Humboldt_, _Nouv.
Espagne_, vol. ii. p. 374. Nearly the same estimate is given by
Mr. Ward: see _Ward's Mexico_, vol. i. p. 32, vol. ii. p. 230. In
Central America (Guatemala), maize returns three hundred for one.
_Mexique et Guatemala, par Larenaudière_, p. 257.
A people who derived their sustenance from a plant of such extraordinary
fecundity, had little need to exercise their industrious energies; while
at the same time they had every opportunity of increasing their numbers,
and thus producing a train of social and political consequences similar
to those which I have noticed in India and in Egypt. Besides this, there
were, in addition to maize, other kinds of food to which the same
remarks are applicable. The potato, which, in Ireland, has brought about
such injurious effects by stimulating the growth of population, is said
to be indigenous to Peru; and although this is denied by a very high
authority,[200] there is, at all events, no doubt that it was found
there in great abundance when the country was first discovered by the
Europeans.[201] In Mexico, potatoes were unknown till the arrival of
the Spaniards; but both Mexicans and Peruvians lived to a great extent
on the produce of the banana; a vegetable whose reproductive powers are
so extraordinary, that nothing but the precise and unimpeachable
testimony of which we are possessed could make them at all credible.
This remarkable plant is, in America, intimately connected with the
physical laws of climate; since it is an article of primary importance
for the subsistence of man whenever the temperature passes a certain
point.[202] Of its nutritive powers, it is enough to say, that an acre
sown with it will support more than fifty persons; whereas the same
amount of land sown with wheat in Europe will only support two
persons.[203] As to the exuberance of its growth, it is calculated that,
other circumstances remaining the same, its produce is forty-four times
greater than that of potatoes, and a hundred and thirty-three times
greater than that of wheat.[204]
[200] 'La pomme de terre n'est pas indigène au Pérou.' _Humboldt_,
_Nouv. Espagne_, vol. ii. p. 400. On the other hand, Cuvier
(_Histoire des Sciences Naturelles_, part ii. p. 185)
peremptorily says, 'il est impossible de douter qu'elle ne soit
originaire du Pérou:' see also his _Eloges Historiques_, vol. ii.
p. 171. Compare _Winckler_, _Gesch. der Botanik_, p. 92: 'Von
einem gewissen Carate unter den Gewächsen Peru's mit dem Namen
papas aufgeführt.'
[201] And has been used ever since for food. On the Peruvian potato
compare _Tschudi's Travels in Peru_, pp. 178, 368, 386; _Ulloa's
Voyage to South America_, vol. i. pp. 287, 288. In Southern Peru,
at the height of 13,000 or 14,000 feet, a curious process takes
place, the starch of the potato being frozen into saccharine. See
a valuable paper by Mr. Bollaert in _Journal of Geograph.
Society_, vol. xxi. p. 119.
[202] Humboldt (_Nouv. Espagne_, vol. ii. p. 359) says, 'partout où la
chaleur moyenne de l'année excède vingt-quatre degrés
centigrades, le fruit du bananier est un objet de culture du plus
grand intérêt pour la subsistance de l'homme.' Compare _Bullock's
Mexico_, p. 281.
[203] _M'Culloch's Geograph. Dict._, 1849, vol. ii. p. 315.
[204] 'Je doute qu'il existe une autre plante sur le globe, qui, sur un
petit espace de terrain, puisse produire une masse de substance
nourrissante aussi considérable.' ... 'Le produit des bananes
est par conséquent à celui du froment comme 133: 1--à celui des
pommes de terre comme 44: l'_Humboldt_, _Nouvelle Espagne_, vol.
ii. pp. 362, 363. See also _Prout's Bridgewater Treatise_, p.
333, edit. 1845; _Prescott's Peru_, vol. i. pp. 131, 132;
_Prescott's Mexico_, vol. i. p. 114. Earlier notices, but very
imperfect ones, of this remarkable vegetable may be found in
_Ulloa's South America_, vol. i. p. 74; and in _Boyle's Works_,
vol. iii. p. 590.
