South America is an immense but very fertile continent, whose natural
resources are as yet scarcely begun to be utilised. Though not so
large as North America, it has a far greater area of productive
soil--and, indeed, much of its soil is quite unsurpassed in fertility.
It suffers, however, from two great drawbacks. 1. A great portion of
its area (four fifths) lies within the torrid zone. In the low coast
regions of this torrid area, and also in the low forest regions
watered by the great flat rivers of the interior, the climate is for
the most part unendurable to white men. 2. South America has been
unfortunate in its settlement and colonisation. Until in recent years
colonisation as understood in Anglo-Saxon communities has scarcely
been attempted in South America at all. All the earlier immigrations
from the Old World were prompted by the thought of getting gold and
silver and precious stones--if need were by the spoliation and
enslavery of the natives. Only a small proportion of the
population--not more than a quarter of the whole--consists of whites,
and these are principally from Spain and Portugal. These conquerors
of the continent have not in the main succeeded in establishing either
stable forms of government or high types of civilisation. Furthermore,
the mixed races--the MESTIZOS or METIS, as they are called, the
descendants of the earlier Europeans and the natives--instead of
advancing in civilisation have for some time past been retrograding.
Then, again, there is a large negro element, the descendants of
Africans once imported as slaves, to still further complicate the race
question; and there is a considerable element partly negro and partly
Indian. In only one state, Argentina, can affairs be said to be really
prosperous, and even in Argentina the civilisation developed by its
prosperity is gross and material rather than refined and intellectual.
The next most prosperous and important states are Brazil and Chile.
Perhaps Uruguay, though the smallest of all the states, should be
placed after Argentina. The remaining independent states of the
continent--Venezuela, Colombia, Ecuador, Peru, Bolivia, and
Paraguay--are all states of the prevailing South American type. Their
governments are more or less unstable. They are terribly burdened with
debt, and their credit is such that they must pay high rates of
interest. The civilisation once introduced among their native races by
the zeal of Spanish missionaries is deteriorating if not vanishing.
And even among their leading classes there is much to be desired in
the observance of the ordinary principles of right and wrong.