It will now be easily understood why it was that, in all important
respects, the civilizations of Mexico and Peru were strictly analogous
to those of India and Egypt. In these four countries, as well as in a
few others in Southern Asia and Central America, there existed an
amount of knowledge, despicable indeed if tried by an European standard,
but most remarkable if contrasted with the gross ignorance which
prevailed among the adjoining and cotemporary nations. But in all of
them there was the same inability to diffuse even that scanty
civilization which they really possessed; there was the same utter
absence of any thing approaching to the democratic spirit; there was the
same despotic power on the part of the upper classes, and the same
contemptible subservience on the part of the lower. For, as we have
clearly seen, all these civilizations were affected by certain physical
causes, which, though favourable to the accumulation of wealth, were
unfavourable to a just subdivision of it. And as the knowledge of men
was still in its infancy,[205] it was found impossible to struggle
against these physical agents, or prevent them from producing those
effects on the social organization which I have attempted to trace. Both
in Mexico and in Peru, the arts, and particularly those branches of them
which minister to the luxury of the wealthy classes, were cultivated
with great success. The houses of the higher ranks were filled with
ornaments and utensils of admirable workmanship; their chambers were
hung with splendid tapestries; their dresses and their personal
decorations betrayed an almost incredible expense; their jewels of
exquisite and varied form; their rich and flowing robes embroidered with
the rarest feathers, collected from the most distant parts of the
empire: all supplying evidence of the possession of unlimited wealth,
and of the ostentatious prodigality with which that wealth was
wasted.[206] Immediately below this class came the people; and what
their condition was, may be easily imagined. In Peru the whole of the
taxes were paid by them; the nobles and the clergy being altogether
exempt.[207] But as, in such a state of society, it was impossible for
the people to accumulate property, they were obliged to defray the
expenses of government by their personal labour, which was placed under
the entire command of the state.[208] At the same time, the rulers of
the country were well aware that, with a system like this, feelings of
personal independence were incompatible; they therefore contrived laws
by which, even in the most minute matters, freedom of action was
controlled. The people were so shackled, that they could neither change
their residence, nor alter their clothes, without permission from the
governing powers To each man the law prescribed the trade he was to
follow, the dress he was to wear, the wife he was to marry, and the
amusements he was to enjoy.[209] Among the Mexicans the course of
affairs was similar; the same physical conditions being followed by the
same social results. In the most essential particular for which history
can be studied, namely, the state of the people, Mexico and Peru are the
counterpart of each other. For though there were many minor points of
difference,[210] both were agreed in this, that there were only two
classes--the upper class being tyrants, and the lower class being
slaves. This was the state in which Mexico was found when it was
discovered by the Europeans,[211] and towards which it must have been
tending from the earliest period. And so insupportable had all this
become, that we know, from the most decisive evidence, that the general
disaffection it produced among the people was one of the causes which,
by facilitating the progress of the Spanish invaders, hastened the
downfall of the Mexican empire.[212]
[205] The only science with which they had much acquaintance was
astronomy, which the Mexicans appear to have cultivated with
considerable success. Compare the remark of La Place, in
_Humboldt_, _Nouvelle Espagne_, vol. i. p. 92, with _Prichard's
Physical History_, vol. v. pp. 323, 329; _M'Culloch's
Researches_, pp. 201-225; _Larenaudière's Mexique_, pp. 51, 52;
_Humboldt's Cosmos_, vol. iv. p. 456; _Journal of Geog. Society_,
vol. vii. p. 3. However, their astronomy, as might be expected,
was accompanied by astrology: see _Ixtlilxochitl_, _Histoire des
Chichimèques_, vol. i. p. 168, vol. ii. pp. 94, 111.
[206] The works of art produced by the Mexicans and Peruvians are
under-rated by Robertson: who, however, admits that he had never
seen them. _History of America_, book vii., in _Robertson's
Works_, pp. 909, 920. But during the present century considerable
attention has been paid to this subject: and in addition to the
evidence of skill and costly extravagance collected by Mr.
Prescott, _History of Peru_, vol. i. pp. 28, 142; _History of
Mexico_, vol. i. pp. 27, 28, 122, 256, 270, 307, vol. ii. pp.
115, 116, I may refer to the testimony of M. Humboldt, the only
traveller in the New World who has possessed a competent amount
of physical as well as historical knowledge. _Humboldt, Nouvelle
Espagne_, vol. ii. p. 483, and elsewhere. Compare Mr. Pentland's
observations on the tombs in the neighbourhood of Titicaca
(_Jour. of Geog. Soc._ vol. x. p. 554) with _M'Culloh's
Researches_, pp. 364-366; _Mexique par Larenaudière_, pp. 41, 42,
66; _Ulloa's South America_, vol. i. pp. 465, 466.
[207] 'The members of the royal house, the great nobles, even the public
functionaries, and the numerous body of the priesthood, were all
exempt from taxation. The whole duty of defraying the expenses of
the government belonged to the people.' _Prescott's History of
Peru_, vol. i. p. 56.